Prebiotic vs. Probiotic: What are the differences and similarities?
As both of these terms sound very similar, you might think there wouldn’t be much difference between the two. But, indeed, both of these supplements have very different roles in the digestive system or gut. To get you started, let’s look at what is prebiotic and probiotic.
What are Prebiotics?
Prebiotics are a type of fiber that is not digestible by the human body. Prebiotic fibers go through the small intestine undigested and are fermented when they reach the colon. They constitute several eatables, including but not limited to bananas, garlic, onions, the skin of apples, chicory root, and beans.
This fermentation process feeds helpful bacteria, including probiotic bacteria, into our digestive system and also increases the number of desirable bacteria. These bacteria help reduce the risk of diseases and result in overall better health.
What are Probiotics?
Probiotics are live bacteria that are beneficial for the human body. They are naturally created during the process of fermentation of foods like yogurt, sauerkraut, miso soup, kimchi, and others.
They are also available as added ingredients in foods like yogurt and health drinks, however, to fulfill your probiotic needs with no hassle, they are also available in pill form at seed.com. Seed probiotics are best rated probiotic supplements on the market that have the reputation of providing crucial systematic benefits to people.
Difference between prebiotics and probiotics:
To quickly get an understanding of the difference between prebiotics and probiotics, let’s look at a common metaphor. Imagine a garden where you’re planting new seeds. The seeds are the probiotic bacteria — while, on the other hand, the water and the fertilizer are prebiotics that helps the seeds flourish.
Another one of the differences between prebiotics and probiotics is in terms of their benefits. Let’s look at some of them.
Benefits of probiotics
General health
A 2017 review of 17 Cochrane reviews support the fact that probiotics provide several potential benefits to the human body. They can decrease the need for antibiotics, school absences from cold and flu, the incidence of ventilator-assisted pneumonia, gestational diabetes, and vaginal infections such as yeast infections. So, if you have been wondering if probiotics are good for you, they undoubtedly are.
Digestive health
There are several reports supporting the fact the probiotics help to improve the digestive health of many people. According to a 2017 Cochrane review, taking probiotics while using antibiotics reduces the risk of antibiotic-related diarrhea by as much as 60%. According to a 2014 analysis of 24 trials, probiotics help reduce the fatal disease called necrotizing enterocolitis in preterm infants.
Mental health
A smaller section of many pieces of research suggests that probiotics could be useful in improving mental health. According to a 2017 review, probiotics could reduce the signs of depression, however, there’s no proof that they can completely eliminate depression. It’s possible that this effect could be resulting from the link between gut and brain health.
Gastrointestinal health
Researches support the fact probiotics can show improvements in people with stomach or intestinal disorders. For example, a systematic review of trials suggests that probiotics help in improving the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome. However, due to several factors, the magnitude of this improvement could vary by a huge margin in many people.
Benefits of prebiotics
Considering the fact that prebiotics feeds the helpful bacteria in the gut, it should be obvious that the benefits of prebiotics are directly linked to the benefits of probiotics.
Prebiotics support a healthy gut, grant better general health, and also reduce the probability of antibiotic-related health problems.
Some other benefits of prebiotics, which are supported by researches, are improved calcium absorption and improved carbohydrate processing speed. They also enhance digestion and metabolism by supporting the probiotic growth of gut bacteria.
Probiotics are easier to lose
As probiotics are living bacteria present inside the body, it’s easier for them to die due to several factors like heat and stomach acid. Prebiotic fibers aren’t that fragile and usually survive such conditions.
If you’re taking probiotic supplements, it’s essential to make sure that the supplements you’re taking have living probiotic bacteria. All probiotic supplements aren’t created equally, so it’s essential to pick the correct one. Lucky for you, seed.com provides everything you’d need in prebiotic probiotic supplements in a convenient subscription.
How are prebiotics and probiotics similar?
Prebiotics act as the food for probiotics, so, it’s safe to say that they both work in conjunction with each other to provide collective benefits to the human body.
Lucky for you, you?d never have to worry about taking care of proper doses of prebiotics and probiotics to develop a balance between them. The Daily Synbiotic subscription provides a 2-in-1 package that fulfills your prebiotic probiotic supplement needs in a convenient manner.
How does Seed help you?
To free you up from the hassle of calculating the doses of prebiotics and probiotics supplements and to save you from the trouble of having to purchase separate doses of both of them, Seed’s Daily Synbiotic package provides a 2-in-1 nested capsule. This capsule consists of a larger prebiotic outer capsule with a smaller probiotic capsule sealed inside.
As you’re aware of the fragile nature of probiotic bacteria, it’s important to save them from abrasive stomach acid, digestive enzymes, and bile salts. The dual-layered technology of Seed probiotics helps fragile bacteria stay safe from these abrasive chemicals.
Daily Synbiotic is one of the best-rated probiotic supplements on the market. It’s time for you to start your monthly subscription right now and let Seed take care of improving your digestive health.
Affiliate Disclosure
This blog and Seed have an affiliate agreement. What this means is that if you decide to try their Daily Synbiotic treatment after clicking on the above link, I receive a small commission from the company for telling you about it. In no way will it affect the price you pay for the product. In other words, you won’t be able to get it cheaper if you don’t click on the link. However, if you do, you will be supporting this blog that aims to educate as many people as possible on health, nutrition, sleep, supplements, and other topics that allow you to be extraordinary.
