Best Yogurt: Stonyfield Farm Organic Whole Milk Yogurt Pouch
If your child likes yogurt, eating a cup or pouch of low-sugar yogurt is an easy and delicious way for them to get their daily dose of probiotics. Stonyfield Organic Yogurt is an excellent product made from USDA Organic milk. The convenient pouch is easy to take on the go and eat without a spoon. Each single-serve pouch contains five live and active cultures to help with kids’ tummy troubles. The sweet vanilla flavor tastes great but is lower in sugar than other kids yogurts, with only 5 grams of added sugar per pouch.
If your child won’t eat yogurt plain, consider blending it with some frozen fruit to make a smoothie or layering it with granola to create a parfait. The only downside, of course, is that it needs to be refrigerated, which is inconvenient if you’re traveling.
How Much Probiotic Food Do You Need
The quantity of probiotic foods you should aim to include in your diet varies, Tolliver says. However, the American Academy of Family Physicians generally recommends that adults try to consume 10 to 20 billion colony-forming units per day.
“Keep in mind, probiotic concentrations vary across foods,” Tolliver says. “For example, yogurt on average can contain one to five strains of different bacteria and 6 billion colony-forming units, whereas kefir can contain nearly 12 different strains of bacteria and 25 to 30 billion colony-forming units.” Cording’s advice: Just do your best to try to eat probiotic foods regularly.
Natures Bounty Ultra Probiotic 10
The ubiquitous and trusted Natures Bounty brand delivers when it comes to probiotics. Their Probiotic 10 supplement contains 20 billion colony forming units and, as the name suggests, ten different strains of bacteria.
The capsules are vegetarian, and there arent any extraneous ingredients included either, so this ones a very solid choice.
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Can You Take Prebiotics And Probiotics Together
As probiotics grow in use, prebiotics is beginning to get attention as well. Prebiotics come in supplement form but can also be fiber-rich foods that feed good gut bacteria. Probiotics replenish the good bacteria in the gut while prebiotics maintains the gut microbiome by feeding the good bacteria we have in the gut. Because of this relationship between prebiotics and probiotics, it is perfectly acceptable to take them together. However, if your diet already contains healthy, fiber-rich foods then you will likely not require prebiotic supplements.
Prebiotics contain fibers and natural sugars that encourage the growth of essential gut bacteria. They are easy to digest and keep the gut in balance. Prebiotic foods contain fiber and can include bananas, garlic, and dark leafy greens. Probiotic foods contain live cultures and include miso, some yogurts, kimchi, and sauerkraut.
You can learn more in my other article: Prebiotic vs Probiotic: Whats the Difference and Why Are They Important?
How To Purchase And Care For A Probiotic Product
Gail Czarnecki-Maulden, Ph.d., a senior research nutritionist for Nestle Purina and one of the developers of FortiFlora, says that the big problem with these products is that they are delicate living things. When you look at a probiotic, you are looking at live bacteria that have been adapted to living within the GI tract, she explains in a Canine Health Foundation podcast. Exposure to air, moisture, or temperature extremes will damage their viability. Thats why some of these products are sold in individual serving packets. She also says that people should be mindful of temperature conditions when purchasing a probiotic product. You dont want to buy your probiotics when its 110 degrees outside and you go to the mall for four hours and your probiotics are sitting in a hot car for five or six hours. Its not likely that the probiotics will survive.
Also, there are a few things you should look for on a probiotic package label, for example:
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Best For Puppies: Honest Kitchen Pro Bloom Instant Goat’s Milk Probiotics
The puppy phase is a crucial stage of development, and as pet owners we want to give our dogs the best start in life that we can. Support a healthy gut from an early age by introducing an easy-to-digest probiotic for puppies, like Pro Bloom Instant Goats Milk & Probiotic Supplement from The Honest Kitchen.
Each serving contains an impressive 5 billion CFU of healthy bacteria. This beneficial bacteria can help your puppy improve digestion, ease elimination, strengthen the immune system and also relieve an upset tummy due to diet changes or unsupervised snacking .
