Lifestyle

How to Make Your Next Meal a Prebiotic Feast

Should you really be taking prebiotic supplements on top of your probiotics?

In this article:

Do You Need Prebiotics in Your Body?
What Is a Prebiotic?
The Health Benefits of Prebiotics
How I Prebioticify (Real Word) My Diet
How Prebiotic Supplements Can Boost Your Diet
Why BIOHM’s Prebiotic Is Different

Understanding Prebiotic Supplements and Diet

Do You Need Prebiotics in Your Body?

I’m constantly asked something along the lines of, “I understand probiotics, but do I really need a prebiotic?” The answer is yes! And, it’s actually pretty simple to get a healthy dose of prebiotics by making a few tweaks to your diet.

What Is a Prebiotic?

Before I dig deeper into how you can get prebiotics, let me first discuss what these are. The simplest way to think about what a prebiotic is, is like this: While probiotics add billions of good and healthy bacteria and fungi to your gut’s microbiome, prebiotics feed the good bacteria in your gut while lowering the GI environment’s pH. This makes your digestive tract inhospitable to bad bacteria.

Microbiome Definition: A community of tiny organisms such as viruses, protozoa, fungi, and bacteria thriving inside the human body, e.g. along the gastrointestinal lining. It’s like an octane boost for your probiotic. If you're going to compare prebiotic vs probiotic, the difference between the two, although they sound alike, is that the former is present in non-digestible fiber. Both prebiotics and probiotics, though, help support the growth and development of good microorganisms in the gut.

The Health Benefits of Prebiotics

Can help improve and regularize bowel movement
Aids in reducing colon wall inflammation
Helps prevent the occurrence of intestinal infections
Supports weight management
Helps reduce levels of blood triglyceride
Enhances bone density by supporting the uptake of calcium and magnesium
Helps prevent bad gut bacteria-induced anxiety or depression

How I Prebioticify (Real Word) My Diet

The first thing I do to load up on prebiotic-friendly foods is reach for high-fiber plant foods. Greens I always have dark leafy greens on hand. Leafy greens and dandelion greens are made up of 25% prebiotic fiber. So naturally, they’re great to incorporate in salads and green smoothies to get plenty of prebiotics in one sitting. Inulin

What is Inulin? It is a form of prebiotic fiber that supports the good bacteria in the gut. You can find inulin in jicama, Jerusalem artichoke, and chicory. Raw chicory root is made up of 65% prebiotics, and Jerusalem artichoke is about 32% prebiotics. The other inulin-rich food I absolutely love is asparagus. One of my go-to meals that’s packed with inulin is grilled vegetable tacos with grilled artichoke, asparagus, and other veggies. Add fresh avocado and raw jicama sliced on top!

Allium Vegetables Allium vegetables are great sources of prebiotics — and they are best eaten raw for maximum impact. Beneficial allium vegetables include garlic, onions, leeks, chives, and scallions. Keep these ingredients on hand to dice and toss on top of salads, dips, tacos, soups and just about any dish you create.

Oligosaccharides Oligosaccharides are prebiotics that can be found in peas, cabbage, whole grains, lentils, and beans. One of the things I’ll do is make a bowl with whole grains and beans or lentils as the base. I’ll add green peas and top it off with cooked veggies. Sometimes, when I’m feeling crazy, I’ll throw in some raw or fermented cabbage on top. As you can see, it’s really not that difficult to load your meals with ingredients that are rich in prebiotics.

How Prebiotic Supplements Can Boost Your Diet

Now, one of the challenges of just relying on getting prebiotics through your diet is that it’s pretty hard to make sure you’re getting consistent levels of prebiotics day in and day out. Think about it. I’ll bet you can take two different pieces of the same fruit, and they’re different shapes and sizes. Point being, it’s hard to get the same amount of prebiotics in every single serving through food alone. So, while I’m always making sure my diet’s consistently packed with prebiotic and probiotic foods, I always take probiotic and prebiotic supplements daily.

Why BIOHM’s Prebiotic Is Different

Most prebiotic supplements are made with just dietary fiber. That really surprised me because it seems like a missed opportunity. BIOHM Prebiotic was engineered to not only have two different types of prebiotic fiber but also digestive enzymes. Why? Because it didn’t make sense to optimize your gut’s environment and not use digestive enzymes to help you more efficiently process food in your digestive tract at the same time. My team and I spent months engineering BIOHM Prebiotics, analyzing specific ingredients and the specific levels of each to include, while also selecting powerful digestive enzymes. We did several iterations, and we had it — BIOHM Prebiotics! In addition to all that, BIOHM Prebiotic supplements:

Require no refrigeration
Are allergen-free
Do not contain artificial sweeteners or additives
Are vegetarian and natural
Do not contain genetically modified organisms (GMOs)

So, hopefully, that helps clarify what exactly prebiotics are and how to easily incorporate them into your diet.

Still have questions about prebiotics? Here’s Prebiotics 101 from BIOHM Health:

The combined function of prebiotics and probiotics contributes to the promotion of good health in general. Prebiotics act as fuel for probiotics. Probiotics, the friendly bacteria, then support the function of the gut's inner lining, improving the barrier that won't allow entry for dangerous organisms and chemicals. Together, they strengthen the immune system and nourish good gut bacteria.

Would you like to know how each BIOHM supplement formulation will enhance your digestion? Reach out to us in the comments below! Or, you can check out our online shop to see which from our range of products suits your digestive needs best.

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Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on February 7, 2018, and has been updated for quality and relevancy.