The question of if how and when to incorporate probiotics is most certainly a hot topic when it comes to healing IBS.
Most of us know that when it comes to healing our IBS, we do want to focus on the health of our gut and that having probiotics and prebiotics in a healthy ratio is an essential part of a functioning gut.
What is more confusing is if we truly do need probiotics, what kind and from what source. Should we be supplementing with probiotics or try to get them from what we eat?
In today’s episode we will discuss this important topic and give you essential information about how to get more probiotics into your food every day.
Find the full transcript for this episode and other resources at healingheribs.com/31.
Probiotics for IBS Well-Being
One of the reasons that probiotics are discussed in the IBS world is because scientific research does support the necessity of probiotics in our gut for optimal gut health. In the current standard American diet, probiotics are definitely not being eaten at the level that they should be if we want to be truly at the top state of health.
Probiotics are microorganisms that live inside or on our bodies and have been shown to contribute to gut health and overall health.
There are many types of probiotics, two of the most known and identified probiotics are Lactobacillus and Bifidobacteria. There are many different types of probiotics that have shown to have different positive effects depending on a variety of factors.
For those suffering with IBS, there are studies that show a benefit of using probiotics, either through food or through supplementation.
Depending on where you are with your IBS, you might want to consult with your doctor or other health professional around if the supplementation of probiotics is right for you and if so, what specific types would be best.
If you feel comfortable, you could also decide to do a more generalized probiotic or decide to include more probiotic foods in your diet for a certain time, for eight weeks for example and see how it affects your symptoms and their improvement.
Probiotics through Food
If you don’t necessarily want to supplement with probiotics and would prefer to get natural probiotics through the food you are eating, I think this is a great starting place. I figure if you are already eating and spending money on food, it makes sense to add more probiotic foods to your diet instead of supplementing if that’s possible and works for you.
However, this does mean making a concerted effort to daily or weekly include a portion of probiotic foods into your meals, which can be seen as inconvenient and difficult for some. For many, it’s simply simpler to just supplement with probiotics.
If you would like to include more of these gut friendly foods into your diet, you may start by including:
- Yogurt, especially Greek yogurt
- Miso like in miso soup
- Tempeh
- Sauerkraut
- Pickled vegetables
- Kimchi
Adding these foods into at least one of your daily meals can encourage the growth of new and healthy microbes in your gut that can work to fight off the more harmful ones, creating a more balanced and peaceful gut. If you are reluctant to add these foods in daily because of how your gut may respond, start by adding a probiotic food in weekly and slowly increase that frequency as your symptoms allow for.
The IBS Benefits of a Balanced Gut
Understanding the importance of gut health is really a quite new area of study and discovery in the scientific and medical community.
The microbes in your gut are estimated to be between 10 and 100 trillion, and we have only discovered a small number of them. The large majority (over 99%) of these have yet to be discovered and it’s fascinating to think about the information that may come to us over the next decades as we discover more.
What we do know so far is that the human gut is populated by this important bacterium that should be working for the benefit of our health but can often times come into disorder through things like:
- Antibiotic use which strips our gut bacteria
- Bad diet or lifestyle
- Illness
- Stress
- Too much alcohol use
As an IBS sufferer, it’s important to educate yourself on what’s happening in your gut and what your gut needs in order to work to the best of it’s ability. Though you may not have been able to control what happened in the past and the issues that have led to your IBS, you can take stock now of what might have caused it and you can work to repair any damage that was done or is being done.
Though supplementing or including real probiotics more frequently in your diet might not solve all your gut issues, it’s a great and simple place to start to repair that physical area as you work on other areas of your life too, like stress or emotional strain that could also be contributing.
From my perspective, there are few women that only have one area to tackle when it comes to their IBS. For most it’s about considering your life, your circumstances and history and deciding a path forward towards incremental gut health.
There have been so many studied positive effects to including more probiotics in your diet that I think we will discuss those on another episode in the future.
Thank you for listening today.
