Probiotic foods are amazing additions to your diet. Typically, they are microorganisms that exist within the digestive tract to minimize inflammation and help digestion.
Science also shows that they can support a healthy gut, improve immune function and help deal with digestive issues like irritable bowel syndrome and constipation.
However, you can also have probiotics in your diet plan and according to your taste. While eating foods containing probiotics, you can also consider taking a probiotic supplement.
Regardless, here are examples of ways to add probiotics to your diet:
- Consider starting your day with antioxidant-rich berries, nuts, and flaxseed in a bowl of yoghurt. We recommend choosing greek yoghurt over other kinds of yoghurts. You can also replace the nuts with granola
- Incorporate yoghurt in many of your meals. Plain yoghurt is an excellent source of probiotics. So, you might consider having it in your cold sauces, salad dressing, and dips. But don’t forget that heating the yoghurt might kill the bacteria, so you want to focus on no-cook options.
- Add other probiotic-rich beverages like kombucha or kefir. You can have this in the morning or as your afternoon break.
- Add Sauerkraut into your meal plans.
- Enjoy stir-fry with tempeh as a meat alternative. But don’t forget that tempeh doesn’t require excessive heating.
- Add miso to your soups.
- Add other probiotics-rich foods like traditional buttermilk, pickles, natto, and some types of cheese (including mozzarella, cheddar, gouda, and cottage cheese)
- Don’t forget prebiotics as well, which are foods that can promote the growth of good bacteria in your gut. Some prebiotics-rich foods include garlic, artichokes, onions, leeks, asparagus, beans, bananas, raw apples, and soybeans.
While adding probiotics to your diet, don’t forget to read labels carefully. You want to avoid foods with too many artificial sweeteners, artificial flavourings, and sugar.
Misconceptions About Probiotic Foods
There are several misconceptions about probiotic foods. First, not all fermented foods contain probiotics or live cultures. In truth, not all yoghurts have live and active cultures. Usually, yoghurts without live cultures will have clear labels. Other examples of fermented foods without probiotics include:
- Chocolate
- Soya sauce
- Beer
- Wine
- Sourdough bread
You should also consider how much processing the food has undergone. Too much processing or heat generally inactivates the live cultures. Examples of such processes include filtering, baking, or pasteurization.
