How are Probiotics, Prebiotics, and Polyphenols Connected to Gut Health?

How many times have you heard medical professionals talk about the importance of including probiotic and prebiotic foods in your diet? Or, maybe your friend recommended that you have probiotics on a daily basis to avoid skin issues, and you were totally confused about the connection? 

Well, many people are starting to realize the importance of a diet that is rich in probiotic and prebiotic foods, along with adding in the health benefits of something called polyphenols. So, what exactly are probiotics, prebiotics, and polyphenols and how do they contribute to our gut and overall health?

The fascinating connection between what we eat and how we feel has been contemplated for generations. In fact, several recent studies have shown the link between different types of food, their influence on our gut health, and their impact on our overall physical and mental health.

So, grab a cup of your favorite herbal tea, settle in, and let’s talk about what characterizes a healthy gut before we explore the three Ps (Probiotics, Prebiotics, and Polyphenols) of good gut health!

What is a Healthy Gut Microbiome?

All human beings have trillions of microorganisms that not only live within us, but also help our bodies function properly.  

Watch this video to fully understand: what the gut is, and its role in helping your body function.

That’s why it’s essential to maintain a balance of gut microbes (several species of microorganisms living in our gut), because they can help us fight off and recover from illnesses. This balance further forms a healthy gut microbiome—the ecosystem of microbes in your gut—which has several health benefits.

Some of the key benefits of a healthy gut microbiome include: helping to digest food and promote gut health, producing essential nutrients, influencing a healthy immune system, improving mental health, and reducing the impact of inflammation and toxin-producing microbes. 

In fact, an imbalance in the gut microbiome is the main reason why many people suffer from consistent stomach issues like diarrhea and constipation. Therefore, some studies have indicated that an increase in probiotic and prebiotic foods can lead to a healthier microbiome.

This is where discussions of gut-beneficial prebiotics versus probiotics—and whether a probiotic or prebiotic supplement can help our gut—come into play.

Let’s take a deeper look at what constitutes a healthy diet and discuss terms like prebiotics, probiotics, and polyphenols to give you a better sense of what you need to eat to feel like the best version of yourself. 

What are probiotics, prebiotics, and polyphenols?

So, what do these hefty terms of probiotics, prebiotics, and polyphenols really mean, how they can impact our health, and further, how can we get enough of them in our diet? Too many questions at once, right? Let’s take things step by step! 

Probiotics: The Friendly Bacteria

Probiotics are the live, beneficial bacteria that reside in our gut to help us live healthy lives. They also help control the harmful bacteria that reside in our gut. So, it’s best to think of them as the friendly neighbors who keep the bad guys in check and maintain a harmonious community. 

Most medical professionals recommend including probiotics in your diet to either prevent or treat a condition known as dysbiosis. Dysbiosis occurs when there is a lack of beneficial microbes in your gut, which creates an imbalance in your gut microbiome. This usually occurs during an illness when there is an increase of potentially harmful bacteria in your body.

As a result, probiotics can help make sure that potentially harmful microbes don’t attack the body or cause diseases. This is why increasing the amount of probiotics in your diet can help to ensure that the harmful microbes don’t outgrow the beneficial ones. 

These friendly bacteria can help restore any damage done to your gut microbiome due to illness, stress, poor diet, or an unhealthy lifestyle. And of course, they begin this damage control by first fixing your gut health issues (indigestion, irregular bowel movements), which may eventually fix other issues in your body (inflammation, low immunity, skin rashes, acne).

Some examples of probiotic foods are: yogurt, kimchi, pickles, buttermilk, and kombucha. 

Prebiotics: Food For the Friendly Bacteria

Prebiotics are not bacteria, rather they are the FOOD for the good gut bacteria. Prebiotics are food for the friendly microbes in your gut, and they’re used to help grow a diverse, thriving microbiome. In other words, by nourishing friendly bacteria, prebiotic foods help maintain a healthy and balanced gut environment. 

Basically, prebiotics are considered to be a certain kind of fiber that fuels the bacteria that produces Butyrate—a short chain fatty acid (SCFA). Butyrate has the ability to heal your gut lining and improve digestion. In fact, it can also help you with appetite regulation, energy levels, and even support your weight loss goals.

