Do probiotics work?
Stomach acid is designed to break down proteins, both for digestion and to prevent harmful bacteria from entering our bodies. It is pretty harsh and certainly does kill a lot of bacteria, both friendly and harmful.
Nevertheless…
Some probiotics definitely make it through our digestive system alive.
Here’s some of the evidence:
- A number of studies have looked at the survival rates of various strains of bacteria and found that certain strains digestion. From my quick look at the research, L.gasseri, L. acidophilus, and B. bifidum all survive, especially if they are in a dairy culture.
- There are a lot of health benefits associated with eating probiotic foods. So some probiotics must make it through our stomach to improve gut health.
- If you’ve ever had a strong reaction to a new probiotic food, then you are proof that probiotics make it through our digestive system.
Probiotics For a Healthy Microbiome
A microbiome is all of the microorganisms (yeasts, bacteria, fungus) that live in and on our bodies. Our bodies are a micro (tiny) biome (home).
- Our microbiome is more than just gut health, it is also on our skin and in our lungs. In fact, there are more microorganisms in our body than human cells!
- The makeup of our microbiome is influenced by the microbiome of those around us. And close-knit communities have their own unique microbiome.
- Eating probiotic-rich foods helps our whole microbiome to be healthy and vital.
- Making fermented foods actually changes the microorganisms (yeast and bacteria) in our homes, which improves the microbiome on our skin and in our lungs.
- What we eat also greatly affects our microbiome. For example, someone on a paleo diet will have a fairly different microbiome from someone on a vegan diet. And making a change to your diet will rapidly affect your microbiome, which is why it is important to maintain a healthy microbiome diet.
Do Probiotic Supplements Work?
Honestly… I’m often approached by companies looking to have me support their probiotic pill, but I really don’t think any of them are worth the money. However, here’s a post I wrote on how to choose the best probiotic supplement.
And if you really want to get the most out of your probiotics, I recommend sticking with live cultured probiotics. Dairy helps probiotics survive digestion, but there are vegan options as well.
Better yet make your own fermented foods for a deliciously affordable probiotic supplement!
Did you see Sandor Katz when he was in town last year? He said a couple of things that blew my mind:
The current thinking, he said, goes like this: Probiotics do not by themselves do much. After all, you are introducing a few million or billion bacteria into an environments with TRILLIONS of bacteria—a drop in the ocean.
But, it turns out bacteria can discard and pick up DNA to suit their needs at the time. So probiotics may serve as a sort of toolkit, providing a source of novel or needed DNA to the gut biome etc.
Interesting… I hadn’t heard that, nor read it. And I did do some research for this blog. 🙂 I definitely know that our bodies aren’t as straight forward as everyone would like them to be! Thanks for sharing.
Well all this info is amazing. I’m a newbie to all of this process so thank you so much for your very informative books.
Thanks! I’m an information junky, so it’s fun to share.
I’ve recently started fermenting. I have been making fermented cabbage (like sauerkraut), and also milk kefir and water kefir. I’ve experienced a lot of benefits already! The first was immediate- my bowel cleared out and i don’t remember being constipated at all since starting eating it. Then after 2 weeks or so- my skin looks beautiful!! I was shocked. I am able to not wear foundation for the first time since i was a teenager. My cravings for junk food has also gone away (mostly lol). I’m glad i started this, and i plan on eating homemade fermented foods every day from now on
Wow! It’s great that you had such a quick and dramatic improvement. Thank you for sharing!