Probiotic products, which contain live bacteria that are meant to improve our health, cost roughly three quarters of a billion pounds in the UK every year. Bacteria, fungi, viruses, and other living organisms abound in our stomachs, particularly in the large intestine. In fact, they outnumber the cells in the remainder of our bodies, implying that what we conceive of as our own bodies are more bacterial than human! probioticseverything.comprobiotics h&b
Your first reaction may be to desire to get rid of all of these ‘alien’ bodies inside of us, yet they are actually necessary for our health. They aid in the absorption of nutrients from food, the metabolization of medications, and the education of our immune systems. Our unique combination of gut bacteria shapes who we are, and changing our flora can have a negative impact on our health. probioticseverything.comprobiotics h&b
Although the concept of promoting germs that are known to be beneficial to our health has been around for a long time, scientific research on whether it works or not is still in its early stages. probioticseverything.comprobiotics h&b
To say that probiotics are beneficial to our health, we’d have to show that the live bacteria in probiotic products survive being eaten and then travel through the stomach, which is very acidic, alive. They’d have to find a place in the stomach to stay and breed, and they’d have to greatly increase the number already there. Finally, we’d have to establish that they were affecting our health in any way. probioticseverything.comprobiotics h&b
Despite the fact that probiotic businesses have claimed such health benefits for many years, they have suddenly adjusted their advertising in Europe because the European Food Safety Authority determined that not all of these pieces of proof are yet available. probioticseverything.comprobiotics h&b
However, it is apparent that our gut bacteria play a critical role in our health, and Chris investigates a promising new line of research in this area. It appears that simply altering our food, we may vary the quantities of different bacteria that currently exist in our stomachs. probioticseverything.comprobiotics h&b
What we give our gut bacteria — in other words, what we eat – is their only source of sustenance. Those that thrive on the foods we consume the most will fare well. Researchers are attempting to determine which bacteria are particularly advantageous to us, as well as what foods we should consume to help them thrive. probioticseverything.comprobiotics h&b
Many of the beneficial bacteria in our lower intestine feed on fiber that humans can’t digest and thus goes through the stomach and small intestine to be processed by bacteria in our lower intestine. The bacteria appear to be boosted by the fiber in oats. probioticseverything.comprobiotics h&b
