Do you Really need Probiotic Supplements in your Diet?
Of late, the health magazines and websites have started discussing probiotics in detail. One thing that is clear is the fact that the probiotic supplements help lots in regulating the digestion mechanism within the human body. With the innumerous brands being made available, people are often confused as to which of the supplements would suit their requirements better.
Before going ahead with the research on this area, there are a few incorrect conceptions that need to be clarified when it comes to the usage of probiotic supplements. First and foremost, we have to understand that antibiotics are way different from probiotics. They are no way connected to each other. Antibiotics just kill bacteria. They have the tendency to spoil the digestive system since they do not differentiate the good and harmful bacteria within the body. The antibiotics as such have the ability to destabilize the digestion process itself. But consuming probiotics can bring in the balance in the digestive process that has been lost due to the intake of antibiotics with ease.
Probiotics and pre-biotics are not one and the same. Pre-biotics refer to the natural carbohydrates which are not digestible. They have testified to help in the colonization of the beneficial bacteria in the digestive track of humans. Probiotics refer to the friendly gut flora in human beings. They colonize the intestines right after birth. Amidst the hundreds and thousands of micro organisms that are present in the gut of human beings, the friendly bacteria constitute 15% of the overall bacterial population. They have proven to help in curing digestive disorders with ease. The human gut consists of both good and bad bacteria. Though one cannot get rid of the abusive bacteria completely, the utmost thing that can be done is to bring in a balance of good bacteria that can help defending against the harmful ones.
Foods such as yoghurt and miso are natural sources of probiotics. But the trouble with trying to get your probiotic supplementation from the food you eat alone is that you do not know how many strains of these beneficial bacteria you are actually ingesting, or, in what quantities you need to consume these foods to make sure that you get enough to replenish the probiotic bacteria in your gut to a healthy level.
The strenuous lifestyle and the hectic schedule that we are currently into is pressurizing and has all chances of spoiling the bacterial balance in our guts. The recent inclination towards taking fast food and the popularity that the junk food has gained in the recent past can speak volumes of the imbalance that can occur in the digestive track of humans in the long run. The inability of antibiotics to distinguish between the beneficial and the deleterious bacteria adds fuel to this fire. Even worse is if you are habituated to drugs like steroids and birth control tablets. They affect the gut flora adversely. If you are addicted to drinking coffee or other carbonated beverages often, it is for sure that there would be an imbalance in your gut flora. Too much of strain, water that has chlorine added to it, unnatural coloring, addition of preservative chemicals are some factors that can wipe out the friendly bacteria and can induce the imbalance in human beings.
Also, to replenish our gut with the right proportion of probiotics, the supplement should have a very high concentration of live bacteria, typically running into millions per gram. This would be mentioned as so many cfu or colony forming units per gram. The higher this is, the more effective the supplement would be at restoring the probiotic balance in your intestinal tract.
