Prebiotic Fiber: The Gut Health Superfood

Introduction to Prebiotic Fiber 

Simply consuming healthy food does not always mean that your body can optimize its use of its nutrients. Gut-related problems can inhibit your body from getting the most out of your food. Prebiotic fiber can boost gut health to support your nutritional goals. Here are some of the most important things to know about what gut-friendly fiber is. Also, learning how it works and how consuming more beneficial fiber can help you meet your body's unique nutritional needs!

What Is Prebiotic Fiber? 

Prebiotics are beneficial fiber that helps good bacteria grow in your gut. This is instead of being digested like most other elements of our food. These supplements can significantly optimize your body's ability by optimizing the balance between good and bad bacteria in your digestive system. It effectively uses the nutrients you consume. 

Differences Between Probiotics and Prebiotics 

With similar names and end results, probiotics and prebiotics can easily get confused. Both are important. They play vital roles in boosting your gut health but take different paths to get there. Both probiotics and prebiotics help your body increase a wide range of benefits of good bacteria in your gut. It is more indispensable to your digestion and overall gut health than expected. Probiotics are a type of live microorganism that directly provides similar benefits to good bacteria because they function similarly. Prebiotics are a type of carbohydrate that works to feed and nourish good bacteria that are already present in your gut.

Both types of supplements help to improve the balance between good and bacteria in your gut by giving beneficial bacteria extra resources and allies that create the best conditions for allowing them to overtake and negate the potential adverse effects of harmful bacteria. Removing all bad bacteria from your gut is generally very difficult. It is usually recommended because having more good than harmful bacteria is more important to your overall gut health than having no harmful bacteria.

In fact, most people have approximately ten times more bacteria than human cells in their bodies. A very high percentage of this bacteria is found in the gut. Consuming plenty of foods high in probiotics and prebiotics or taking supplements helps ensure that your gut has a high ratio of good bacteria over harmful bacteria. It helps keep most potential problems associated with harmful bacteria from becoming grave concerns. 

How Does Prebiotic Foods Work? 

Much like the rest of your body, good bacteria in your gut need adequate outside assistance to fulfill their purpose. While these bacteria cannot thrive on their own, prebiotic foods can help keep the right kinds of bacteria healthy and capable of surviving at a higher rate than bad bacteria. Gut-friendly fiber's primary purpose is to provide nutrients to your tummy's good bacteria. This helps keep this type of bacteria healthy, strong, and capable of functioning more effectively than harmful bacteria.

Unlike most other carbohydrates, this cannot be digested. Which means that prebiotics remain unchanged from the form they were eaten until reaching the colon. This is also the time they begin to ferment. During fermentation, prebiotics form fatty acids that spread throughout the gut to feed nearby good bacteria. The extra nutrition helps to create a strong balance between good and bad bacteria in your gut. 

Common Sources of Prebiotic Fiber 

Incorporating natural prebiotics into your diet is vital in boosting your gut health. Bananas, onions, and honey are among the best sources of prebiotic fiber. Our Daily Greens are packed with a variety of fruits and veggies that can help you meet your nutritional goals. Other usual natural options include soybeans, garlic, leeks, Jerusalem artichoke, and chicory root. In contrast, many types of dairy products are rich in probiotics. This naturally boosts probiotic intake by eating a variety of yogurt, cheese, and kefir. Other dairy products are much more accessible than getting enough beneficial fiber through food alone. 

Many people find supplemental ways to add gut-friendly fiber to their diet, which is essential in maintaining the best possible balance between good and bad gut bacteria. These naturally occurring prebiotics are usually found in small amounts in a limited number of foods. Adding some of Laird Superfood's wide range of delicious snacks, drinks, and other supplements to your diet is one of the easiest ways to get your prebiotic foods consumption to the ideal level for your needs. While we do not recommend only taking supplements as an alternative to consuming foods rich in prebiotics, our products provide a convenient solution for making the most of multiple sources to optimize your prebiotic foods intake. 

How Does Prebiotic Fiber Contribute to a Healthy Microbiome? 

Gut-friendly fiber may not be the first thing to come to mind when considering the easiest ways to improve your health. But it plays a crucial role in getting the most out of your food. Here are some of the most significant ways in which increasing your prebiotic fiber intake can help support gut health and the overall health of the rest of your microbiome. 

Benefits of Good Bacteria 

Having an ideal amount of good bacteria in your gut plays a much more significant role in optimizing your overall health. It is by improving your body's ability to effectively use the nutrients you consume more than you might expect. Increasing the number of good bacteria in your body by boosting your beneficial fiber consumption can reduce your likelihood of developing various diseases and other medical conditions, improve your ability to properly absorb and benefit from the minerals and other nutrients in the food you eat, support a healthy digestion process, and provide a variety of other surprising benefits. Here are some of the most significant ways in which taking steps to regulate the levels of various types of good bacteria that are present in your gut can benefit your health!

Support Normal Digestion 

Good digestion plays a significant role in making sure that your body can get the most out of the healthy food that you consume. Individuals with digestion problems may be unable to eat certain foods that would otherwise be helpful without pain, bloating, constipation, or other stomach issues, which can limit their options for eating a nutritious, balanced diet. Your gut needs adequate good bacteria and a strong balance between good and bad bacteria to properly digest most foods. With a proper balance, your body can more easily and comfortably handle every step of the digestion process. Proper digestion also supports your body's ability to get the most out of the food you eat. In contrast, chronic poor digestion can make it significantly tougher to optimize the use of these nutrients. 

Optimize Nutrient Absorption 

Simply consuming adequate amounts of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients does not always mean that your body will be fully capable of obtaining the best possible benefits from them. Many people do not absorb every nutrient that food places in their bodies. This means they cannot use all its fuel or other health benefits. Some people have a hard time absorbing an adequate amount of nutrients. It is even if they consume plenty or even more than they should reasonably need. Gut-friendly fibercan make a significant difference when it comes to helping your body absorb a variety of types of nutrients. This can help you get the most out of everything you eat and cut down on wasted nutrients. 

Boost Mental Health 

Your gut health can have a surprisingly high impact on your mental health. Increasing your probiotic intake can also have a wide range of indirect positive effects on your happiness and mental clarity. Consuming more probiotics for approximately 1-2 months may reduce symptoms of many of the most common types of mental health concerns, such as depression, anxiety, OCD, and autism. Probiotics can also reduce stress, improve memory, and positively impact elements of mental health that are not necessarily directly linked to a specific mental health condition. Improving your mental health through a combination of increased prebiotic fiber and other treatment options can also boost your overall happiness, mood, productivity, and general outlook on life. 

Benefits of Prebiotic Fiber  

Increasing your gut-friendly fiber intake can benefit your body in a wide range of ways. Many of these are linked to the balance between the amounts of helpful and harmful bacteria in your gut. Having more good bacteria than harmful bacteria in your gut plays a surprisingly significant role in maximizing your overall health. Consuming more beneficial fiber is vital to obtain the best possible balance. Here are some of the most significant ways to consume more prebiotic fiber that can benefit your body!

Decrease Harmful (Pathogenic) Bacteria 

Having more good bacteria than harmful bacteria in your gut makes it more difficult for any harmful bacteria that is present to thrive. It helps to reduce the number of potentially dangerous pathogens that are located in your gut. This can also drastically reduce your risk of salmonella, E. Coli, and other food-related illnesses typically associated with specific types of pathogens that can grow and multiply in the area.

5 Ways Prebiotic Fiber Reduces Harmful Bacteria

Gut-friendly fiber's ability to reduce harmful bacteria can depend on various factors that impact the overall makeup of a specific gut environment. Generally, however, there are five ways boosting prebiotics can potentially reduce multiple types of nearby pathogens. In some cases, more than one of these processes may work together to increase your health further. This is especially likely to be the case if your gut has an ideal ratio between good and bad bacteria. 

1. Competitive Advantage: increasing the number of good bacteria in your gut gives that bacteria a tremendous competitive advantage over nearby harmful bacteria because having a more considerable amount of good bacteria naturally allows that type of bacteria to consume more resources.
2. Resource Competition: Because a limited amount of nutrients and other needs that make up an ideal environment for bacteria to grow and multiply in are present in your gut at any given time, having a larger overall amount of bacteria means that different types must compete with one another for the best colonization sites, food, and other resources. Harmful types of bacteria typically have an easier time monopolizing these resources when there is a lack of helpful bacteria available to compete with it, which gives problematic bacteria a better opportunity to multiply and increase your likelihood of developing a wide range of health problems. 
3. pH Balance: Improving the overall balance of the types of bacteria in your gut also helps your gut reach and remain at an ideal pH level that best supports your digestion and overall health. Having too little good bacteria present can cause your colonic pH to become too high, and certain types of acids linked to prebiotic fiber can help stabilize the pH of your gut to create a better environment for good bacteria and reduce the presence of certain types of harmful bacteria. 
4. Immune System Boost: Consuming more prebiotic fiber can also reduce the amount of harmful bacteria in your gut by enhancing your immune system to improve its natural ability to eliminate potential threats without the need for outside assistance.
5. Inhibitory Peptide Production: Lactic acid bacteria produce peptides that inhibit and antagonize, reducing the success of various harmful bacteria. 

Decrease Protein Fermentation 

Fermentation is a crucial step in making it possible for prebiotic fiber to reach the right types of bacteria in a form that the good bacteria can benefit from once it arrives in the gut. It also serves a secondary purpose by preventing the essential protein from fermenting and becoming less beneficial. Fermentation is a natural and generally unpreventable part of digestion intended to help break down carbohydrates. If too little beneficial fiber or other types of carbohydrates are present, your stomach will target protein next. Protein fermentation can prevent your body from using the protein itself effectively. This can also cause various types of harmful metabolites to build up and lead to gut and other health problems. 

Protein fermentation can cause excessive ammonia, sulfides, phenols, amines, and other metabolites to build up in your gut. It can upset various balances that keep it functioning correctly. This occurs because fermentation of the wrong type of substance increases the pH and decreases the SCFA concentration in your gut. 

Boost Calcium Absorption to Improve Bone Health 

Getting plenty of calcium plays a crucial role in building strong bones. It also reduces the risk of fractures, osteoporosis, and other common bone injuries and conditions. However, your body does not always absorb calcium and other nutrients as you might like. Consuming more gut-friendly fiber can make a significant difference in helping your body absorb a higher percentage of calcium. You eat other minerals and ensure your body can get as much out of them as possible. This can be particularly important because even taking calcium supplements and adding more foods high in calcium to your diet can only do so much if your body has difficulty absorbing and using them adequately. 

However, it is also essential to be aware that your overall health, age, and various other factors can also influence the health of your bones. You will likely need to supplement and increase your prebiotic fiber intake with other dietary or lifestyle changes, medications, or treatment options. It is if you have multiple risk factors for experiencing significant bone injuries, then rely on this supplement alone. 

Improve Immune System

A robust immune system is a must to decrease your likelihood of developing a wide range of illnesses and other health concerns. Your diet plays a vital role in keeping your immune system functioning correctly.  Decreasing bacteria is generally considered a great way to stay healthy and avoid getting sick. It is only true in the case of harmful bacteria.

Your body still needs plenty of good bacteria to minimize certain types of inflammation. The ideal balance between the two types of bacteria that beneficial fiber helps to create can make a significant difference. This is when it comes to keeping other balances where they need to be. By adding prebiotic fiber to your diet, your gut (and the rest of your body) can significantly improve its ability to naturally fight off a wide range of diseases and other health conditions or keep them from occurring in the first place with little to no need for outside medical intervention. 

Lower Allergy Risk 

Food and other allergies can make eating a balanced diet and living a normal life more challenging. Many of which have become much more common in recent years. With the increase in allergies has come an increase in research into their most common causes and ways they may be prevented. Many possible links between various supplements and a lower risk of developing specific allergies have been identified. Consuming high levels of gut-friendly fiber during the first five years of life has been shown to have a significant correlation with a lower likelihood of developing severe allergies and other types of inflammatory conditions later in life. 

Many types of allergies have been linked to a lack of microbial diversity in the gut. This often involves the presence of too much harmful bacteria and too little good bacteria. More specifically, infants and young children that have too little Bifidobacteria and Lactobacilli typically have an above-average likelihood of developing allergies, eczema, and other lifelong inflammatory conditions. Adding more prebiotic fiber to these children's diets can support the growth of more of these specific types of good bacteria. It is by giving them an extra boost of nutrients. 

Types of Prebiotics 

The specific types of prebiotics that your body can best benefit from can depend on your overall health and other nutritional needs. Your doctor, dietary coach, or other nutrition professional can help you determine the options most benefit your body's needs. Some of the most common types of prebiotics include: 

• Inulin
• Fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS)
• Galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS)

How Much Prebiotic Foods Do I Need? 

The precise amount of prebiotic fiber that your body needs to optimize its use of good bacteria can vary from person to person. This is especially true when other dietary needs are considered. However, many studies indicate that consuming approximately three to five grams of gut-friendly fiber daily is ideal for most adults. Many people find that consuming the recommended amount of dietary fiber for their age, gender, activity level, and unique nutritional needs results in sufficient beneficial fiber.  

Why Is a Healthy Gut Important? 

Your gut microbiome is made up of trillions of microorganisms. It means that making sure that as many of them as possible is essential in improving your digestion, nutrition, and overall health. The health of your digestive system extends to your entire body because your gut needs to function correctly to effectively break down, use, and transport the nutrients from the food you eat to every cell in your body. 

Common Gut Problems 

Identifying potential gut problems as early as possible is vital in keeping seemingly minor issues from escalating into much more significant concerns. Many of these conditions make it more difficult for your body to get the nutrients it needs to thrive, among other concerns. Some of the most common gut problems include: 

• Constipation
• Diarrhea
• Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
• Lactose intolerance 
• Gallstones
• Hemorrhoids 
• Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) 

Choose Laird Superfood to Get the Most Out of Prebiotic Fiber 

Choosing healthy snacks and drinks is an excellent step in boosting your overall health and supporting your body's nutritional goals. However, deciding which nutrition companies offer the best options for your body is not always easy. Understanding your options can be overwhelming. This is especially true if you have minimal experience with using supplements to enhance your diet.

Our team prioritizes clarity and transparency when it comes to sharing everything our products have to offer. It can significantly simplify the process of understanding how specific nutrients can help you look, feel, and function your best. This can also be particularly important when it comes to finding ways to enhance your gut health. Also, often goes beyond the expertise of even many people who have prioritized eating healthy foods for years. Here are some of the most important things to know about what sets Laird Superfood apart as a leading nutritional supplement company and what to expect when taking advantage of everything we offer!

What Sets Laird Superfood Apart From Other Nutrition Companies?

Sometimes, the best products come from people who are first looking for the best possible ways to improve their own health or other areas of their lives, and Laird Superfood is no different. Our founders are world-renowned athletes. It gives us an exceptional understanding of what it takes to push your body to the highest level. Performing your best while enjoying surfing, volleyball, and other sports depends on outstanding overall health. Also, the ability to avoid stomach problems while in constant motion. Our products help to supplement the nutrition you need to reduce gut inflammation while boosting your overall health. Our brand began with enhanced coffee. We have expanded our options to provide all the healthy snacks your body needs to fuel nearly any activity while working toward becoming the best version of yourself. 

Our Products 

Sustainably obtaining the best possible nutritional benefits from your food starts with enjoying what you are eating. Laird Superfood offers a wide range of enhanced snacks and drinks. We can provide healthy and delicious replacements for your current choices. Starting your morning with our specialized creamers, coffee, and instant lattes instead of drinking something that is loaded with sugar and few to no nutrients can give you an extra boost of things your body needs to thrive early in the day. Our other drink mixes and hydration options also make it easier to take advantage of the hydration your body needs throughout the day by packing even more benefits into every sip. We also offer a wide range of enhanced oatmeal, granola, protein bars, nut butter, and other healthy snacks to help reduce cravings for unhealthy alternatives.

Our Daily Greens provide another excellent source of many essential vitamins and minerals that support your gut and overall health. This convenient powder is packed with prebiotic foods, adaptogens, and various fruits and vegetables, making it easier than ever to add more of the specific nutrients your body needs to a simple glass of water. Our Daily Greens blend provides a quick and easy boost of dozens of prebiotics and other superfoods that improve your digestion and keep different parts of your body balanced, including: 

• Vitamin D, C, K, and B12
• Calcium
• Fiber
• Magnesium 
• Manganese 

More Information About Our Products

With a smooth citrus flavor, our Daily Greens blend provides a unique nutritional supplement option that is delicious and packed with the superfoods that help you maintain the best possible balance!

Whether you are just getting started and looking to explore everything that Laird Superfood has to offer, or you have built an arsenal of favorites over several years of enjoying our enhanced products, taking advantage of our variety packs provides something for everyone. We also offer a variety of additional supplements that can be added to any of our drinks to add an extra boost of a specific type of nutrient that your body needs most. While all of our products naturally provide various nutritional and health benefits, we know that many of our customers are searching for something peculiar when it comes to considering enhanced snacks. For this reason, we make it easy to find collections of specific products that provide the best nutrients for energizing, strengthening, and balancing your body. 

Diets We Support  

Getting enough prebiotic fiber is only beneficial when foods that fit your unique dietary needs are available. This is why Laird Superfood prioritizes offering options that fit into a variety of the most common types of specialized diets. Our gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan, keto, and paleo supplements provide many delicious snacks, drinks, and other options that work well with the different foods you typically eat. Many of our products can also work well for individuals with specific allergies, and our knowledgeable team is always available to answer any questions you may have about which types of supplements might be the most appropriate for your unique needs. No matter what type of dietary specialization you need or prefer to focus on to feel your best, chances are some of our products are an excellent fit for you!

Subscribe to Laird Superfood Today to Start Improving Your Gut Health 

At Laird Superfood, we are here to help you find unique and delicious ways to optimize your diet to best meet your needs and improve your overall health. Our Daily Ritual Club subscription boxes simplify the process of getting everything your gut needs to function at its best by ensuring you always have your favorites available. Each subscription starts with a short quiz that gives us a better idea of your current consumption of prebiotic foods and other unique dietary needs. We can use it to make recommendations about specific products likely to best support your nutritional goals. Each box includes an assortment of snacks and drinks that are high in prebiotic fiber and other superfoods, as well as basic supplements that provide an extra boost of the specific types of nutrients that your body needs most. 

We offer a 15 percent discount to nonsubscribers and free shipping on your first order to make it as easy as possible to take advantage of everything our products provide. Our subscribers can also take advantage of an additional 20 percent off all additional purchases to continue experimenting with new products that might be a good fit for them. Subscribers also have early access to our new products before we add them to our general selection. It means you can experiment with the latest recipes as soon as they are developed. 

We look forward to starting the process of building a tasty and comprehensive subscription box that helps you get the best possible benefits from prebiotic fiber and other superfoods! Contact us today to learn more about the benefits of choosing a Laird Superfood subscription. Also, to find the most helpful products for your unique dietary needs!