Treat constipation, improve memory, and take probiotics to benefit your brain and intestines! 6 Tips for Choosing Probiotics

Some people often suffer from diarrhea, while others are prone to constipation. To maintain intestinal health, "bacteria" are essential! The intestine is not only a digestive organ, but also an immune organ. If the intestines are the training ground for immunity, probiotics are the top instructors. How many probiotics should we supplement every day to regulate the balance of intestinal bacteria? How to choose probiotic products? In fact, probiotics have become the first choice for brain and intestinal health care. In addition to the well-known polyunsaturated fatty acids DHA and EPA, are there any other secret weapons for daily nutrition to protect the brain and increase memory? Let the leading doctor of probiotics answer your questions.

The World Health Organization (WHO) defined probiotics in its 2002 "Guidelines for the Evaluation of Probiotics in Food" as living microorganisms that are beneficial to the human body after taking a certain amount, that is, beneficial bacteria. Beneficial bacteria in the human body are mainly distributed in the digestive tract, respiratory tract, skin surface, eyes, nasal cavity, vagina, etc.

Common probiotics are represented by lactic acid bacteria, of which only a few strains can be called probiotics.

The most common probiotics are represented by lactic acid bacteria. There are many types of lactic acid bacteria, including Lactobacillus acidophilus, Bifidobacterium, Lactobacillus casei, etc. However, these species can be further divided into many types. Not every member of the family is beneficial to health. Only specific strains that have been proven experimentally have benefits. That is, only a few strains of lactic acid bacteria can be called probiotics. Most probiotics are lactic acid bacteria. Probiotics refer to living microorganisms that have been studied and clearly proven to be beneficial to health, while lactic acid bacteria refer to bacteria that produce lactic acid, so there is a difference between the two.

Therefore, to maintain intestinal health, you must replenish good bacteria! How to replenish enough good bacteria? Dr. Cai Yingjie, an authority on probiotics, explains in his new book "Intestinal Life 3: Happy Bacteria Keep You from Being Depressed":

Q1: How many probiotics should I supplement every day to regulate the balance of intestinal bacteria?

A: Supplementing with probiotics containing more than tens of billions of live bacteria every day can regulate the balance of hundreds of trillions of intestinal bacteria. Good quality products should contain more than tens of billions of live bacteria per serving.

Q2: Can we get enough lactic acid bacteria from our daily diet?

A: It’s not easy. There is lactic acid bacteria in kimchi, but kimchi is too salty and sour, so you can’t eat much. Miso also contains lactic acid bacteria, but after heating, there is very little lactic acid bacteria left. Therefore, it is best for people to buy commercially available probiotic fermented milk and powder products in order to get enough probiotics.

Q3: How to choose probiotic powder products?

A: This is really not easy to answer. Fermented milk is produced by medium-to-large enterprises and sold in convenience stores with refrigeration equipment. The producers and marketers of bacterial powder products are different. Most of them are small and medium-sized enterprises, and the sales channels are more diverse, including pharmacies, organic stores, TV shopping, online stores, Internet celebrities, and direct sales. The prices range from more than ten yuan per bag or one pill to hundreds of yuan. To read and understand the information about probiotic powder products requires considerable professional knowledge, and it is not easy for ordinary people to read. However, they can still roughly judge the quality of the product from the manufacturer's reputation, outer packaging and website information. Here are some tips for buying probiotic products:

[6 tips for choosing probiotic powder]

●Which strains were added? Are the species names and strain numbers written correctly?

●Are there any research data?

●Is there any research team support?

●How much bacteria count should be added?

●Are there any auxiliary ingredients with complementary functions added?

●Is there any website that can provide detailed product information?

It is better for probiotics to have more than 10 billion live bacteria. Note that adding sugar will increase calories.

To judge whether a manufacturer is professional, you can judge from the way the strain is labeled. A professional company will not make mistakes in Chinese and English, and will also know how to italicize English bacterial names. In addition, professional products will proactively indicate the research team and research data on the website to show their responsibility for the product.

A high-quality product must contain more than 10 billion live bacteria per serving. The auxiliary ingredients include oligosaccharides, dietary fiber, etc., which are prebiotics that help the growth of intestinal probiotics. The addition of sucrose and high fructose corn syrup is just a sweetener, so please pay attention to the calories when consuming it.

In recent years, scientific evidence has shown that the application of probiotics is no longer limited to intestinal health. Through the physiological axis that runs directly from the intestine to the brain - the gut-brain axis, intestinal bacteria can manipulate the intestinal neuroimmune system, affect the central nervous system, and comprehensively affect brain development, mental emotions, and learning ability. Therefore, when it comes to brain and intestinal health, probiotics must be the first choice and decisive weapon.

Daily diet nourishes the brain and eats more natural foods and less processed foods

To nourish and strengthen the brain, the best way is to start with daily diet, which includes deep-sea fish that can provide unsaturated fatty acids, such as saury, mackerel, sardines, salmon, etc., and nuts, such as walnuts, hazelnuts, cashews, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, etc.; spinach, broccoli, carrots, pumpkin, dates, citrus fruits, berries, etc. that can provide vitamins and antioxidants. The key is to eat rich, diverse, natural foods from fresh and safe sources for all three meals, and eat less processed foods.

However, some studies have proven that it is not easy to get enough of the ingredients that have brain-boosting effects from the diet. Dr. Tsai Ying-Chieh said that the following three nutrients have scientific evidence for your reference:

[3 kinds of nutritional supplements to help nourish the brain]

1. Polyunsaturated fatty acids DHA, EPA:

DHA and EPA, known as brain-nourishing fatty acids and smart fatty acids, are found in the highest content in deep-sea fish oil. There are many products of this type, with names such as fish oil, DHA/EPA, Omega-3, etc. In fact, deep-sea fish, beans and other ingredients are relatively easy to consume, but because they are easily destroyed during cooking, it is also beneficial to use nutritional supplements to strengthen their supplementation. When purchasing this type of product, please pay attention to the concentration of DHA and EPA. The higher the concentration, the better.

2. Phosphatidylserine:

Commonly known as cephalin, it is an important component of brain nerve cell membranes and myelin that wraps around the outside of nerve axons. It is one of the few health ingredients that is supported by data, has high safety, and can increase cognitive and learning abilities.

3. Ginkgo Biloba Extract:

The market for its nutritional supplements has reached hundreds of millions of dollars, and it is even a prescription drug in countries such as Germany and France. It does help prevent Alzheimer's disease, dementia, etc., but it may not be very effective in improving memory in young people.