Fizzy drinks do more than make you BURP! by Elizabeth Brown, MS, RD

Drink this for more intelligence!

This past week was Fruit and Veggie Week. International Splurge Day was June 18th which is the same day as International Panic Day. If you splurged on fruit and veggies this week, then you have no need to panic. If you splurged on less “healthful” options, then hopefully you recognized World Sauntering Day, June 19th, and contemplated your “splurges” while sauntering about town.

On the 20th, give a shout out and enjoy an ice cream soda to balance your overindulgence of produce this past week. June 20th is Ice Cream Soda Day and National Hollerin’ Contest Day. Then on the 21st you can celebrate Finally Summer Day while acknowledging the first day of summer as you skate along the Santa Monica boardwalk and commemorate Go Skate Day, yay!

Mmmm, Fermented Foods! by Elizabeth Brown, MS, RD

Eat a BUG!

Last week we explored some of the rationale for probiotics, something people often take in supplement form after ingesting antibiotics. Interestingly, probiotics means “for life” and antibiotics means “against life.”

Since probiotic (good bacteria) research is fairly new and since not all good bacteria have been thoroughly studied, it is unlikely that any one probiotic supplement will provide all of the good bacteria you need to completely restore the symbiotic balance of life in the digestive system.

Friendly Gut Bugs by Elizabeth Brown, MS, RD

Probiotics for the health of it!

After a bout of antibiotic therapy for a sinus infection, I have been researching the benefits of probiotics, also known as “friendly bacteria.” Although we think of probiotics as the stuff we get in yogurt or from probiotic supplements, we actually have tons of friendly bacteria living in our digestive system all the time. Just to give you a frame of reference, we have ten trillion cells and about ten times that many gut bugs living harmoniously inside our digestive tract. There are at least 400 known species but how they all function is yet unknown.

I’ve been reading studies about probiotics for the past two weeks. I was hoping by now to tell you all there is to know about probiotics: what they are, where you get them, how much to consume, how often and why. