Probiotics

You may remember that I have been in hard fought battle with a sinus infection, two weeks on one type of antibiotic and overlapping three weeks on another. Being on such doses of antibiotics will generally behave in an unfriendly manner towards the friendly flora that inhabits one's gastrointestinal system. My gut flora gave it a good fight but as of Sunday the very last one was dead, dead, dead. And it was making me rather unhappy. Monday after work I went to Whole Foods to stock up on some new probiotics, acidophilus and that type of thing. Probiotic is a general term encompassing all those helpful bacteria. You can get them from any number of sources, yogurt, kefir, kombucha, saurkraut, miso paste, pretty much any naturally fermented foods that have not had their helpful bacteria strained off. Dannon has jumped on the bandwagon with their Activia yogurt; I prefer the less processed probiotics, though. I got two types in capsule form, four bottles of kefir, a quart and eight cups of yogurt, they even have little probiotic candy bars called attune (got three of those, too). As I was walking to the check out area of the store I happened past the beer cooler. I saw a clerk and asked if, by any chance, beer could be considered a probiotic? She smiled and said, I wish!

My wallet considerably lighter, I was shopping at Whole Paycheck after all, and I was on my way. I broke into a attune bar during the drive home (pretty tasty), had a couple capsules, a yogurt cup and glass of kefir once I got home and again after supper. I was wondering if you could OD on probiotics. I thought probably not, but really had nothing to base this determination on. Woke up this morning feeling considerably better. I believe I have reinstalled a complete battle force of probiotics over the last 18 hours. Which is a good thing since I still have another week or so of antibiotics left.

Some of the probiotics I listed above sound kind of nasty. Truly some are an acquired taste. Kombucha, for example, is not unlike drinking apple cider vinegar, only not as tasty. Kefir has the consistency of liquid yogurt and comes in all sorts of yummy flavors, peach is my favorite. Saurkraut? what goes better on a hot dog! And I've had some very tasty miso soups. One time I wanted to make a cheese sandwich but had no mayo, I used a very thin layer of miso paste, it was the best sandwich I've ever made, the miso gave it some zip. You can find most of these things at places like Trader Joe's and your regular supermarket, too, not just Whole Foods. Be good to your gut, give it some probiotics.