Probiotics!

I want to talk to you about bacteria.

In my quest to learn more about nutrition, one of the earliest things I learned (aside from the obvious "eat more fruits and veggies") was that I felt a lot better when I ate yogurt on a regular basis.  Here in the Bay Area we are fortunate enough to have a wonderful dairy called Straus Family Creamery in Marin County that makes the absolute BEST yogurt I've ever tasted in my life.

I am very fortunate to not have any real signs of dis-ease.  I have some mild lactose intolerance, and carry a few extra pounds, but otherwise I've always been pretty healthy.  No food allergies.  No digestion issues.  No sleep problems.  Even so, I started to notice the difference I felt in my own well-being was marked with regular yogurt consumption.  I started looking into why this was so, and began learning more and more about probiotics.

According to medicinenet.com:

Our digestive system normally has what we would call "good" bacteria and "bad" bacteria. Maintaining the correct balance between the "good" bacteria and the "bad" bacteria is necessary for optimal health. Things like medications, diet, diseases, and your environment can upset that balance.

Probiotics are these "good" bacteria, and they are crucial for correcting the gut balance upset by factors listed above.  "Optimal health" means improved brain function, digestion, immunity, sexual health, etc.  Basically, almost any indicator of health can be improved by the consumption of probiotics, and the good news is that they are easy to come by.

Yogurt, especially REAL yogurt like what Straus produces, without any fillers, thickeners or preservatives, is chock full of beneficial bacteria from 4 different strains (most commercial yogurts only have one or two).  This is great, but there's something even better!  There is a mysterious substance called kefir that actually has more like 10 (or more) different strains of beneficial bacteria to improve your gut health.  It can be found commercially in health food stores and some specialty chains such as Whole Foods, with the most common brand being Lifeway.  It can also be made at home at a fraction of the cost, and is so simple--much simpler than yogurt.  We'll talk more about that in a future post.

Probiotics don't need to come from dairy.  Kombucha has its own types of beneficial bacteria and yeasts, and lacto-fermented vegetables (try Bubbies!) also have huge amounts of the good bugs.

In addition to the bacteria we've already talked about, probiotics also have much higher quantities of vitamins like vitamins C and the B-complex than the cultured/fermented products had in their original state!

I'll be talking more about my experience with various types of fermentation, as well as the various kinds of commercial probiotics, but I wanted to give a very brief introduction so you don't think I'm entirely crazy!