There’s no doubt about it – having a regular intake of probiotics is beneficial to your health…especially for your digestive health. Whenever you’re shopping for probiotic supplements, you should always look at the label. You see, there are 2 main groups of probiotics – they are Lactobacillus as well as Bfidobacterium. Both of these 2 groups have different species in them, and each species have different strains.

BUT here’s the bottom line – you may be taking in Lactobacillus acidophilis, Bifidobacterium bifidus, or Saccharomyces boulardii yeas, but here’s the bottom line – you need them for a healthy and optimized digestive system.

If you are thinking what foods are excellent sources of probiotics, then you should read this article. I’ll be showing you what foods are rich in probiotics…foods and dishes that deserve to be in your daily menu…

Yogurt and Kefir - First on our list are yogurt and kefir. After all, they’re 2 of the most popular foods that are taken by millions of people around the globe, which are oozing in probiotics. There are many yogurt brands out there like Activia, which contain a lot of Bifidobacterium animalis – this is a probiotic that speeds up the digestion process.

However, you should make sure that the yogurt brand you’re eating contains “live” or “active” probiotics. You should always check the label for those 2 words. It means you have living and healthy bacteria in your yogurt. Lactobacillus bulgaricus, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Streptococcus thermophilus and bifidobacteria – these are some of the probiotics found in yogurt.

Kefir, for those who don’t know it, this is a creamy dairy drink that is similar to yogurt. However, it has the probiotics which are not found in yogurt – and that is Lactobacillys caucasus.

Cheese - this is another excellent source of probiotics. However, again, you should check the label. You should choose a cheese brand that has live and active micro organisms and probiotics. That includes Kraft’s LiveActive – these are natural cheese snacks that are oozing with Bifidobacterium lactis. There yogurt cheese brands out there which also contain live and cultured Lactobacillus acidophilus as well as bifidobacterium. Blue and aged cheeses also fall on this category.

Other Dairy Products - buttermilk and acidophilus milk – these dairy products are produced through fermentation – this is a process where lactic acid bacteria break down the sugar content or lactose into lactic acid.

Fermented Foods - Now don’t be led to think that only dairy foods are rich in probiotics. You see, there are a lot of non-dairy BUT fermented foods like saukerkat (that’s fermented cabbage), kimchi (Korean spicy cabbage), tempeh (fermented soybean product) as well as soy sauce. But yet again, you should check the label when buying fermented food products – you should know by now what words to look for – live and active!

This is by no means an exhaustive list. There are truckloads of different foods and dishes that are excellent sources of probiotics. Be sure NOT just to check them out but to add them to your diet as well.