So, If you want to increase butyrate production to help with your wellness goals, then you should focus on eating more prebiotic-rich foods. Prebiotic-rich foods will feed the good bacteria in your gut, and increase their population. Once the population of friendly bacteria is strengthened in your gut, then your body can fight off illnesses and restore any damages to your digestive system. 

Sounds a bit confusing? Well, the best way to understand these complex processes is to think about it in a simpler manner. When you eat prebiotic foods such as fiber-rich foods, then you are feeding the good bacteria in your gut. This helps them grow in numbers, and it’s essentially their time to party! And since it’s their time to party with a strong population, potentially harmful bacteria don't stand much of a chance to crash this party; your body stays healthy and can prevent further illnesses.

Here are some other benefits that prebiotics provide:

• Optimize bowel movements and their regularity
• Helps maintain a healthy digestive system
• Increase nutrient absorption
• May help in lowering cholesterol levels

Let me guess, you’re wondering: what are these prebiotic foods that can help you reach this stage of health? No need to worry!  

Here are some examples of prebiotics foods that you can implement in your diet on a regular basis (as long as you don’t have any dietary restrictions against them): almonds, bananas, whole grain wheat, and flax.

Polyphenols: Natural Health Enhancers

Now that we’ve talked about prebiotics and probiotics foods, let’s explore the strand of nutrients that are detrimental to improving our overall health. These nutrients are polyphenols, which are essentially a class of compounds found naturally in plants. Polyphenol-rich plants have the ability to protect themselves from things like sun damage, pathogens, and pests (i.e.insects). 

For humans, these plant compounds are revered for their strong antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and immune-boosting properties. 

They are abundant in a variety of fruits, vegetables, teas, cacao, and other plant-based foods, and play a crucial role in improving digestion, brain health, and providing protection against heart diseases. Polyphenols are also known to reduce inflammation in the gut and body, which helps you in your weight loss journey by regulating your metabolism and hormones.

Several studies suggest that polyphenols support the balance of the gut microbiome by getting rid of harmful microbes in the gut. Various types of polyphenols can either inhibit the growth or reduce the population of many different types of unhealthy bacteria. They can do this with the surprising ability to starve these “bad guys” of their food and reduce their population.

Moreover, polyphenols have the ability to prevent various chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, because they can reside in the gut for a long time. And, since a large portion of the immune system resides in the gut, polyphenols can help the body protect itself right from the hub. 

To top it all off, some research has found that polyphenols have the extraordinary ability to not only fuel the good gut bacteria (acting as prebiotics), but also actually help fight off the harmful bacteria (acting as probiotics). These powerful features help polyphenols enhance both physical and mental health. 

As a result, it’s important for us to recognize that maintaining a well-balanced gut microbiome is so much more than just a well-functioning digestive system. We talk in detail about this in our WOW (Winning Over Weight) Program! That’s why, we must consume a diet that nourishes our gut’s microbiome. This means that we should eat a good amount of both probiotic and prebiotic foods—along with consuming foods that are rich in polyphenols—to make sure that we are protecting our bodies against infections and illnesses.

How Can You Get Enough of Probiotics, Prebiotics, and Polyphenols In Your Diet?

Since these nutrients are considered to be essential for our wellbeing, you may be wondering how to include a good amount of them in your diet. The good news is that both probiotics and prebiotics can be found in foods and supplements. And, there is also a variety of natural sources for you to get enough polyphenols in your diet.

Probiotic foods

Many gut-healthy, fermented foods are produced with the help of bacteria. Some of these include yogurt, kefir, pickles, sauerkraut, miso, and kombucha. But, not all fermented foods contain live active cultures of those bacteria by the time they get to the market or the grocery store shelves. 

Your best bet is to choose fermented products from the refrigerated section, and check the product labels to ensure they contain live active cultures. Or better yet, make your own fermented foods.

Here is a recipe for Frozen Berry Yogurt Bark that you can use as a simple way to include more probiotics (i.e.yogurt) in your diet.

Probiotic supplements

If getting probiotics through natural sources isn’t possible for you, then there are also options of probiotic supplements that you can take to improve your gut health. There are many strains of probiotic microbes available with each having its own unique effects. 

Some of the most common strains included in probiotic supplements are: Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium, Saccharomyces, Streptococcus, Enterococcus, Escherichia, and Bacillus. 

Many, but not all, of these strains are similar to those found naturally in the microbiome. As a result, pharmaceutical companies combine different strains of bacteria and yeasts in different amounts to create many unique supplements for you to choose from. 

