No doubt about this at all: probiotics are the latest buzzword in the field of wellness. They are proving promising, and have the scientists excited worldwide with possibilities that are getting unveiled on an everyday basis. I have written about them often, and feel the need to keep writing about them again and again, as new frontiers open up and more information keeps coming to me from all quarters, at breathtaking speed.
This is exactly what happened when I spoke to renowned microbiolo-gist and probiotic expert Dr Mary Ellen Sanders recently. She was in town on the invite of Gut Microbiota and Probiotic Science Foundation (India) and during a conversation I had with her, she spelt out the latest trends on probiotics and how they help us – newer stuff that had me excited all over again about the power these diminutive “good” bacteria can exert over our well being. It proved once again that sometimes we need small changes to score large health gains. And including probiotics in the diet is that one change I wish everyone would make.
So what’s a probiotic? Well, our stomach has a lot of bacteria (billions) present naturally in it – some good, and some bad. The good ones help to keep our digestion humming, boost our immunity, and basically keep the diseases away! The bad ones do the exact opposite! In fact about 30-40 per cent of our immune system is in our gastro-intestinal system. And today because of the kind of lifestyles (diet of excess sugar, meat, processed foods and low fibre intake) we lead, we mess up this good vs bad bacteria balance big time.
Antibiotics and other drugs, C-section births, reduced breast feeding, our obsession wth sanitation – all this also negatively affects our microbiota. Dr Sanders shared how global research on micro biomes has expanded insights into the potential of probiotics. How they can be used to change or improve your intestinal bacterial balance – boost immunity, treat diarrhoea, help manage lactose intolerance and possibly prevent allergies and inflammatory bowel disease.
Think curd rice.
Their impact on our endocrine health, fat storage, blood lipid levels, brain signalling, and even energy homeostasis, that is the regulation of food intake (energy inflow) and energy expenditure, essential for proper growth and development has also been proven.
She also shared how the list of diseases associated with altered microorganisms in our gut is getting longer and longer: asthma, celiac disease, colon cancer, diabetes, ulcerative colitis, irritable bowel syndrome, gastroenteritis, obesity, arthritis, liver diseases are also increasing day by day. That is why today I feel a regular supply of pro-biotics is no longer optional, but has become a necessity, to help restore out natural state of health.
How to score?
Products that contain active cultures are a good source of healthy bacteria for your stomach. A good probiotic food contains millions and millions of live bacteria which join hands with the good bugs already present in our gut and boost health exponentially.
Yogurt and ice-creams are one way of eating them and the other convenient form is taking a straight shot of probiotic milk. You can also consider fermented foods like pickles, buttermilk, kefir and kanji. Most dishes of south Indian cuisine are rich sources of probiotics. Butter milk, idli, dosa, appam, dhokla, uttapam are all made by fermenting rice and lentils, which makes them rich in live cultures of the good bacteria.
Idli, like most other fermented foods, is rich in probiotics.
According to Dr Sanders, one should be careful about choosing the right probiotic source as different strains of bacteria (lactobacillus, saccharomyces, bifidobacterium et al) have been proven for different benefits. If you are looking for a general health boost, any can work fine, but then again the portions have to be right too. So make the de-cision based on your health needs and evidence that a specific probiotic (the bacteria strain in it) delivers a certain benefit.
It’s crucial to give good bugs the importance they deserve, and score them consciously, to stay well and give lifestyle diseases a miss. #KhabarLive
