Protect Your Gut and Your Health with Probiotics
There are times when you may consume food that is different from your usual routine. What if there was something you could do to prepare your body for these times? What if you simply need to get your digestive system back on track? – Probiotics!
An Ounce of Prevention Is Worth a Pound of Cure – Benjamin Franklin
An ounce of prevention makes more sense than trying to back track when it comes to your health. We all slip up sometimes and, as it was mentioned in one of our previous posts about watching the expanding waistline, the holidays and family events can be the hardest on our healthy lifestyles. Have no fear! There are measures you can take beforehand. The first thing that comes to mind is probiotics. Whenever I begin to hear about digestion and having a healthy gut – I think probiotics. You may have heard about probiotics and know they are good for you, but do you know what they do? Probiotics are essentially healthy bacteria that live in your digestive tract. As food passes through the intestines, the nutrients of the digesting food get absorbed. It’s these bacteria that help to break the food down so your body can use the essential nutrients. It is also the level of these good bacteria that help keep sickness, bad bacteria, and even some viruses from multiplying and taking over your body. It is also these friendly bacteria that keep things like candida at bay – more on candida next week! People who regularly upkeep their probiotics have less digestive upset, are less likely to have issues with an occasional food indiscretion, and are even less likely to get sick.
Get Prepared – Battle Armor On!
When you know there is a dinner coming up or a social gathering that you could possibly consume foods that you know are not healthy or even drink alcohol, you can prepare your digestive tract with a healthy arsenal. Having a probiotic regimen can eliminate traveler’s diarrhea, bring relief to ulcerative colitis, and also can help replenish all the good bacteria that is lost after taking antibiotics. (After taking your final dose of antibiotics, be sure to leave a span of at least 2 hours before and after the antibiotic to take the probiotic– then continue taking them after the treatment. Antibiotics will kill off the good and the bad bacteria. You can have very serious digestive issues if you don’t replenish the good bacteria.
What Should I Look For and Where Do I Get It
There is so much information out there about probiotics. You want the probiotics you take not to linger in the stomach where they can have difficulty surviving when the acid level raises to digest the food. If you have a doctor who tells you different, follow their advice. There may be a reason they have you taking it this way. But ask questions. It is also good to take probiotics either right before bed or once you wake up in the morning. Before bed your body begins to slow down and you are less likely to eat or drink. This gives the probiotic time to settle in. When you first wake up you are waking from an 8-hour fast – hopefully. This means the probiotics can race on to where it needs to be most effective – the intestines. Supplements come in many forms. My favorite is the refrigerated kind. Capsules on a shelf are fine – only we don’t know how long they have been there or how many are alive. You want those friendly bacteria living! But here is the really good news: You can eat probiotics as food! That’s right! Fermented food products include kimchi, organic yogurt, miso, and kombucha tea. Adding these things to your normal diet will give you major benefits when it comes to your digestion. So don’t fear traveling or those social feasts any longer. Protect your gut and it will be good to you.
Applications & Resources for Probiotics
- Go to Summer Tomato and learn how to eat probiotic friendly foods
- Check out The Health Extremist for lessons on how to take a probiotic supplement
- Read more tips on how to lose the holiday bloat at FitN
- Quick Tips about traveling and staying healthy can be found at OneMedical
