

Probiotics stick around for a while, though for how long isn’t precisely clear. You have to keep taking them to continue to reap the benefits. Further, getting a wide variety of strains into your system is beneficial. “Periodically mixing up your probiotic supplement is also a good way to ensure that you get different health-building strains in your health regime,” says Dr. Cook.
An imbalance between good bacteria and pathogenic bacteria, yeasts or fungi, or a change in the bacteria species that colonize the digestive tract is called dysbiosis. It can have short and long-term effects on our body functions. These disruptions can reduce the immune system’s effectiveness, create unpleasant digestive symptoms (diarrhea, constipation, gas, etc.), be a contributor to certain chronic illnesses like obesity, and participate in producing pro-inflammatory metabolites.
For most of my life, I thought of probiotics as something I’d only drink if I lost a bet. Then stress-induced irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) turned my intestinal tract into a nonstop river of shit—we’re talking weeks of everything I ate shooting straight out my butt in liquid form. The internet said probiotics were my best non-pharmaceutical bet to help my digestive system calm down, so I swallowed my pride (and my first kombucha ever) and kinda sorta saw the light. My IBS wasn’t cured, but probiotics did help me spend less time on the toilet wide-eyed with terror, and more time doing what’s really important in life—watching TV with my family.

That’s why adding probiotics and prebiotics to your diet provide the best possible outcome from a bacterial perspective. It isn’t always easy to eat naturally prebiotic-enriched foods, however, because they are often distasteful to eat in quantity. Would you enjoy eating several cups of raw onion or garlic every day? Probably not. Other foods that contain prebiotic fiber, such as bread and bananas, are high in calories. Consuming hundreds of calories of these foods every day is counterproductive if you’re trying to lose weight.

The Strand Similar to multivitamins, not all probiotics are created equal. Different probioitcs have different bacteria strains with varying benefits; and some probiotics may contain more than one strain, so it’s important to do your research. Some strains may help with gastrointestinal issues like diarrhea, while others may not have any effect on the GI tract at all, according to Keri Gans, RDN, author of The Small Change Diet. If you’ve made the decision to take a probiotic supplement but you’re unsure about which strain to take, ask your doctor or a registered dietitian for a recommendation. “You most likely will not have any negative side effects from using the wrong strain, but you may also not see any benefits,” says Gans.
This story has played out before, most notably with vitamin supplements, which decades of research have revealed to be completely unnecessary for most adults and, in some cases, dangerous, correlating with higher rates of lung, breast and prostate cancers. But that has not stopped marketers from pushing another nutritional craze. According to a National Institutes of Health survey, the number of adults in the U.S. taking probiotics or their cousins, prebiotics (typically nondigestible fibers that favor the development of gut bacteria), more than quadrupled between 2007 and 2012, from 865,000 people to nearly four million. San Francisco–based business consulting firm Grand View Research estimates that the global probiotics market exceeded $35 billion in 2015 and predicts that it will reach $66 billion by 2024.
If you are seeking non-dairy yogurt options, there are several that contain live probiotic cultures. Yogurts made from rice, soy and coconut milk are available on the market and also contain added probiotics that can provide the same benefits. Other alternative sources of probiotics include eating fermented foods like Brewer’s yeast, miso, sauerkraut, or micro algae. Whatever the source, always look for “live and active cultures” on the label.
