The Importance of Probiotics

Like the paleo diet, you may have heard the term “probiotics” and wondered what it means. Probiotics are bacteria and yeast that live in our gut and aid in digestion. They aren’t bad bacteria that cause illness — they are good bacteria that keep us healthy. Adding probiotics to your diet will ensure gut health, which in turn helps with overall health.

If you have digestive issues, adding probiotics may help with those ailments. Probiotics are known to treat diarrhea caused by viruses, parasites, bad bacteria or antibiotic use plus irritable bowel syndrome and inflammatory bowel disease.

Other research has shown that probiotics can help with other conditions such as eczema. Probiotics are also great for prevention such as helping with allergies and colds, mouth health and urinary and vaginal health in women.

Probiotics are in foods such as yogurt, some dairy products, apple cider vinegar, brine-cured olives and fermented foods, including sauerkraut and pickles among others. Many of these foods you can make at home for low cost and without added sugar, which benefits your wallet and your health.

You can also find probiotic supplements, but these can be expensive, and you may not be getting exactly what your body needs. You’ll have to conduct research or talk to a doctor to decide which probiotic will work best for you and your family’s needs.

The Paleo Diet and Probiotics

The paleo diet already helps your gut microbiome by keeping it healthy and full of good bacteria, but adding probiotics will increase the health benefits and good bacteria in your system. You can find food that will complement your paleo eating habits, including coconut yogurt (which can be found at the store or made at home) or fermented foods such as sauerkraut and pickles.

You can even ferment your own foods at home. Sure, it may take a little more time to do this, but it can be a project that involves the entire family, and it will be much healthier and fun than running through a drive thru.

Get Back to the Basics

There’s a focus on, and concern about the overall health of our society, and a lot of our issues have come from the number of processed foods we eat. Sure, agriculture made it convenient, so we no longer had to follow our food across the country, but it also impacted our overall health and obesity rate.

Things only became worse when we discovered ways to make food last longer with packaging and preservatives. And let’s not even get started on the refined sugar process! Yes, it’s delicious, but it is so bad for us.

Getting back to simple eating habits and focusing on foods that increase our gut bacteria and give us energy is the best choice for our overall health and well-being. It may not be as easy and convenient as we would like it to be, but with a little planning and your family working together, you can find a way to make it work and stick to a healthy gluten-free and paleo diet.

Jennifer Landis is a healthy living blogger, mom, yogi, and tea junkie. She enjoys cooking, reading and watching Doctor Who in her free time. She writes about mindfulness, parenting, and clean eating on her blog, Mindfulness Mama.

From my kitchen to yours,

Tina Turbin

If you have any questions or suggestions just email me at Tina (at) Paleomazing.com.