prebiotics; anyone take these too?

Well, you asked if anyone feels strongly about this issue, and I actually do. Having said this, you have to make your OWN decision, bc I will go on a rant! Briefly put, a lot of probiotics list FOS as an added ingredient. My understanding is that FOS, for example, is a prebiotic.

I am a c. diff. survivor, and I have found that probiotics with FOS tend to give me more diarrhea, vs. just probiotics alone. Ok, maybe I won't go on a rant; I'm too tired. FOS means fructooligosaccharides, and my spell checker says I'm spelling that wrong. I think that essentially, FOS is a kind of fiber that is supposed to help you digest probiotics, but my guess is, that would have to be in a fairly healthy digestive system, which mine isn't.

I think I'll reserve my rant for Kombucha. Everyone kept telling me, "Drink Kombucha!!" over and over again, until you could almost hear the Hollywood theme music, KOMBUCHA!!! The dam--- (oh, excuse me)! stuff made me really, really sick, along with the stupid FOS and MOS they keep adding to the probiotics. So neither prebiotics nor Kombucha works for me. Otherwise, my guess is, FOS might be healthy for certain individuals. It not only occurs in store-bought probiotics, but also in vegetables like dandelion greens and certain types of artichokes. You can also get a kind of fiber, inulin, that contains it. My guess is that the healthiest source if it would be vegetables.

I would also say, "beware of yeast." Kombucha, for example, is a kind of (if you ask me) moldy yeast. S. Boulardii is a healthier form of yeast, although, in my case, the S. Boulardii without the MOS worked much better for me than the one with (made by Jarrow). So yeast is another kind of probiotic, fermented culture thingie.

One food item that works fairly well for me (as long as I take Enzymedica's Lacto before I drink it) is goat-milk kefir. I'm allergic to milk, but I'm guessing the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. I would recommend taking probiotics, drinking a lot of plain, goat milk kefir, or, if you really can't do dairy, trying water kefir.

A lot of people also swear by lacto-fermented veggies, like sauerkraut.

That's my rant, ha ha!

Margaret

Try putting some pureed pineapple is his kefir, unsweetened and fresh if you can get it. It has some enzymes in it that are helpful.

Margaret, I wonder if it's the alcohol in Kombucha that affects you. I can only have a little at a time because of that. The one time I drank a whole bottle, I felt it for several days after.

What about honey? Can you add honey?

Margaret

Yes! Or, OOPS, I forgot my fatty acids, probiotics, and etc.

Margaret