- Probiotics have become commonplace when looking to achieve a healthy diet.
- Prebiotics are just as important as probiotics in building a healthy gut.
- Researchers from San José State University have found five foods that naturally provide the biggest prebiotic “punch” for good gut health.
- Onions and dandelion greens are among these five prebiotic-rich foods.
Over the last few years, the term “probiotics” has become commonplace when talking about one’s diet. A global industry survey found 80% of consumers take a probiotic every day.
Store shelves are full of probiotic
In a show about a
And now, new research recently presented by San José State University at NUTRITION 2023, the flagship annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition, reports the five foods that naturally provide the biggest prebiotic “punch.”
For this study, researchers evaluated the prebiotic information of 8,690 different types of foods contained in the Food and Nutrient Database for Dietary Studies.
Scientists reported about 37% of foods in the database contained prebiotics. The five foods with the highest prebiotic content — between 79-243 milligrams of prebiotic per gram of food — were:
“We weren’t surprised to find that these foods ‘packed the greatest prebiotic punch,’ per se, being as our previous literature review had shown these foods were high in prebiotics,” said Cassandra Boyd, master’s student and presenting author of the study, who conducted this research with Dr. John Gieng, assistant professor of nutritional sciences in the Department of Nutrition, Food Science & Packaging at San José State University.
“That being said, we were surprised by how relatively small portions…
Read the full article here