We all know that the food we eat makes a tremendous difference to our overall health. Eating a diet balanced in protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals makes you feel better and strengthens the immune system. Now the weather is getting colder, and it is looking like a rainy winter. To be prepared for the cold and flu season, be sure to get enough probiotics to enhance the immune system.
Overeating and drinking too much alcohol are common indulgences during the holiday season. Probiotics are something that you need to return to balance. Travel increases your risk of intestinal parasites and harmful bacteria. A intestinal system populated by healthy bacteria often can fight off these invaders.
A regular intake of prebiotics and probiotics can be the key to health. Fermented foods as a source of probiotics give you a wider variety of beneficial bacteria and they give you more of them than probiotic supplements rarely contain more than 10 billion colony-forming units. Fermented vegetables produced by probiotic starter cultures have colony-forming units of bacteria in the trillions. One serving of a fermented vegetable food or drink could give you as much probiotic as an entire bottle of a high potency probiotic! You do the math. Your healthy bacteria need a diet rich in fiber so they can thrive. This fiber rich food is called prebiotic because it is the food that your healthy probiotic bacteria need. Prebiotics are foods we eat that are not digested or absorbed but do travel to your intestines where they feed the growth of friendly bacteria such as bifidbacteria and some lactobacilli. FOS (fructooligosacharides) is a prebiotic found in bananas, onions, garlic, asparagus, jicama, leeks, wheat and barley among others. This is an important part of a healthy diet.
You know what to do. Drink beet kvass and coconut kefir. Eat live sauerkraut. Be healthy!