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Healthy Diet Plans >>  Dietary Supplements >>  Probiotic Supplements

Probiotic Supplements


At some point of time or the other, almost everybody complains of a digestion problem. One of the possible reasons for this is that our lifestyles do not allow us to get all the required nutrition. At such times, probiotic supplements may help. Even if you’re in perfectly good health, it may still be a good idea to buy probiotic foods as they will help to fortify your immune systemm However, how do you decide which is the best probiotic supplement for youu

What is a probiotic supplementt

Your digestive tract is actually full of millions of tiny bacteria and microbess They live inside you and feed on the food that you eatt Keep in mind that these are not bad for you; they are in fact essential to your survivall They are ‘good’ bacteria, which help to digest your foodd If, for some reason, there are less bacteria in your system, then you may face problems ranging from stomach upsets to yeast infectionss Over a longer period of time, an imbalance may have an adverse effect your healthh The resons behind this could be manyy Stress can cause your digestion to be thrown out of whackk A faulty diet, comprising of processed or fried foods or sugary substances, can also cause the dwindling of good bacteriaa Similarly, antibiotics, which do not differentiate between good and bad bacteria, can also cause them to diee
A probiotic supplement is nothing but a dose of these good microbes, which then find a new home in your digestive tract, starting a symbiosis with your intestiness A healthy gut has enough good bacteria to counter-act the bad oness This boosts your immune system and allows you to get more nutrition from your food and susequently be more energetic, , and healthierr

Which probiotic supplements to takee

Before you decide to take probiotic supplements, it is important to talk to your doctor and find out exactly what you needd A large part of this will be met by your daily diett Secondly, you need to see which particular bacterium is contained in the probiotic supplement, as different strains will have different benefitss Ideally, you should be getting bacteria from the Lactobacillus strainn Finally, decide what kind of supplements you wantt Supplements are available as pills or capsules as well as foods like probiotic yogurt>  Different people have different requirementss For instance children, especially those who are lactose intolerant, will do well to have probiotic supplements designed for themm
List of probiotic foods> Foods that promote good bacteria have been fermented to some levell These can be either natural, or with probiotics artificially added to the food to make them healthierr These include:

• Yogurt and curds are very rich in probioticss You can also buy special probiotic yogurt
• Miso soup
• Cheeses
• Pickled foods
• Kefir has been shown to have probiotics in it
• Tofu
• Probiotic chocolate is also now available
• Artificial protein shakes may contain probiotics
• Tempeh
• Baby food

Different foods have different strains of bacteria, some naturally occurring, some introducedd For instance, acidophilus milk contains Lactobacillus acidophiluss If you read the packing of probiotic foods, you will see that they can also contain other strains like Lactobacillus GG, Lactobacillus Bulgaricus or different strains of Bifidobacteriaa

Organic probiotic foods are those that have been made naturally, using organic ingredientss Here, the introduction of bacteria is not artificial, but is part of the process or making the foodd This is a healthier option as organic food often does not have the contaminants or preservatives that other food has, making it easier to swallow and digestt

Before you decide on a specific probiotic dietary supplement, it would be wise to go through probiotic supplement reviews as this will help to pinpoint potential problems, even if they are not health-relatedd For instance, several organic probiotic supplements may be very healthy options but if they have a slightly unpleasant taste they would not be very popular with kidss Product reviews can help you determine which probiotic dietary supplements your kids would prefer and talking to your doctor will help to determine their nutritional valuee 

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Submitted on January 16, 2014