PRObiotics and PREbiotics for Managing IBS 101-A
This article is in the category “Digesting IBS Information”–a pun, based on some of the information digest articles I’ve already posted in the category probiotics.
Probiotics are in the news that people with IBS have been following. They are a selling feature for Activia yogurt and DanActive cottage cheese. I have a category just for probiotics. The makers of Align will be going all out to promote their probiotic for the aid of us and our IBS tummies. This is not news.
“Prebiotics”–what are they? Is this just a funny different word for the same thing? It ends in “biotics,” after all. Here are the differences:
First, in simple terms, from a 3/3/2004 (that long ago!) article by Medstar.com at www.news14.com, on both PRObiotics (familiar) and PREbiotics (not so familiar).
First, to review PRObiotics:
It may surprise you to know that eating bacteria can actually be good for you. Nutrition researchers are sinking their teeth into the science of probiotics.
Everyone has bacteria or bugs in their body. You need friendly bugs in the digestive tract to keep the unfriendly ones at bay. But as nutritionist Samantha Heller explains, you can easily upset the balance. “Through medications like antibiotics or chemotherapy, through stress and through a poor diet, which so many of us have,” Heller said.
You put “good bugs” back into your system by adding living bacteria to your diet with “probiotics.”
“There are several of them found in fermented foods,” she continued. “These are healthy bacteria that . . . colonize our intestine, [and] help keep it healthy.” Common probiotic foods to replace the good bacteria include yogurt, buttermilk, tempeh, kefir, miso and sauerkraut.
(I may have rearranged the paragraphing in the above quote.)
Next, to the PREbiotics, from the same article:
Here’s another nutritional buzzword: “Pre-Biotics.” They nourish the good bacteria you already have.
“A prebiotic is actually a substance found in other foods that feeds the probiotics, and in a way it’s the probiotic’s lunch,” Heller continued. Prebiotic food sources include oatmeal, flax, and other whole grains, beans, greens, and fruits. . . .
While how they work is a mystery, putting beneficial bacteria on the menu may help you feel better. While eating probiotics and prebiotics in moderation is safe, researchers still have lots of questions.
There are no established guidelines about which microbes work best, who should and should not eat them or how much is good for you. Check with your doctor before drastically changing your diet.
A major sources of PREbiotics is the soluble fiber that we have added to our diets–see the category Fiber here. One good PREbiotic source for managing IBS that I haven’t mentioned much on this blog is oatmeal. And by oatmeal, I mean plain, unfooled-around-with, oatmeal. That is either Quaker or Mother’s oatmeal at your grocer, or the Instant Oatmeal by Arrowhead Mills
More complicated stuff on PREbiotics comes next, in the post PREbiotics 102