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So how do you improve and maintain a healthy gut?
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Probiotic foods include various strains of beneficial bacteria that can colonize in your digestive system after you eat them.
What are probiotics & probiotic foods?
Additionally, we do our best to follow safe food practices to minimize the amount we eat.
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Probiotics are bacteria and yeasts that have positive effects on the body.
Living among the good bacteria is plenty of bad bacteria.
Probiotic foods either naturally contain probiotics through the process of fermentation or have had bacterial strains added to them.
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Two of the most common strains ofbeneficial bacteria added to foodsare lactic acid bacteria andBifidobacteria.
However,there are many other health-promoting strains naturally found in and added to foods.
Are all fermented foods probiotics?
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Even so, this doesn’t necessarily make all fermented foods probiotics.
Many fermented foods lose their probiotics during processing.
And whilebeerandwineare fermented, the yeasts and bacteria that were once present are removed before it reaches your hands.
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Probiotics and the gut microbiome are vigorously being researched, and new potential benefits are still being discovered.
Live active cultures are added to milk, breaking down lactose and creating lactic acid.
While all yogurt will have some amount of probiotics in them, they’re not all created equal.
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“Look for ones with live cultures such asLactobacillus bulgaricusandstreptococcus thermophillus,” advisesDr.
Shy Vishnumohan, PhD, APD, a food scientist and specialist pregnancy dietitian and nutritionist based in Australia.
But this fermented soybean paste has plenty of health benefits to offer too!
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“The beneficial bacteria in sauerkraut gives it its distinct tangy flavor, making it a popular topping.”
Kefir
Yogurt isn’t the only fermented, probiotic-rich dairy product on the market.
Kefir is similar to yogurt.
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The difference between yogurt and kefir comes from the culture used to make them.
Lactic acid and otherbioactive compoundsin kefir have antimicrobial, anticancer, and immune-supporting properties.
Meanwhile, the control group only saw improvements in memory.
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