Unlike with foods, however, the manufacture of probiotic supplements is not monitored in the US, and some products have been found to have different or fewer probiotics than what’s listed on the label. This is why it’s important to choose a high-quality probiotic whenever possible. 

Disclaimer: It is important to note that probiotic supplements should not be given to premature infants, people with severe illnesses, or those with compromised immune systems without a recommendation from a qualified healthcare professional.

Prebiotic foods

Many foods are rich in the soluble fiber and resistant starch that health-promoting gut microbes need to thrive. These prebiotic foods include: whole grains (oatmeal, whole grain breads, and pastas), vegetables (asparagus, leeks, onions), starchy vegetables, fruit (bananas), and legumes (beans, lentils, peas), chicory root, jerusalem artichoke, jicama root, cacao, dandelion greens, and konjac root (shirataki noodles).

It’s important to note that resistant starch are the types of carbohydrates that resist digestion, and they feed the gut microbiome. For example, cooked and cooled potatoes, cooked and cooled rice, oats, beans, and legumes.

You should aim to consume a variety of these prebiotic foods to naturally boost the health and biodiversity of your microbiome.

Here is a recipe for Overnight Oats that you could use to get that necessary fiber in your diet.

In addition to thinking about prebiotics vs. probiotics in your diet, it’s also a good idea to limit foods that can destroy your friendly gut microbes. This includes enjoying fewer processed foods that are high in sugars, artificial sweeteners, and saturated fats. 

Prebiotic supplements

Similar to probiotics, if you find it difficult to include prebiotic foods in your diet using natural sources, then you have the option of taking them as supplements. A prebiotic supplement contains starches that the gut microbes consume and metabolize into beneficial compounds. 

These fiber-rich supplements may include prebiotics like inulin, GOS (galactooligosaccharides), FOS (fructooligosaccharides), and lactulose, which stay in your gut to help stimulate the growth of good bacteria.

Disclaimer: Just like with probiotic supplements, it’s important to be mindful of the contents of these prebiotic supplements, and they should be taken after consulting with your medical practitioner or a registered dietitian. 

Overall, prebiotic foods and supplements can play a vital role in helping you live a healthier life by strengthening the community of your good gut bacteria, and thus, helping fight off any potential attack from harmful microbes. 

Polyphenols

As mentioned before, polyphenols are abundantly and naturally present in many plants that are considered high in antioxidants. They are considered as the compounds that provide these foods their color, taste, and even protect them from damage. So, you can ensure to reap their numerous benefits by adding in a variety of plant-based foods in your diet.

Polyphenols can be found in fruits, vegetables, grains, red wine, dark chocolate, tea, herbs, and spices.

With polyphenols, there seems to be a generic rule: the darker or deeper the color, the higher the content of polyphenols present in that food. For example, dark chocolate has more polyphenols (higher cacao content and darker color) than milk chocolate (lower cacao content and lighter color).

Other foods (just to name a few, because there are so many) that you can consume to get the benefits of polyphenols are: Berries (i.e. blackberries, blueberries, raspberries), Pomegranate, Apples, Grapes, Cherries, Red Cabbage, Onions, Turmeric, Whole grains, Flax seeds, and Sesame seeds. 

Above all, by incorporating all of these probiotics, prebiotics, and polyphenol-rich foods into our diet, we can support a balanced gut, a well-functioning body, and further, a healthy mind.

Conclusion (and some delicious recipes!)

With all of these benefits, it's only rational for us to include these health-enhancing polyphenols and health-boosting probiotic and prebiotic foods in our diet.

Here is a simple way for you to incorporate probiotics, prebiotics, and polyphenols into your daily diet:

• Breakfast: Start with a yogurt parfait topped with your favorite fruit, or have berries and oats.
• Lunch: Add garlic and onions to your favorite meal or soup, or try a greek style chopped salad.
• Snack: Enjoy a banana, apple, a piece of dark chocolate, or a chocolate blueberry hemp smoothie.
• Dinner: Sip on a glass of red wine or green tea, and for dessert you can have some chocolate peanut butter yogurt bark.

By incorporating polyphenols, probiotics, and prebiotic foods into our diet, we can support a healthy gut and a happy mind. 

For more insights on how to live a healthier, happier life through mindful eating and wellness practices:

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