Probiotics: Your Gut’s Warrior

Do you know we can obtain probiotics without consuming daily probiotic supplements? Then where else can we get probiotics? 

First, let’s understand:

1) what probiotics are and,
2) why people are adding probiotics into their supplement list or daily meals 

Is Probiotic a Hope or a Hype?

Not all bacteria are bad, perhaps our body contains more good bacteria than bad bacteria, especially in our gut. The good bacteria in our gut are also known as probiotics. Our gut contains 1,000,000,000,000 (trillions) of probiotics. Can you imagine how much microbes are living inside your body? 

Lactobacillus sp. and Bifidobacterium sp. are the common probiotic strains found in our gut. 

Probiotics have a lot of health benefits. Probiotics will get the nutrients from our undigested food to boost our immune system. 

Other than improving our immune system, probiotics are also able to:

• Promote intestinal health
• Reduce diarrhoea symptoms
• Protect against harmful microbes by increasing good bacteria in our gut
• Improve mental health: Controlling your anxiety, mood and appetite
• Prevent cancer and cardiovascular-related diseases 
• Reduce eczema inflammation
• Reduce Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) and Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)

Recent study has shown that people who practice high fibre diets have better immune systems and lesser chronic inflammation than those who practice high meat diets.

When we overeat low fibre foods such as white bread, white rice, processed meat but ignore the intake of high fibre fruits and vegetables, intestinal bacteria will lose their energy and become hungry as their food source is fibre.

The consequences will be loss of gut bacteria diversity and some bacteria will even feed on our mucous lining when they are too hungry ! 😲

Now that you’ve got a better understanding of probiotics, let’s talk about how we can obtain sufficient probiotics daily to maintain our gut health. Actually, what we eat and drink will directly affect our gut microbes. 

2 Ways to Boost Probiotic Concentration in Intestine

• Focus on eating a high fibre diet everyday. 

Fruits and vegetables, whole grains and legumes are the natural food source rich in fibre. Fibre rich foods are also known as Prebiotics, a food source for intestinal microbes. 

• Consuming high probiotic foods and beverages daily.

High probiotic foods can be found mostly in fermented foods, below is a list of foods high in probiotics and are vegan friendly:

• Dairy-free yogurt (Coconut, soy and almond milk-based yogurts) 
• Sauerkraut
• Pickles and fermented veggies
• Kimchi
• Tempeh
• Miso soup 
• Natto (a food made from fermented soybeans)
• Kombucha (a fermented tea)
• Yakult

Both high fibre and high probiotic foods need to come hand-in-hand to improve our health. Meaning you should be consuming a sufficient amount of high fibre food alongside high probiotic food regularly. Try to opt for natural food sources to boost your probiotic level. 

In conclusion, we should adequately include more fresh and fermented high fibre foods into our meals. Plus, try to reduce the intake of processed food and meat in your every day diet. 

Finding it hard to get fresh high fibre meals to boost your immune system? 

Don’t worry! Here at Savor of Life, we provide high fibre vegan meals, including fermented foods such as tempeh.

Click the button below to access our weekly menu! 

Psst… First timers will get a 50% off for any meals you choose!