Gareth ChurchillAre expensive probiotic supplements a waste of money?
They could well be based on the latest studies.
Gut health experts have long suspected probiotic supplements don’t stay in the gut long enough to work.
This includes Matthew Ciorba, a gastroenterologist at Washington University in St. Louis. In an interview with Scientific American, he said, “There is no evidence to suggest that people with normal gastrointestinal tracts can benefit from taking probiotics.” (1)
While Emma Allen-Vercoe, a microbiologist at the University of Guelph in Ontario said, “If you’re not in any distress, I would not recommend them. [For the most part] the claims that are made are enormously inflated.”
A recent Israeli study has now verified that their suspicions that probiotics are more hype than proven science are well finded.
The study was conducted by the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel.(2)
After shoving an endoscope (long camera shaped like a cable) into participants’ intestines they found that, in many cases, their “guts expel probiotics without meaningful changes to their microbiome.”
In other words, the only evidence that they’d taken probiotics at all were found in the toilet bowl.
Just Two Ounces Has More Probiotics than An Entire Bottle of Probiotics
Based on the latest evidence, if you’re among the 4 million Americans that takes a daily probiotic you may want to consider getting probiotics from food instead.
The good news is there’s a food found to be a more potent source of probiotics than an entire bottle of expensive supplements.
That food is sauerkraut.
Natural health proponent Dr. Joseph Mercola made this discovery after sending a plate of sauerkrat to a lab for analysis.
“We found in a 4-6 ounce serving of the fermented vegetables there were literally ten trillion bacteria,” said Mercola.(3)
This means just 2 ounces of sauerkraut contains more probiotics than a bottle of 100 count probiotic capsules. While eating a 16 ounce plate full gives you the same gut enriching benefits as 8 BOTTLES of expensive probiotics.
As Mercola says, “Adding a small amount of fermented food to each meal will give you the biggest bang for your buck. Why? Because they can contain 100 times more probiotics than a supplement!”(4)
Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, author of The GAPS Diet, is also a big fan of getting probiotics naturally from food.
At the Gluten Summit in 2013 she told a packed audience that “With every mouthful of sauerkraut you’re consuming billions of beneficial microbes which will be killing the pathogens in your gut driving them out and replenishing the beneficial flora in your digestive tract.”
Simple Sauerkraut Recipe
If I’ve now convinced you to start getting probiotics naturally from food, here’s a simple recipe sauerkraut, and save money on the pre-made jars on supermarket shelves.
1. Chop up a cabbage into thin slices.
2. Add 2 tablespoons of salt to the bowl.
3. Pound the cabbage until it goes limp and the juice starts to leak.
4. Pack the cabbage tightly into old jam jars. Pour in water until it’s an inch below the lid and screw the lid on tightly.
5. Leave in a cupboard to ferment for 2-12 days to achieve your preferred taste.
6. Put the jar in the fridge to slow the fermentation down.
Get a Daily Dose of Probiotics from Smoothies
If the idea of eating a plate of fermented sauerkraut doesn’t tickle your taste buds, there’s another way of getting a daily dose of natural probiotics that’s even more potent.
I discovered this solution after getting en email from Kelly (not her real name), who’s a single mom from Michigan.
For years Kelly had suffered from painful cramps, bloating after meals, and explosive diarrhea that hit her like a truck.
Her gut problems got so bad that one day she suffered an “accident” at the worst moment possible – When surrounded by parents waiting for her son at the school gates.
Luckily, nobody noticed. But this near disaster motivated Kelly to finally fix her gut health issues.
Probiotic + Prebiotic + Digestive Enzyme in a Single Glass
Rather than expensive probiotic supplements or struggling to follow the restrictive Low FODMAP diet, what Kelly did was track down the most potent probiotics, prebiotics, and digestive enzymes in their most natural form.
She then combined them to make a probiotic smoothie recipe.
It sounds so simple. Yet by drinking this smoothie each morning she fed her gut with a motherload of gut enriching nutrients. This led to her gut microbiome and fixing her cramps, gas and bloating in a matter of weeks.
She says her probiotic smoothie has given her more energy and helped blow away her brain fog too.
Sources
- https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/do-probiotics-really-work/
- https://www.webmd.com/digestive-disorders/news/20180906/probiotics-dont-believe-the-hype#2
- https://klewtv.com/news/offbeat/doctor-2-ounces-of-homemade-sauerkraut-has-more-probiotics-than-100-probiotic-capsules
- https://articles.mercola.com/fermented-foods.aspx
Disclaimer: Statements made in this article have not been approved or verified by the FDA. This information is not intended to be a substitute or replacement for any medical treatment. Please seek the advice of a healthcare professional for your specific health concerns. Individual results may vary. This is an advertisement and not a blog or article.
Skip to content