What is Probiotics?

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There are 100 trillion of microbes attaching on our gut, and the total DNA of gut microbiome organisms can reach 150 times than our own DNA!

Probiotics are beneficial bacteria that mainly found inside our large intestine. Probiotics can help with digestion and absorption process. Moreover, in the past decade, gut microbiota has been a hot topic for the medical field. Thousands of researches proofing that gut microbiome flora can have impacts on gut health, immunity, weight, or even eczema and mood disorders. Reaching a balanced gut microbiome profile is one of the crucial keys to achieve both physical and mental well-being.

Common probiotics genus:

• Bifidobacterium
• Bifidobacterium can be found in dairy products. It can relieve different bowel symptoms like irritable bowel syndrome, constipation, and more.
• Lactobacillus
• Lactobaillus can be regarded as the most common probiotics, which can be found in yogurt and other fermented food. Different strains of Lactobacillus can relieve diarrhoea and help lactose intolerant patients to break down lactose.
• Bacillus
• Bacillus is a special genus that can from spores, which can survive in extreme conditions like acidic environment, gastric acids, and high heat. Bacillus coagulans and Lactobacillus sporogene are scientifically proven to be effective in relieving diarrhoea. However, not all bacteria from this genus are probiotics, there are also some pathogenic Bacillus.
• Streptococcus
• Streptococcus includes both beneficial and pathogenic strains, with Streptococcus thermophilus being one of the beneficial strains. This strain can break down lactose into lactic acid, thus it is also common for lactose intolerance patients to use.

One genus contains different bacteria, and one type of bacteria can also be classified into different strains. Be reminded that bacteria or strains from the same genus may act differently on its host.  

Extra reading: 5 Benefits of Probiotics by Microbiome Professor

Where to find probiotics in our daily dietary routine?

Nowadays, Hong Kong people live a hectic life, and mainly follow southern Chinese diet, with cooked food as major source of energy. However, probiotics hardly survive in cooked food and sometimes difficult to obtain a balanced gut microbiome profile. The probiotics content of the below listed food is relatively high, thus, by eating some of them daily, can help with achieving balance and healthy gut microbiota flora.

Kimchi

Kimchi is a fermented spicy Korean traditional side dish. Cabbage is the major ingredient, with red pepper flakes, garlic, ginger, shallots and salt added as seasoning. Kimchi contains some Lactobacillus, which can help improve gut health. However, Kimchi has high salt and sugar contents, it is not healthy to eat too much of it.  

Natto

Natto is a fermented soy product from Japan. It is common in Japan to eat this with rice. It contains probiotics like Bacillus subtilis. Natto can also provide rich protein and vitamin K2, which are good for bone and cardiovascular health. 

Miso

Traditional miso is made by fermented soy bean and is salty. It contains yeast and fungi that have probiotic effects on human. Miso also provide proteins, dietary fibres, various kinds of vitamins, and minerals. It is mainly used as ingredient for miso soup, a very popular Japanese dish.  

Pickled vegetables

Pickled vegetables are traditional Chinese fermented food. It is made of fresh vegetables and seasonings like salt. Pickled vegetables contain Lactobacillus that have probiotic effects, dietary fibres, and rich in vitamins like vitamin C, B, K etc. However, the high salt content can cause burden for our body, thus, we should need eat too much of that.

Yogurt

Traditional way to produce yogurt is to ferment milk or goat milk by natural actions of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium. This is one of the best source of probiotics from food.

Nowadays, due to the advanced yogurt production technologies, the fermentation time to produce sufficient sourness in yogurt can be reduced from a few days to 3-4 hours. However, this limited the time for Lactobacillus to grow which also lowers the content of Bifidobacterium.

When buying yogurt, we need to pay attention to its nutritional label. The best one should mention the probiotics strains and abundance, which can ensure consuming that yogurt can truly obtain probiotics. 

Kefir

Kefir is a Russian fermented probiotics milk drink, with more than 3000 years of history. It was originated from Russia and Turkey, and its name means “feeling good”. Kefir is like yogurt, but since it is fermented by yeast and other bacteria, it contains more probiotics than yogurt. It is regarded as a better source of probiotics because of the high diversity in probiotics strains which can reach 34 different types.

Cheese

Cheese is a fermented dairy product made of Lactobacillus. However, not all the cheese in market contains live probiotics, only some of them like cheddar cheese, cottage cheese and buffalo cheese contain live probiotics. These cheese can provide probiotics and also proteins and different types of vitamins.

Stinky tofu

Stinky tofu is made by fermenting tofu naturally for 6 months, which contains 10-20 types of probiotics like Lactobacillus and Streptococci. But most of them cannot withstand high heat during the cooking process.

Probiotics contents in food is limited and is not easy to obtain healthy effects through daily dietary intake. Thus, taking probiotics supplement products is one of the possible ways to improve gut health.