The power of probiotics

Gut health is where it’s at, and for good reason.

A healthy gut is now linked with everything from clear skin to effortless weight maintenance and even improved mental health.

One of the most important tools when it comes to nourishing your gut is probiotics.

What are probiotics?

The easiest way to understand your gut is to think of it as a garden.

It needs a few different things to nurture it – seeds to plant, water and sunshine for the plants, and protection from pests.

In the gut, probiotics are the seeds that you plant.

They are beneficial microbes that can establish a colony in the digestive tract and benefit your health.

Probiotics are best paired up with prebiotics. Prebiotics are like the sunshine and water in a garden – they feed the good microbes.

You can find prebiotics in a lot of plant foods, including berries, kiwifruit, pineapple and seeds like chia seeds.

What are some health benefits of probiotics?

Different strains of probiotics can have different benefits.

Some of the general benefits that research has associated with consuming probiotics include:

• Restoring the balance of microbes in the gut by increasing the ‘good’ guys and reducing the ‘bad’ guys
• Improvement in symptoms related to anxiety, stress, depression and other mental health concerns
• Reducing inflammatory markers
• Lowering elevated blood pressure and cholesterol levels naturally
• Reducing the severity of allergic conditions like eczema
• Support immunity by boosting levels of immune cells
• Maintaining a healthy weight and losing excess weight – although exact mechanisms are currently unknown, it could be due to impacts on digesting fats, hormone levels or altering the metabolism

The benefits of GanedenBC30

Super Cubes uses GanedenBC30 (Bacillus coagulans GBI-30, 6086) as their probiotic strain of choice.

There are many studies that explore how this strain could be beneficial for wellbeing.

Let’s have a quick look at the findings.

Digestive health

Not surprisingly, many of the health benefits supported by research are focused on the digestive tract.

Studies suggest that consuming GanedenBC30 could:

• Reduce digestive symptoms such as flatulence and bloating in cases where there is no diagnosed disorder
  
• Reduce bloating and abdominal pain in IBS
• Relieve symptoms in diarrhoea-predominant IBS
• Have anti-microbial effects on pathogenic bacteria in the gut

Immune health

Gut health and immunity have close ties, and many probiotics can have benefits for immune health.

The research suggests that GanedenBC30 demonstrates:

• Anti-inflammatory effects
  
• Immune modulating (balancing) effects
• The ability to enhance the immune response to respiratory conditions like flu and adenovirus

Muscle recovery

Feeling sore after a workout?

You might be reaching for the protein powder, but you might want to think about your gut health as well.

One research study looked at consuming casein in combination with GanedenBC30, and found some impressive benefits.

The participants experienced reduced muscle damage, enhanced recovery and maintained physical performance after a strenuous workout compared to taking casein without the probiotic.

How can you add probiotics into your diet?

Everyone can benefit from nurturing their gut health.

Probiotics are just one piece of the digestive health picture, but they are easy to add in as part of a balanced diet.

One of the easiest ways to get probiotics into your daily diet is adding a gluten free, great tasting berry digest smoothie into your day because it has the GanedenBC30 prebiotic in it.

You can get you hands on this Super Cubes favourite here, frozen berry smoothie with prebiotic.