There are several probiotic-rich foods out there and you can incorporate as few or as many as you wish in your regular diet, based on your preferences.
Here are some good ideas to boost your probiotics from food:
- Make a breakfast with live yogurt, fresh fruits, flax seed and crunchy nuts.
- Prepare a delicious stir-fry with tempeh in place of meat. Make sure though you add it towards the last minutes of cooking as overcooking it may kill its active probiotic cultures.
- Use miso in soups or stews such as a soup with black beans, ginger and miso.
- Drink natural and sugar-free drinks with probiotics such as kombucha tea or kefir.
- Use sauerkraut (fermented cabbage) as a side dish in your meals
Note that some of these foods, especially flavoured yoghurt may have added sugar in. As an alternative, go for products that have a low amount of natural sweeteners and no processed sugars or artificial sweeteners and flavours.
Probiotic Food Myths
There are several myths surrounding probiotic foods.
Just because some food types e.g. yoghurt may contain probiotics, it doesn’t necessarily guarantee that all foods of this kind will do. Some types of yoghurts, for instance, especially flavoured dessert yoghurts, do not have any live probiotics. The products that do contain probiotics are labelled as having “live cultures” or probiotics”.
The same applies to fermented foods–while many contain probiotics, some do not. The fermented foods with no probiotics feature:
- Chocolate
- Beer
- Wine
- Soy sauce
- Sourdough bread
These along with other types of foods may go through extra food processing stages that kill their natural and live cultures. These processes may include cooking/baking, pasteurization and filtering.