The Complete Prebiotic and Probiotic Health Guide: A Vegetarian Plan for Balancing Your Gut Flora

In recent years, there has been a great deal of research exploring the relationship between maintaining an optimal balance of healthy bacteria in our gut, known as "healthy gut", and the impact of a healthy gut on overall health and disease prevention and treatment.

There are two bacteria key to a healthy gut: probiotics and prebiotics. Probiotics are healthy bacteria that naturally live and flourish in the colon of our digestive systems. Prebiotics, on the other hand, are non-digestible carbohydrates that also live in the digestive system where they act as "food" for the beneficial probiotics. Unfortunately, there are some lifestyle choices, such as poor diet and overuse of antibiotics, that can seriously compromise healthy levels of probiotics and prebiotics.

The Complete Prebiotic and Probiotic Health Guide is a guide to achieving and maintaining an optimal balance of prebiotics and probiotics in the digestive system. Written by one of North America's leading gastroenterologists, the book explains what and exactly how probiotics work, as well as how they are linked to diseases like inflammatory bowel disease and urinary tract infections. The health benefits of prebiotics are also covered and their role in diseases such as colon cancer, cardiovascular disease, obesity, weight loss and calcium absorption.

To get you off to the best possible start with respect to both prebiotics and probiotics, The Complete Prebiotic and Probiotic Health Guide has 175 tempting recipes that promote optimum amounts of each. Foods like yogurt, kefr, sauerkraut and miso soup are covered for their positive probiotic benefts, and such foods as asparagus, chicory root, garlic, onions, and dietary fiber, which optimize prebiotics, are also covered.

This is a comprehensive and practical choice for making important changes that can have a profound effect on health and well-being.

Dr. Maitreyi Raman, MD, MSc, FRCPC, is a gastroenterologist and physician nutritionist. She is the medical director of the Southern Alberta Home Enteral and Parenteral Program. Angela Sirounis, BSc, RD, is a clinical dietitian at Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary, Alberta. Jennifer Shrubsole, BSc, RD, is a clinical dietitian at Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary, Alberta.