Why prebiotics are just as essential as probiotics

Unless you have been living under a rock over the past few years, you will probably have heard of the gut microbiome, the vital ecosystem of bacteria living within your intestines. The benefits of specific gastric bacterial strains, called probiotics, are discussed quite a bit in the news and on social media.

And you, like many other people may be in the habit of eating probiotic-rich yoghurts as well as taking a packet of live bacteria after taking antibiotics.

You may also have heard the rumour that probiotic strains don’t always stick around in the gut and you may be thinking what is the point if all that effort is only for fleeting changes to the gut microbiome? Enter the vital importance of prebiotics…

When probiotic strains do not populate and make a home in your gut, it is usually because not enough prebiotic-rich foods are being consumed. This blog explains the difference between probiotics and prebiotics and how you can optimise your gut microbiome by focusing more on eating foods packed with prebiotic goodies.

Just as much as we need feeding the right food every day, our gut bacteria also need the right food to thrive and become healthy and diverse over the longer term and this is thought to be through consuming plenty of prebiotic-rich foods.

There are lots of everyday foods which naturally contain prebiotic fibres from barley to chickpeas to underripe bananas. You can also find prebiotics in more diverse foods such as chicory root (you can buy chicory root ‘coffee’), burdock root and Jerusalem artichokes.

I am here to help explain how important it is to feed our gut bugs and why prebiotics are needed. And most importantly share a range of foods and which prebiotic strains feed which good bugs in our gut. Once you have this knowledge you can weave these foods into your daily routine.

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Probiotics vs Prebiotics

So, what are prebiotics and why do they matter so much? It might help first to understand the difference between prebiotics and probiotics.

Prebiotic means “before life”, and they are the fuel and nourishment for the bacterial ecosystem within the gut which protect our overall health. Prebiotics are a type of fibre within food which we can’t digest, and they work their way down to our lower digestive tract and nurture our bacterial community to encourage the growth of the good beneficial gut bugs. Think of them as the food that feeds the probiotic strains.

Probiotics on the other hand means “for life”, and these are the live microorganisms that can help our beneficial gut bacteria and can be wonderfully helpful to support our microbiome after antibiotic use, for example; or to help by restoring the natural balance of bacteria in your gut when it’s been disrupted by an illness or stress. The different strains are said to play a role in supporting the immune system. They can help to make certain B vitamins, dial down inflammation and may even be the building blocks for making our neurotransmitters, the brain chemicals that support our mental health and brain function.

While probiotic strains can temporarily repopulate or rebalance our gut microbiome, prebiotics help to cultivate the bacteria to grow and populate the gut and stick there for the longer term. There also is a school of thought that at least some of these prebiotics are stored in the appendix, to be at the ready, when the beneficial bacteria need feeding. So, the appendix may not be superfluous after all.

As you can see both prebiotics and probiotics are both equally as important and work in unison. They are both hugely important for maintaining a healthy population of gut bacteria.

Which prebiotics should I look out for?

There are a number of families of prebiotics to look out for. Some have more research backing them up as active prebiotics, and others are seen as having the potential to act as a prebiotic if enough is consumed. Despite the complicated ‘sciency’ names, you will see that prebiotic foods are in lots of foods that you are probably eating already. And if you are not eating them yet, they should not be too hard to introduce.

You may not have heard of some of the food suggestions below, but you can probably find them in your local health food shop or online if you want to be a bit more adventurous with your diet.

Galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS)
Galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS) are prebiotics made up of plant sugars. They are found naturally in breast milk as well as fermented dairy products such as yoghurt and kefir. You find some GOS in red kidney beans, chickpeas, baked beans, split peas, lentils, cashews, pistachios, soya beans and oats, as well as root vegetables.

Research has shown that GOS can promote the growth of bifidobacteria, which in turn bolsters the calming neurotransmitter GABA. GOS may also help to increase levels of coprococcus eutactus which has often been found to be depleted within the gut microbiomes of young children with eczema and autistic children.

Fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS)
Fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS) are naturally found in plant foods such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes. These include bananas, onions, garlic, asparagus, and leeks. Some grains and cereals, such as wheat and barley also contain FOS. Chicory root is a major source of FOS. These are oligosaccharides composed from short chains of fructose molecules.

