Improving your gut flora with prebiotics and probiotics

Improving your gut flora and with it your own health. But why does healthy gut flora matter? And what role do prebiotics and probiotics play in all of this? In this article you get a comprehensive overview.

You can picture your gut flora as a small world of its own inside your gut. That may sound a little far out, but in a certain way it really is the case. The term describes all the microorganisms that live in the gut, which means several trillion (!) different bacteria, along with yeasts and similar organisms. They are also called the gut microbiome. By the way, the bacteria living inside us make up around 2 kilograms of our body weight. No wonder, then, that we should not simply ignore them.

If you look at the gut a little more closely, the number of these small residents increases from “top to bottom”, or to put it another way: the large intestine, which follows the small intestine, is home to the most microorganisms. This is where they feel particularly comfortable.

In the gut, the food we have eaten is digested and processed further. The bacteria living there help with these tasks. In doing so they can release butyrate, acetate or propionate from the food, for example. These are short-chain fatty acids that can either be used further by the liver (propionate and acetate) or supply important energy to the cells in the gut and reduce inflammation (butyrate). The short fatty acids also have a satiating effect.

Knowing that the small world in our digestive system can have big effects on our health, the following question comes up: who actually lives in my digestive tract? And: how can I settle above all those residents in my gut whose presence has good effects, and so improve my gut flora?

The composition of these “lodgers” really does depend on many different factors. The first colonisation of the gut happens at birth and is built up further and further in the years that follow. Your genes, eating habits, illnesses and medication shape the gut microbiome over the course of your life. As a result the kinds and the composition of microorganisms differ from person to person very, very strongly in most cases. On top of that they can be changed again and again over the course of life through various influences.

Of course we cannot choose our genes, and taking medication or having an illness is very rarely in our own hands either. To be able to influence our gut flora at least a little in a positive way (and so do something good for our health as well), we can, if needed, turn the “nutrition” dial a bit. If we offer our bacteria the right food (through what we eat ourselves), we help to support the “good residents” positively to a certain degree.

The following things taste good to the wrong bacteria and are therefore not good for happy gut flora:

• nicotine
• refined sugar
• alcohol

Far better suited to balanced and contented gut flora are, for example:

• fibre from fresh vegetables
• fermented foods such as sauerkraut or kefir

These food groups are particularly rich in so called prebiotics and probiotics. We will explain exactly what those are about now.

Prebiotics and probiotics are two different things, but both can support gut flora positively.

Prebiotics are components of food (fibre) that occur naturally in foods. They can have a positive effect on the bacteria in the gut by influencing their activity, growth or composition. As polysaccharides, inulin and oligofructose are among the best known prebiotics. In a certain way you could see them as good “food” for the gut flora. Foods that can act as prebiotics are chicory, artichokes, salsify, Jerusalem artichokes or parsnips, for example.

Probiotics on the other hand are living microorganisms (bacteria above all) that can likewise occur naturally in foods. If they are taken in sufficient amounts and arrive in the gut, they can bring a health benefit. Among the best known representatives are lactobacilli and bifidobacteria. These can produce lactic acid in the gut, which in turn can make it harder for harmful bacteria to settle in the gut flora and can support the growth of health promoting bacteria. Probiotic foods include yoghurt, kefir or sauerkraut, for example. In tablets, capsules, powder or drops, probiotics are available as gut flora food supplements.

A balanced way of eating, together with enough movement, good sleep and as little stress as possible, forms the basis for a healthy body, and that is the be all and end all. Anyone who wants to do something extra for their gut flora can additionally fall back on prebiotics and probiotics in the form of food supplements.

By the way, prebiotic and probiotic foods appear quite naturally in our individual nutrition plans, with fresh variety from the vegetable garden, combined with high quality sources of protein and fat. All of that sits in simple, tasty recipes that not only taste good but also please your gut flora.

And if, alongside delicious dishes, you would also like to dive deeper into health, nutrition or the immune system, our programmes within the nutrition plan offer you exactly that.

So what are you waiting for? Start now and do something really good for your gut feeling.