Prebiotics

We hear this word a lot in relation to gut health along with probiotics. I thought I’d give a super simple explanation of what they both are, why they are important and how we can get them into our diets.

Prebiotics are a kind of fibre that is passed through your body undigested and while on its way supports and promotes the growth of friendly gut bacteria. There is a wide range of foods that naturally contain prebiotic fibre including fruit, vegetables, legumes and wholegrains. Do your guts a favour and add some of the following foods in your daily diet:

Lentils - yay, a big tick for our lentil Dahlicious range!
Chickpeas - our Dahlicious Coconut Dahl is PACKED with chick peas and split red lentils
Beans - fiesta time! Our Mexilicious range is full of beans!
Garlic - who can live without it? Not me! It is added to every one of our recipes
Onion - the beginning of anything delicious in my mind – all 9 of our recipes start with frying off onions.
 
Some other powerful PREBIOTIC mentions are oats, asparagus, leeks and nuts.
 
PROBIOTICS are foods (or supplements) that contain live bacteria. When you eat foods that contain probiotics they make their way down into the ecosystem of your gut where the bacteria or gut flora creates a healthy environment for good bacteria that is supported further by eating lots of the above prebiotics. Some examples of probiotic foods are: yoghurt that has live cultures, fermented foods like Kefir, Kimchi and good old sauerkraut.

There have been some incredible studies conducted recently that are looking at the connection between gut health and mental health – I am watching this with great interest and will bring you more on this as results come in

Luv ya guts!
Nicole