People love how easy it is to give this supplement to their pups. Just add water to the human-grade instant goats milk and you have a ready-to-serve puppy probiotic treat. You can also pour the milk concentrate onto dry or dehydrated dog food before serving. While it isnt mothers milk, this probiotic for puppies is a healthy, nourishing way to support healthy growth and development. And even though its a great idea for helping puppies get the probiotics they need, its suitable for dogs of all ages.
How Long Should Dogs Be On Probiotics
If youre giving probiotics as part of a preventative health plan, then you can give them most days. Soil based probiotics are typically a better choice for everyday probiotics since they are less likely to cause SIBO.
If your dog has diarrhea, then a high CFU lactic acid probiotic should help within a few days. Some studies show that probiotics can cut the recovery time roughly in half. Its best to continue the probiotics for a few weeks, to help resolve the underlying gut issues.
If your dog has chronic diarrhea or a digestive disorder, then a good multi-strain probiotic with gut-soothing herbs is a good choice. In this case, youll want to keep your dog on the probiotics long-term or until the diarrhea completely resolves.
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Are All Fermented Foods Probiotic Foods
While we mentioned that probiotics are naturally found in fermented foods, it’s important to know that not all fermented foods are probiotic foods. That’s because fermentation describes a chemical process that can have different players and outcomes. Only the right components will produce probiotics and probiotic foods.
Take beer, for example. This alcoholic beverage goes through a fermentation process where yeast ferment sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide . Some bacteria may find there way into certain beers , but brewers actually try their best to decrease bacterial contamination during the brewing process, and there are no probiotic bacteria in beer. (Although, one group of scientists from the National University of Singapore is trying to make that happen.
Number And Diversity Of Probiotics
Bacterial probiotics are most effective if they are living, not dead, and the more bacteria that are present, the higher the likelihood that they will benefit your cat. This means you want to choose a product that has a high number of colony forming units or bacteria. Since you dont know exactly what kind of bacteria your cat needs, youll also want to look for a probiotic that is a multi-strain product. This means there will be more than one type of bacteria in the product.
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What Are The Best Probiotic Foods For Gut Health
The jury is still out on probiotic supplements, in part because researchers seem to have found agreement that there is no one size fits all collection of probiotic strains that can have a positive impact on all people. But the probiotics naturally found in certain foods, however, have a demonstrated positive impact in people with various gastrointestinal maladies.
While not all fermented foods contain probiotics, a number of popular ones do, including yogurt and pickled vegetables it is the process of using live, active cultures of microorganisms that transforms food into a fermented state. Below are some great options if youre looking to add foods to your diet that are a good source of probiotics. The good news is that there is a rich, culturally diverse set of options to choose from:
- Yogurt
- Sauerkraut
- Tempeh
- Kimchi
- Miso soup
- Kombucha
- Pickles
- Natto
- Select cheeses
- Brine-cured olives
Choosing A Good Probiotic Supplement
Before choosing a good probiotic supplement, you must learn about a few important things such as capsule or powder form, the number of colony-forming units per dose, strains used in the product, sugar content, capsule shell material.
Some important things before buying a supplement are discussed below:
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Naturewise Womens Care Time Release Probiotics
NatureWise offers a womens probiotic that branches out a bit from the traditional bacterial strains. It includes less common strains like Streptococcus thermophilus, which has been researched for its anti-inflammatory properties and its use in diseases like ulcerative colitis.
This is a good choice if you want to diversity your gut bacteria or try something different, but it may not be as useful if you need to repopulate your gut flora, for example if youve just gotten off antibiotics for an ear infection.
Best No Fat Greek Yogurt Organic Meadow
- Per serving : 120 calories, 0 g fat , 85 mg sodium, 6 g carbs, 1 g fiber, 5 g sugar, 18 g protein
- Probiotic strains: 1 Billion+ Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus, Streptococcus thermophilus
Organic meadows nonfat plain Greek yogurt contains only 2 ingredients- organic skim milk, and active bacterial cultures.
