Diet has a major influence on health. It can make or break you. In present scenario, besides the basic role of nutrition consisting in the supply of necessary nutrients for growth and development of the organism, some additional aspects are becoming increasingly important, including the maintenance of health and counteracting diseases, in the world of highly processed food, particular attention is drawn to the composition and safety of consumed products.
The quality of food is very important because problem often occurring like food poisoning, obesity, allergy, cardiovascular diseases and cancer. What you eat will fuel you with the clean energy that you and your gut bacteria need or deprive you of vital nutrients, trigger inflammation and slow you down.
Gut is your “second brain”. Your gut health and modern day fad diets are incompatible and contradictory to each other. The food you eat plays an important role in the balance of good and bad gut bacteria. A high sugar and high fat Diet negatively influences the gut bacteria and contribute to insulin resistance and other conditions.
Growing awareness of the importance of gut health and the gut microbiome is driving an increase in interest in probiotics and prebiotics that have the potential to improve not only gut health but also overall health including immune health. Gut health requires stability and a balance of all essential food groups.
Prebiotics and probiotics are both immensely important subject in the world of nutrition these days as they are more capable of preventing and reversing many illnesses. Although they sound similar, they play different yet complementary roles for your gut health. Pre and Probiotics offer different benefits for both general and digestive health. Both prebiotics and probiotics are important for human health; however they have different roles to play. Both are essential to healthy body and mind. You need the right balance of each one in order to ensure the gut can function optimally.
Probiotics are a combination of live and beneficial bacteria or yeasts that naturally live in your body. Bacteria are usually considered as a negative light as something that makes you sick. You have two kinds of bacteria in your body i.e good bacteria and bad bacteria.
Probiotic are made up of good bacteria that helps keep your body healthy and working well. They are beneficial bacteria that live in the human gut and benefit the entire body. They help create an environment in the gut where good bacteria flourish and bad bacteria suppressed. This good bacteria helps you in many ways, including fighting off bad bacteria when you have too much of it, helping you feel better. The two types of probiotics are Lactobacilli and Bifidobacteria. Probiotics are also made up of good yeast. The most common type of yeast found in probiotics is saccharomyces boulardii.
On the other hand Prebiotics are a group of nutrients that are degraded by gut microbiota.They are living organisms and substances that come from type of carbohydrates, mostly fibers that human can’t digest. These are types of dietary fibre that feed the friendly bacteria in your gut. This type of fibre helps the micro biome to produce nutrients for your colon cells and leads to a healthier digestive system.
Prebiotics generally stimulate the growth of bifidobacteria and lactobacillus, which confers several beneficial effects on the host like improving digestion and strengthening immune system. The health benefits of prebiotics are mainly attributed to the increased production of short-chain fatty acids (SCFA).
SCFA are the chief end products of prebiotic fermentation, and they play an important role in modulating the intestinal barrier. SCFA are also involved in regulating the immune system and inflammatory response. Prebiotics are not only modulators of gut microbiota, but their potential is being harnessed in a number of diseases such as colon cancer and inflammatory bowel diseases. They also aid in the absorption of several minerals and help in the prevention pf obesity and relieving constipation. Some of these nutrients present in prebiotic foods include short chain fatty acids like butyrate, acetate and propionate. Some of them include inulin, pectin and resistant starches. These fatty acids can be absorbed into your blood stream and improve metabolic health. Probiotic and Prebiotic are found in certain foods or supplements.
Probiotics provide us with so many health benefits that we cannot live without them at least not in a healthy way. The main job of probiotics is to maintain a healthy balance in your body. Like when you are sick, bad bacteria enters your body and increases in number. This knocks your body out of balance. Good bacteria works to fight off the bad bacteria and restore the balance within your body, making you feel better.
They are beneficial for both adults and kids. If your child has an illness that requires an antibiotic medication for treatment, taking a probiotic can help shorten symptoms.
Benefits of consuming probiotics are many like balances hormones and blood sugar levels, prevents heart disease by reducing inflammation, lowers cholesterol and blood pressure, enhances learning and memory, aids in digestion and helps boost immunity, your mood, helps in weight loss and oral hygiene, create vitamins, breakdown and absorb medications.
On the other hand Prebiotics, the good bacteria play a huge role in balancing hormones, strengthening your immune system, improving brain function and suppressing inflammation.
You need not invest to buy expensive prebiotic and probiotic supplement, as many foods naturally contains them. Rich sources of Probiotic foods are curd, fermented foods such as idli, dhokla, dosa, cheese, homemade vegetable pickles, overnight cooked rice, kanji as they contain good and beneficial bacteria that thrive on the naturally occurring sugar or fibre in the food bacteria.
As Prebiotics are types of fibre found in vegetables, fruits, legumes and grains. Rich sources of Prebiotics are berries, beans, chickpeas, peas, oats, green leafy vegetables, onions, garlics. These foods can be introduces into your diet at any point of the day. You might be eating them regularly and not aware of the fact that contains probiotics and prebiotics.
Probiotics are beneficial bacteria and prebiotics are food for these bacteria. Eating nutritious foods high in prebiotics and probiotics will improve your gut health unlikely unhealthy foods which have full of short-chain carbohydrates, sugars and fats. Make sure you are still creating balanced and healthy meals each time you sit down to eat. Adding probiotic and prebiotic rich foods won’t hurt you, balance is a key.
