How to Make Your Next Meal a Prebiotic Feast
Hi There!
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.
But first, what is a prebiotic?
The simplest way to think about it is like this: While probiotics add billions of good bacteria and fungi to your gut’s microbiome, prebiotics feed the good germs in your gut, while lowering the Ph, which makes your digestive tract inhospitable to the bad guys.
It’s like an octane boost for your probiotic.
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.
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 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, and add fresh avocado and raw jicama sliced on top!
Allium vegetables are great sources of prebiotics—and best eaten raw for maximum impact. Beneficial allium vegetables include garlic, onion, 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 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. Take two different pieces of the same fruit, and I’ll bet 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 a prebiotic and probiotic 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.
That’s why I made sure that we engineered BIOHM’s Prebiotic 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..
Several iterations, and we had it! BIOHM Prebiotics!
So hopefully that helps clarify what exactly prebiotics are, and how to easily incorporate them into your diet.
Now I’m off to grill up some mahi-mahi tacos!
Take Care,
Dr. Ghannoum
