If you are like me you have heard a ton of positive press from a multitude of sources on the subject of probiotics. For anyone who has not, probiotics are beneficial gut microbiota that lives inside you, or beneficial gut flora, or in simpler terms, the beneficial bacteria living in parts of your digestive tract like your colon and contribute to our health and well being. What you may not have heard about is something called prebiotics. It turns out that prebiotics are just as important, if not more so, to your healthy digestive system as all of those beneficial bacteria.
The reason for this is simple. A prebiotic is a special type of soluble fiber that is used mostly by the beneficial bacteria, you have heard of called probiotics, as fuel. You could say that prebiotics are food for the probiotics. Prebiotics are soluble fiber which is very different and should not be confused with insoluble fiber which nothing can digest. When most people discuss the benefits of dietary fiber, they are talking about insoluble fiber and the benefit it provides in cleaning out digestive tract.
I must admit that one of the most compelling arguments I found in my research for the importance of prebiotics in the human diet is the presence of prebiotics in human breast milk. In fact Breast milk contains both probiotics and prebiotics for the bacteria to feed on. It seems to me that if human breast milk was created to benefit humans, the fact that they are present seems to indicate an important role in our diet.
A study from January 2013 in the British Journal of Nutrition found a link to obesity. The researchers from the Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium said that the "data suggest that the gut microbiota composition/activity associated with nutritional imbalance might contribute to obesity and related disorders." They went on to conclude "Appropriate human intervention studies with 'colonic' nutrients (dietary fibres, prebiotics and others) able to selectively promote beneficial bacteria, or with food containing colonic nutrients, are essential to confirm the relevance of those nutrients in the nutritional management of overweight and obesity."
Other researchers believe that prebiotics foster an environment in the colon which is hostile to bad bacteria and may impact bad bacteria by crowding them out by promoting the growth of the good bacteria.
While all of the functions of the beneficial gut flora found inside each one of us, the benefits of having a healthy balance, one where the good bacteria are in higher number than the bad bacteria, seems clear. While I find a lot of the advertising for probiotics misleading and consisting of partial truths strung together, everyone seems to agree that probiotics are needed. Prebiotics are often overlooked or not mentioned, but are just as important if not more so.
My conclusion is that the answer is to supplement your diet with a source of natural prebiotics.
If you would like to learn more about my research on prebiotics and beneficial bacteria then please take advantage of my free website and visit URL: http://www.prebiotics-or-probiotics.com
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