3 Tips to Buy a Best Probiotic Product

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What is the probiotic?

Probiotic is a kind of bacteria and/or some yeasts which is helpful in human body’s microorganisms, with adequate dose that provide a healthy advantage on the host. You may find it exists in a wide food source, such as yogurt, beverages, and some cultured milk.

 

What benefits of the probiotic?

We’ve know about some benefits from probiotic intake daily, for example, it help reduce the symptom of diarrhea caused by travelling or antibiotics; For children with taking Lactobacillus GG will reduce the severity and frequency of abdominal pain remarkably; A specific strain combinations of probiotic, L.rhamnosus GR-1 and L. fermentum RC-14 has shown the ability to reduce the vagina colonization if taken orally.

Some new researches have shown the benefits of probiotic for other conditions, e.g. allergy, throat infection, cold and flu, anxiety, periodontitis, even high blood pressure.

 

How to choose a best probiotic product?

Here is 3 tips you may need to know before you pick up a probiotic product:

 

1, Claimed dose of cells in some product labels.

Some probiotic products’ label may note the number of bacteria strains ‘at the time of manufacture’, which is against FDA regulations. As we know, it is common for the active cultures in a capsule to decrease by time, so we’d like to know the exact amount of live organisms of one product before its ‘Best By Date’ or expiration date.

 

2, If it has prebiotics?

Prebiotics is different ingredient from probiotics. It’s one kind of plant based complex sugar, with the benefit of promoting the growth of probiotic strains because it is used as essential food by the bacteria in the colon. You may find it listed in product label as inulin or fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS). There are broadly food source of prebiotic, you may find it exists in banana, chicory root, garlic, onions, leeks, wheat.

 

3, Survive from stomach acid

Most of the probiotics will not survive from stomach acid after them were swallowed. According to one study, only about 10% – 20% of the original dose may survive when taking without food. But if it is enteric coated, then it will has a couple of times more will be survival.

Although the enteric coating help increase the survival rate of bacteria through the stomach, sometimes it may contaminated with some useless bacteria or yeast if something wrong with the manufacturing process or storage condition.

 

For the best probiotic for children, you may refer to here.

 

Source:

http://www.nutrition.org/

http://www.thebestprenatalvitamins.com

Nancy Nelson