4 Easy Probiotic Sources at the Commissary

By Sarah Pflugradt

The probiotic buzz is here to stay, so settle in. If you haven’t paid any attention to eating probiotic foods, now might be the best time. If you’re a commissary shopper, read on to discover 4 easy probiotic sources at the commissary.

When you’re looking at the big picture — some call it the 10,000 foot view — the goal of anything to do with the -biotics is to keep your gut healthy. The status of your gut can affect your health in many ways, including brain health, immunity, and skin health to name a few. What you’re looking for is to have bacteria in your gut that is beneficial (so, good bacteria, not bad), but also diverse. This is where you see the best results.

If you’re a little fuzzy on the difference between prebiotics, probiotics, and yes — postbiotics, let’s refresh.

Prebiotics: This is the food for the bacteria in the gut. Think of this as feeding them the best food that is going to keep them healthy and strong…kind of like you’d feed someone you love. Love those bacteria and feed them well.

There is no need to overcomplicate this – eat fiber. That’s it. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics recommends 14 grams of fiber per 1000 calories that you eat. For women this is about 25 grams of fiber, but for men, it’s more like 38 grams per day.

Fiber Rules:

• Increase slowly
• Drink water as you add more fiber to your diet
• It’s okay to go over the minimum daily recommendations once your body adjusts to having a higher fiber diet

This is what you’re here for, right?

Probiotics are the live bacteria that are in your gut. You already have some in there, but there’s always room for more. Make it a gut party and the more diverse, the better. This means eating many different types of probiotics.

If you want complicated, you can start looking into specific strains of probiotics to find one that may help you with a certain condition. However, if you just want to improve your gut health, start with some probiotic foods.

You may not have heard of postbiotics, but here’s where gut health gets really interesting. Postbiotics are compounds that may just be responsible for all of the health benefits in the gut. When you feed your gut good fiber, it is fermented in the gut, and the result of that fermentation is the postbiotic.

The most popular postbiotic that you might hear mentioned is called butyrate, it’s a short chain fatty acid — when you produce this, good things are happening in your gut.

This is what you came for, so here we go.

Each commissary is different and I can’t guarantee that they will have all of these foods, but if they do, you’re in for a treat. Pick one of these up for a probiotic treat.

Yogurt is the easiest one to fit into your everyday diet. Before choosing just any old yogurt, look at the packaging or turn over and look in the ingredients list to see if says something like “contains live and active cultures” or “contains probiotic cultures.” That will let you know that the good bacteria is in there.

I will admit, kombucha is an acquired taste, but I love it, my husband loves it, and 1/3 of my kids loves it. That’s a total of 3/5 out of my house that drink kombucha — I can spin that math well.

Kombucha is a fermented tea. You could make your own, but if you look up what the SCOBY looks like (that’s your homework), you may not be able to. I prefer the stuff off the shelf, although I realize that I may not be getting the full probiotic party I would get from the fresh stuff.

A couple of notes here – you will have added sugar in kombucha, although 8 grams of added sugar (2 teaspoons) is typically what you’ll see. Sugar is necessary for fermentation, so it’s okay.

If you love pickles, you’ll love refrigerated sauerkraut. It’s nothing like the sauerkraut you find in jars or in shelf-stable packing (those of you in Germany know what I’m talking about). While those are delicious on a brat, it doesn’t contain the probiotics like the fresh stuff. When foods are heated to make them safe to stay on the shelf, it kills off the good bugs, so the refrigerated sauerkraut has all of the probiotics still alive.

These pack right here are actually still fermenting and have a one way valve that let’s the air release so the package doesn’t blow up – that’s smart. If you’re not sure what to do with sauerkraut, here are my suggestions:

• Eat with pierogies
• Add on top of mashed potatoes
• Mix in a salad
• Eat on a hot dog or a brat
• Eat plain in a bowl

Here’s where my honesty comes out – kimchi is an acquired taste, OR you either like it or you don’t. I’m not here saying that this should be your go to for probiotics, but if you like it — go for it!

Kimchi is also fermented cabbage, but it can be combined with other fermented vegetables, garlic, and spices. If you love kimchi, this is an excellent source of probiotics. You can add this to rice, stir fry, or eat it straight up in a bowl.

Try and include at least one source of probiotics in your diet each day to start building up your best community of helpful and diverse bacteria!