It provides more than 1 billion live probiotic cultures per serving, is an excellent source of calcium, and is high in protein. Since it is plain, it is very low in sugar, making it a very healthy option for breakfast or a snack.
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What Are Probiotic Foods
Probiotics are a mix of live bacteria and yeast that live naturally in your body. But, these bacteria are beneficial, friendly bacteria, says Ariana Fiorita, a registered dietician nutritionist at the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine.
The friendly bacteria keep harmful bacteria in check, helping your body maintain a healthy balance, reducing inflammation, and optimizing gut health.
Related: Eat Your Way to a Healthier Gut
Consuming a balanced, diverse diet of clean protein, healthy fats, dietary fiber, and probiotic foods helps promote gastrointestinal health, Fiorita says. And the benefits of a healthy gut are numerous.
Benefits include keeping our immune system healthy by reducing the risk of infection and illness, as well as mental and neurological health, weight and metabolism, cardiovascular health, renal and urinary health and management of gastrointestinal conditions such as IBS , she says.
Side Effects Related To Probiotics
Most people who use probiotics do not experience side effects, and even if they do, the effects are usually not diverse.
The harmful effects of probiotics can also emerge due to people suffering from chronic illnesses such as cancer, diabetes, liver cirrhosis, high blood pressure, neonates, asthmatic patients, stomach ulcers. These special groups of people should consult with their doctors before using the supplements to know whether they can reduce their dosages to accommodate their conditions.
Supplements could also cause harm if they are consumed after expiry, poor storage conditions that could tamper with the quality of the bacterial strain, such as storing in poorly ventilated areas, storing above or below recommended temperature or in damp areas.
Poorly coated probiotic supplements may also cause more harm than good as viable counts of bacteria, when exposed to a poor environment, tend to die faster than multiply.
According to a CDC review paper, some of these effects may include:
The stomach is temporarily bloating with gas after ingesting the probiotic supplement.
How the bowel constipates, and users get excessive thirst from ingesting yeast-based probiotics.
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What Are The Main Benefits Of Taking Probiotics
There are a lot of benefits that you can get from taking probiotics and it varies for each person depending on his or her needs. Just to name a few: healthy immune system, fight bacteria and viruses, relieve constipation and bloating, maintain cardiovascular health, reduce occasional diarrhea due to antibiotic use or mild cases of irritable bowel syndrome, improve lactose intolerance, alleviate symptoms of lactose intolerance , improve digestion, promote regular bowel movement, maintain general well-being, and support healthy gut flora.
How Long Do Probiotics Last
Most probiotic supplements indicate a shelf life on their label of about one year. According to regulations, this means that the number of probiotics present in the supplement at the time of manufacturing must remain the same until they reach that expiry date.
Unfortunately, probiotics are very sensitive to environmental conditions, and elements like heat and light can kill them in both supplements and food. This means that if the product has been handled improperly during transportation, or if you stored it incorrectly, the probiotics may no longer be living.
Expired probiotics will not harm you, however you will not experience their benefits if they are expired.
The difficulty is that labelling regulations require manufacturers to put the total number of probiotics on their container, but this weight could include both the living and dead microorganisms.
You might purchase a product that claims it contains 10 billion live bacterial cultures, but there is no good way of knowing whether or not those bacteria are alive or dead. For this reason, researchers at Harvard Health Publishing recommend skipping the supplement altogether and getting your daily dose of probiotics from fermented foods like yogurt.
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Vitauthority Sbo Probiotics + Greens: Best For Inflammation
Vitauthority SBO Probiotics + Greens is a probiotic supplement that may energize and enhance ones digestion and immunity. With regular consumption, this supplement may contribute to the bodys overall metabolism through its composition of organic superfoods.
Vitauthority SBO Probiotics + Greens are U.S.-based, have a cGMP-regulated manufacturing facility, and adhere to international production standards.
Each wellness pill is packed with SBOs that organically may help bowel movement and functional improvement in the abdominal region.
With its nutraceutical goodness composed of non-chemical ingredients, the likes of broccoli, kale, spinach, and organic spirulina, each capsule is bursting with immunity-boosting minerals and multivitamins.
