Pro-biotics and Digestive Enzymes

Have a request from a friend! A lot of people have no idea what the words pro-biotics and digestive enzymes even entail. Let me explain a bit!

Pro-biotics is a fancy term for the bacteria in your gut. (wait...what???) Yes, there is a ton of bacteria in your intestines and it serves an extremely important job. These bacteria help in breaking down the food that you throw into your body through processes like fermentation. These bacteria keep you healthy by beating up toxin producing bacteria and regular by aiding the digestive process. A little fun fact? There are more bacteria in your gut than there are cells in your body. Mind blown. If you are ever having symptoms such as diarrhea, gastroenteritis, inflammation, irritable bowl, or colitis, pro-biotics could seriously help you.

The most common pro-biotic is yogurt. If you look on the yogurt you are buying, you can find a section of the container that says which kinds of live cultures are in your food. These are the good guy bacteria! Don't be afraid that your yogurt is "alive;" it's just trying to help! Another thing to think about concerning pro-biotics is pre-biotics. This is simply food for the pro-biotics. The best way to explain how pre-biotics work is that it is a non-digestible food/pill that can increase the amount of good bacteria in the gut to improve your health like mentioned before. I know pre-biotics come in pill form and also that you can find natural forms of prebiotics too such as chicory root and garlic.

Along the same lines is the digestive enzymes. This is a little more easier to explain. These will be additives in the form of the enzymes responsible for breaking down components of your diet. For example, the human body is not technically built to process as much dairy as our diet wants us to eat. The enzyme lactase responsible for breaking down the dairy sugar lactose is present on a smaller level in the human body. Another fun fact! This is why many are lactose intolerant and up to 80% of the Asian population is lactose intolerant (dairy is not as big in their diet causing the body to not adapt to drinking/eating more dairy)! Whoa! The simple way to fix this is to introduce more enzymes to the body to assist in the metabolism of the foods. For me, when I am having a dairy crazy day, or if my stomach is feeling gassy, I will try a lactase enzyme supplement just to calm things down a bit.

I hope this answers your question!