You’ll have heard of probiotics, because they’re very 2015, which I have identified as the year in which everyone started talking about gut health (the phrase “gut fauna” entered the vernacular a bit later). The potted version is that you want your gut bacteria to be as varied and exciting as possible, and the best way to ensure that is by eating fermented foods: yoghurts, kefir, kombucha, sauerkraut. So you boost your probiotics to increase bacterial variety in the first place – and then you bring in prebiotics to feed them. The probiotic guru is Tim Spector, now better known for his Covid tracker, who explains the gut brilliantly in his book Spoon Fed. What I learnedOne meta study identified 25 separate conditions improved by prebiotics, from allergies to immune function, IBS to bone health.

Source: The Guardian January 02, 2021 06:56 UTC