The Role of Prebiotics and Probiotics

Believe it or not, good bacteria exists. Avoiding bacteria seems to be the norm for most of us. We wash and scrub, wear masks that create barriers against bacteria. Fortunately there are good bacteria that protect us. Mostly in our digestive tract and without the assistance of these good bacteria, our lives wouldn't be too pleasant.

Prebiotics and probiotics are the good bacterias that I'm referring to. I spent a lot of time informing a lot of my clients about these two bacterias making them aware that they are available to them and in what forms they can purchase them in, as well as what foods to look for them in. Here's a few key points I would touch on.

Prebiotics

I learned from my husband Jim Dembowiak C.N. (Certified Nutritionist) that prebiotics are a necessary part of the whole "good bacteria" picture, because they create the food for probiotics to survive with.

They come from a lot of live food like fruit and vegetables along with whole grain foods that contain natural fiber. If you're eating these food choices, your getting prebiotics and nurturing a good environment for the probiotics to survive with. The probiotic bacterias will then be able to do what they were created to do. Fight and crowd out bad bacteria.

Probiotics

Without the help of probiotics are large portion of our immunity would be compromised. Probiotic bacterias work to fight off the bad bacterias that make their way into our digestive system. When the probiotic bacteria is present it can then get to work by fighting the bad guys off.

Probiotics are derived from foods like milk and yogurt that have labels stating that these products contain "live and active cultures". This is primarily due to the fact that these good bacterias are delicate and easily damaged from stomach acid. Milk is a good buffer against the stomach acid. In this way, the probiotics have a chance to make it into the more probiotic friendly environment of the intestines where they can do their best work.

When we sold probiotics in capsule form at our health food store, my husband and I made sure to tell the clients that they needed to be taken on an empty stomach when there wasn't food in it. This would help to avoid the stomach acid that is present when digesting food.