In addition, this supplement may help fight inflammation issues through its antioxidative properties. Therefore, it may revitalize cells of the skin and regulate gut health.
Fermented Dairy Probiotics: 4 5 6
- Yogurt
- Kefir : Kefir contains a variety of major strains of good-for-you bacteria and yeast, making it one of the best probiotic foods.7
- Cultured buttermilk and sour cream
- Aged cheeses: gouda, gruyere, mozzarella, and cottage cheese
Notes: High temperatures used in pasteurization kills probiotics, so look for labeling that says a probiotic yogurt contains live cultures or active cultures.5
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How To Choose A Probiotic For Men That Is Right For You
Richard N. Fogoros, MD, is a retired professor of medicine and board-certified internal medicine physician and cardiologist.
Our editors independently research, test, and recommend the bestproducts, and articles are reviewed by healthcare professionals for medical accuracy. Youcan learn more about ourreview process here.We may receive commissions on purchases made from our chosen links.
Verywell / Chloe Jeong
Probiotics are live microorganisms, considered to be “good” bacteria, that support the growth of a healthy gut microbiome. The gastrointestinal tract is host to many of the approximately 100 trillion microorganisms that live in the human bodyso it’s important to keep it healthy and flourishing.
Probiotic supplement use has soared in recent years due to the continued emerging research on the associated health benefits. Probiotics can be consumed naturally in foods like sauerkraut, yogurt, kombucha, and kimchi, or they can be taken in supplement form. Supplemental probiotics can help support the bacteria that live within us, especially when our innate bacteria is challenged, whether by antibiotics, a poor diet, or traveling.
Probiotics have been shown to help immune function, digestion, and nutrient absorption. The research examining probiotics specifically for men is limited, and more research needs to be done in order to deem which probiotics men will benefit from most.
Best For Constipation: Petultimates Probiotics For Cats
Delivery Method: Powder | Life Stage: All | NASC Seal: Yes
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Twenty strains of live healthy gut bacteria
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No unnecessary ingredients that could cause sensitivity
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90-day money-back guarantee
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No prebiotic
Constipation can be caused by a number of conditions. If this is an issue for your cat it’s important to consult with your vet, and you might consider adding Pet Ultimates Probiotics for Cats to your pet’s diet.
Each scoop of this no-nonsense supplement contains 5 billion CFU of 20 strains of live healthy gut bacteria plus a source of fiberbeta glucanand alpha-galactocidase, a digestive enzyme that breaks down natural sugars so that they are easier to digest. Thats it.
Manufactured in the U.S. in a Food and Drug Administration registered Good Manufacturing Practices -compliant facility, this supplement claims to reduce litter box odors and help your cat make firmer stools.
Delivery Method: Powder | Life Stage: Adults of all breeds | NASC Seal: Yes
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Vegan, grain-free and without added colors, dyes, or preservatives
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USDA Certified organic
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Twelve live strains of gut bacteria
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Some cats wont eat it
Inflammatory bowel disease is a syndrome in cats, a label applied to a collection of symptoms. It can present in your cat as diarrhea or constipation and is most commonly diagnosed in middle-aged to older cats, usually five to 12 years of age. The 12 live powerful strains of living good bacteria in Fera Pet Organic Probiotics with Prebiotics may help manage IBD.
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Best Low Fat Astro Biobest Probiotic Yogurt
- Per serving : 70 calories, 1.5 g fat , 70 mg sodium, 7 g carbs, 0 g fiber, 6 g sugar, 6 g protein
- Probiotic strains: 1 Billion+ Lactobacillus acidophilus NCFM, Bifidobacterium lactis Bi-07
Astros plain yogurt contains over 1 billion active probiotic cultures and 7 essential vitamins and minerals. It is also 90% lactose-reduced, when compared with regular plain yogurt, so may be a better option for those who are sensitive to lactose.
Astro BioBest has only 1.5 grams of fat per serving, making it a great option if you are watching your fat intake, or if you find high-fat dairy difficult on your digestive system.
