ESSENTIAL TIPS TO BE AWARE OF BEFORE TAKING PROBIOTICS.

There are foods with health halos. And then there are probiotics, which have practically been canonized. The word itself means—no big whoop—"to give life." 

Probiotics are now a nearly $37 billion industry in the U.S. Sales of probiotic-rich yogurt and kefir surged nearly 30 percent in the past three years. And just slapping "contains probiotics" on a product helps it sell better, says San Diego attorney Tim Blood, who specializes in consumer protection in advertising. Not too shabby for bacteria, right?

Indeed, their initial claim to fame was hardly sexy: soothing digestive disorders such as diarrhea, constipation, and acid reflux, which plague 70 million people (mostly women). But that take on pro-b's now feels as dated as a Jamie Lee Curtis Activia ad.

6 Reasons To Eat More Nuts

Nuts are great. There, we said it.

Not only are they a far better alternative to biscuits when you get your mid-morning hunger pangs, but they also work wonders for health.

Don’t believe us? Here are six scientifically-backed benefits to eating them regularly. 

They could help you live longer.

Eating a handful of nuts a day keeps the doctor away - and might help you live longer, according to two long-running Harvard studies.

“We found that people who ate nuts every day lived longer, healthier lives than people who didn’t eat nuts,” said study co-author Dr. Frank Hu, professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health.

The report showed that daily nut-eaters were less likely to die of cancer, heart disease and respiratory disease.

Overall, the daily nut-eaters were 20% less likely to have died during the course of the study than those who avoided nuts. (Peanuts, which are actually legumes, counted as nuts in this study).

HOW TO BOOST YOUR GUT HEALTH

Conventional wisdom says that if you’re dealing with a touchy gut, you should just start taking probiotics and eating more yogurt and sauerkraut. But when British nutritionist Jeannette Hyde hears this kind of advice, it makes her cringe.

“If you just throw a ton of prebiotic and probiotic foods at somebody who’s got gut problems, you can actually make things worse,” she says. “I get a little bit shocked when I see scientists say things like, ‘Lentils are prebiotic—they feed the good bacteria in the gut and everybody should eat loads of them.’ That is the absolute last thing I would do with somebody with gut problems. They could be on the toilet for days.”

To set the record straight, Hyde wrote The Gut Makeover, a four-week, systematic plan for rebalancing the bacteria in the digestive tract with minimal misery. All of the hacks within are backed by science, yet laid out in a way that’s been proven to work outside of the lab, based on Hyde’s years of clinical practice.

Fermented Foods? Can They Help Your Gut Health.

When it comes to understanding the role of bacteria in our health, consider this – we are actually more bacteria than we are human.

A healthy balance of the bacteria in our gut governs the functioning of many systems including the immune system and metabolism. It plays a critical role in our mood and brain function – and it helps us maintain our body size.

The health of the gut is central to every aspect of health. It is through our digestive system that we absorb all of the goodness from our food, a process that is essential for life. Yet today, many people suffer with an array of gut-based illnesses or dysfunction, which can have a broad-reaching impact on many other areas of our health.

Fermented foods are like a big hug for your gut and a wonderfully nourishing addition to your diet, whether you have experienced gut dysfunction or not. Fermented foods are foods that have been through a process of lactofermentation in which natural bacteria feed on the sugars and starches in the food creating lactic acid. This process preserves the food and produces beneficial enzymes, B-vitamins, omega-3 fatty acids, and are a source of probiotics.

5 Health And Performance Benefits of Probiotics

To put it simply: Bacteria follow the food you eat. The easiest way to manipulate your gut flora is by enriching your diet with a variety of probiotics and prebiotics. Probiotics are the actual bacteria that live in your gut. Prebi- otics are the substances that the bacteria eat. Food sources are the best way to get both of these, since the diversity of the bacteria in supplements is not as smart as nature; your second choice could be a high-quality, specific-flora supplement.

Once you've established a healthy colony, you have to care for it. Just as you wouldn't plant a garden and not feed or water it, you can't just pour some kefir on top of a bad diet and expect those beneficial microorganisms to grow and flourish. You need to feed them! Fiber from a balanced diet is one way to nourish your gut microbiome.

Every day scientists are discovering more benefits of having teeming, diverse gut colonies. Some probiotic health and performance benefits we know for certain include:

5 Gut Health Mistakes You May Be Making Unwittingly.

A healthy, balanced diet rich in probiotics and prebiotics is the key to developing a thriving, diverse gut colony. But you can't expect your happy and healthy microbiome to withstand the gut bombs many of us throw their way—sometimes every single day.

Here are some common enemies of your beneficial bacteria and how to protect your microbiome from harm.