FOS helps to feed a beneficial bacteria called akkermansia muciniphila which helps to keep us to a healthy weight and regulate our blood sugars. They are the bacteria that thrive when we carry out intermittent fasting. Akkermansia can also support the healing of the gut epithelium.

Some people find FOS causes some bloating and gas, so sometimes they need to avoid it for a while until the gut is able to tolerate it better.

Inulin
A popular type of FOS is inulin, it is often added to foods such as breakfast cereals, gut ‘shots’ and snack bars. It is naturally found in chicory root, endive, dandelion root, Jerusalem artichoke, garlic, onions, leeks, asparagus, bananas, burdock root, oats, seaweed, apples and flax seeds.

Inulin supports the growth of beneficial bacteria that produce short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). It has been found to raise the abundance of two keystone live bacteria, lactobacillus and bifidobacterium in the gut microbiome and these microbes like to feed off inulin to flourish.

Partially Hydrolyzed Guar Gum (PHGG)
Partially Hydrolyzed Guar Gum (PHGG) is a prebiotic fibre derived from guar beans. PHGG is a food supplement and is suitable for even the most sensitive stomachs and people prone to bloating and gas from other prebiotics. It is suitable for people following a low FODMAP diet.

PHGG can even be given to babies from three months old because it is one of the gentlest forms of prebiotic. PHGG can easily be mixed into water, juice, smoothies or yoghurt since it is water-soluble. It’s a versatile and easy way to add prebiotic fibre to your diet and can keep bowel movements a healthy consistency.

PHGG is one of the preferred prebiotic foods to help grow healthy levels of bifidobacterium, lactobacillus and coprococcus gut bacteria strains. It is also thought to be able to raise the levels of butyrate, which is type of beneficial short chain fatty acids which help to keep the DNA of the intestinal cells healthy and may play a role in reducing chronic inflammation.

Arabinoxylans
These prebiotics are found in all major cereal grains, grasses and seeds including wholegrain rye, whole wheat, barley, oats, sorghum, maize, millet, psyllium, flaxseed, bamboo shoots and rye grass. The highest content of arabinoxylan is found in rye, followed by whole wheat, barley, oats, rice and sorghum. These help to feed bifidobacterium strains in the gut microbiome, as well as the bacterial strains that help to make butyrate.

Fucoidans
Fucoidans are less common in the Western diet but are abundant in Japanese and Korean cuisine. They are found in brown algae and brown seaweed such as kombu, wakame, hijiki, bladderwrack and mozuku. These plant-based prebiotic options have the potential to support an optimise the levels of akkermansia and lactobacillus.

Other prebiotic foods
There are plenty of other foods which have the ability to feed the gut microbiome and have potential to have prebiotic qualities when consumed in high enough quantities. These include polyphenols which are the deep coloured pigments in fresh fruits, vegetables, cocoa, green tea and foods high in antioxidants. These include blueberries, aronia berries, cranberries, black & red grapes, blackcurrant and pomegranate. Grapefruit contain the prebiotic naringenin and oranges contain hesperetin which both can again feed the beneficial bacteria within the gut. And it is not just the plants, meat has some prebiotic potential to help feed both lactobacillus and bifidobacterium.

Round up

You really are what you eat, and this could be because you are providing specialist food fibres to feed the microbes within your gut. You have learnt that feeding your gut microbiome with prebiotic foods can help increase certain beneficial bacteria and increase diversity of the ecosystem within your gut. I hope this helps to motivate you to start expanding your diet choices, even if it is purely to fuel your family of gut bacteria.

If you have a very sensitive gut that finds it hard to digest these foods or experience bloating or gas from eating prebiotic-rich foods or taking prebiotic supplements, then you may need to do some more investigations. This could mean that you have an overgrowth of bacteria in your small intestine (SIBO) of an imbalance of bacteria in your large intestine (dysbiosis) that need supporting before introducing them.

Stool tests to asses both SIBO and dysbiosis can be organised through the NatureDoc gut health specialist and we will then work with you 1 to 1 to support your intestinal health.

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