Probiotics Are Your Bodyguards - Afropolitain Magazine

Since we are newborns, our body get in touch with the outer world trough the skin and our digestive systems.

Since newborns, our body get in touch with the outer world through the skin and our digestive systems. The digestive tract is home to thousands of a bacteria that help us breaking down our food, cleaning our bodies and also regulating our immune system which is, in a nutshell, an extraordinary league of cells that defend the body from intruders.

In fact, the human body has more bacteria in it that human cells, yeah you hear well. So we could say that those bacteria are our quarterbacks or first line defence which take contact with the outer world net that we invite inside of us through food, liquids and medication. An improper care of the gut or a damaged digestive system can lead us to suffer a great range of ailments and diseases which in some cases can be reverted by using probiotics. What are probiotics? Basically, products that contain living microbes fostering the proper function of the digestive system. The majority of probiotic bacterias live in the large intestine and they have fancy names such as lactobacilli and bifidobacteria.

Between the probiotic health benefits includes lactose digestion, metabolism regulation, nutrient utilisation, oral health, lipid regulation (weight loss), detoxification, healthier skin, anti-hypertension, cancer protection and regulation of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Why should you care? Well, because “about 75% of the food in the Western diet is of limited or no benefit to the microbiota in the lower gut” and about 65% of your immune system dwell in the gut so if you live in the west, that´s something you should think about.

At this point, you may be asking yourself how can you feed or keep healthy your flora to visit less your doctor. The answer to that question is including fermented foods such as yoghurt , olives, wine, cultured foods such as sauerkraut and so on because they are probiotics rich foods.

As an example of African fermented drinks, we can find laban or Arabic yoghurt, ginger beer and palm wine. African fermented fruits and vegetables include fruit vinegar, hot pepper sauce, lamoun makbouss, mauoloh, msir, msalla, olive oil sedes, ogili, ogiri and hibiscus seed. How you combine these foods it´s up to you but as a useful tip, I will recommend having these products fresh or homemade if it’s possible to fully profit from all its properties.

If you want to look beautiful outside, start being beautiful and healthy inside. Your digestive system is the alma mater of your health, by taking proper care of your gut you will avoid future ailments and you will look radiant.