# Probiotics from the grocery store for your gut bacteria community



## krin2 (Apr 25, 2016)

Hi, all:

I had the awful-cramping-pain-before-bowel-movements, just like the rest of you. It was lasting a whole week. I know that's short to some of you. But it kept persisting and it was just too d---- consistent. And I couldn't get a full night's sleep due to the awful pain in the night.

Then in one day, after eating a bunch of different probiotic foods, my problems disappeared! I ate them yesterday, and today (and last night) my problems are gone! Yes, avoiding foods you can't digest might be one way to avoid symptoms. But fixing your gut bacteria so that you can digest them is the cure.

Try combos of unsweetened yogurt/kefir with live cultures, kombucha, miso (do no boil, just add paste to hot water), unpasteurized pickles/sauerkraut/kimchee. The good gut bacteria will form a community in your gut to help you digest. Fiber (veggies, lentils) in your diet promotes this community to flourish. Keep your sugar and fat intake low (but not zero; you need some fat, and an occasional dessert is fine). Here's what I ate, and this was just yesterday: kefir, miso soup, Chinese century egg, tofu-ru (a Chinese fermented tofu condiment; the Japanese have natto). Try your own combo from what you can find in your grocery store. I think it's silly and wrong to buy pills.

FYI, I actually took a course on microbial ecology. You do not need only one type of bacterium in your gut to aid digestion: you need a community of different species. And what you eat affects what bacteria are favored. Fiber promotes the good bacteria. Too much fat and sugar harm this community. Sometimes you might eat something contaminated or an antibiotic medication that will wipe out your good gut bacteria, so you have to replenish them by eating probiotics to inoculate your guts again. Interesting factoid: the termite gut bacteria community is special because it can digest wood (in particular cellulose). We looked at them under the microscope, and they are amazingly diverse and beautiful.

Well your guts require their own community to eat the foods you want to eat, and you have to FEED YOUR GUT BACTERIA LIKE TAKING CARE OF PETS. And if you are missing any, then you need to add them back by eating probiotics. Got that?

Sad but true: most doctors never had a course in microbial ecology. They know how antibiotics work, but they don't know how bacterial communities operate.

Good luck! Post if you give it a try and let us know the result.


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## ibees (Jun 26, 2016)

good advice! i had a friend who got C diff after taking antibiotics. Guess what the docs did to treat it? Give her more antibiotics!


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## Arths (Jun 20, 2016)

"Try combos of unsweetened yogurt/kefir with live cultures, kombucha, miso (do no boil, just add paste to hot water), unpasteurized pickles/sauerkraut/kimchee."

These are not probiotics. Definition says: Probiotics are taxonomically examined chosen species of bacteria which shows usually good impact on health. Moreover, they must be prepared in the way that guarantee their survival in human digestive tract and have ability to permanent colonization.
You don't know which bacteria were used to made most of these food products - even in products from the same brand it might be huge differences in quantity, quality and used species. The bacteria species in these products usually do not survive in human digestive tract. They might show some probiotic properties, but it's not reliable source of it.
Kombucha contains bacteria that are not part of natural humans bacterial flora. It has not the ability to permanent colonization of human guts. Although it might have some beneficial effects on health.

"I think it's silly and wrong to buy pills."

No, it's not. You have control over quality, quantity and species of bacteria You're using. And pills are usually made the way that probiotics reaches guts without harm from Your digestive tracts i.e. stomach acid.

It doesn't matter how many 'good bacteria' You ate, it matters how many survive and permanent colonize Your gut.

As for the rest You're quite right. Fats are not bad body. Some kinds of fat are really healthy. It's also important to have them in diet in order to absorb fat soluble vitamins. In 0% fat yoghuts there are no vitamins D,E, A or K.


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