‘GET YOUR GOOD BACTERIA FROM FOOD, NOT TABLETS’

A group of scientists have claimed that probiotics are almost useless, but Dr C says they are important – and cheap to find

Scientists gave a probiotic drink with 11 types of good bacteria to 25 healthy people. They then took samples from various places in their stomachs and intestines, and in half of cases, the good bacteria went in the mouth and straight out the other end. Others lingered briefly before being crowded out by existing microbes. That was seen as a bad thing, but I disagree.

To say that eating good bacteria doesn’t work because it comes out of your bottom is nonsense. Everything you eat comes out of your backside! It was also a very small study on healthy people that only looked at where probiotics went, not what they actually did on their journey there.

TAKE AFTER ILLNESS

On the other hand, research that has looked into ill people and probiotics is convincing. They help traveller’s tummy, IBS, and there’s good work being done around allergies, too.

In other countries, after taking antibiotics, which really disrupt your gut bacteria, people are routinely given either probiotics or kefir (a fermented milk drink). In the UK, we’ve been giving fecal enemas for a long time, too, where you take a bit of normal poo from someone else, and put it in the bottom of someone who is taking strong antibiotics. The normal stool colonises the gut and gets rid of the bad bacteria. It’s extreme, but it’s the same principle.

EAT FERMENTED FOOD

People often think that when you take probiotics, they take hold in your gut and stay put, but that’s not how it works. Like anything, they go through your system, which is why you need to keep boosting them by regularly eating fermented food. Think of it less as a supplement and more as a tweak to your diet – eat more fermented foods, like sauerkraut and kefir, and also plenty of fruit and veg.

The American Gut Project, to which 10,000 people donated poo samples, found that the people with the most diverse and healthy gut bacteria were the ones who ate the greatest variety of different plant types per week – they weren’t on extreme diets or avoiding food groups. That’s the whole point – if you have a diverse diet, you have diverse gut bacteria, and that’s when you see improvements to your health.

It’s simpler and cheaper than people think. Buy a big jar of saurkraut and have a spoonful a day, and eat lots of different fruits and vegetables every week. Easy, and tasty.