Why take probiotics?
Posted by nexbaau on 2nd Feb 2021
It seems like probiotics are in everything these days, from yoghurt to skincare and even in desserts. There’s a lot of talk about probiotics, how they improve your gut health, digestion and can give you a envious glowing complexion. But what are probiotics? Should you be taking them? And if so, which ones?
Probiotics can come in many different forms. Whether you’re thinking about supplements, fermented food and drinks or just eating certain everyday foods, we’ve got you covered.
What are probitiocs?
Probiotics are live bacteria and yeast that promote a healthy gut flora. Our gut is made up of a combination of both ‘good’ and ‘bad’ bacteria, so taking probiotic supplements or consuming probiotic-rich food and drinks supports our bodies’ production of good bacteria (and depletion of bad bacteria).
Our gut flora can easily get out of balance – meaning that there are more bad bacteria than good – creating a condition known as dysbiosis. What this means is that the protective (good) bacteria have been largely destroyed, allowing harmful and bad bacteria to find a home in your gut flora. The way to good gut health is to have more good bacteria in your gut than bad, and this is one of the reasons why people look to probiotics for a fix.
What can we do to correct gut dysbiosis?
The first thing to do is avoid food that depletes the good bacteria in your gut. Bad bacterias thrive off of processed foods, sugar and artificial sweeteners, so cutting down on having those in your diet is a great place to start.
Secondly, you can encourage good bacteria to survive in your gut by introducing more probiotics and prebiotics into your diet. Probiotics are living good bacteria that you can give to your gut, which crowds the bad bacteria out. Prebiotics are the foods that your probiotics eat. Eating more prebiotic foods, like garlic, onions, chickpeas and lentils allows your probiotics to live healthily and happily in your gut while they work on pushing the bad bacteria out.
What are probiotic-rich foods?
Probiotics are often found in the form of dietary supplements, however you can get probiotics from eating fermented food, which is a lot easier (and tastier!) then supplements. Some probiotic-rich foods you should include in your diet are:
Fermented foods for the win!
Drinking your probiotics is an easy and delicious way to improve your gut health. Kombucha is a fermented probiotic beverage that aids with digestion and detoxification, as well as assisting with weight loss and helping to increase energy and immunity.
Made by fermenting tea and sugar with live cultures (aka a SCOBY – Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeasts), the fermentation process turns a bowl of sweet tea into a biochemical powerhouse. The fermentation digests the sugar to produce organic acids, vitamins (in particular Vitamin B and Vitamin C), minerals, amino acids and enzymes. And best of all, it also produces a bunch of happy gut buddies in the form of super powerful probiotic microorganisms.
At Nexba we ferment our Kombucha for 40 days (longer than other kombuchas on the market). The extended fermentation allows even more time for all the sugar to be eaten, leaving our Kombucha completely sugar and alcohol free.
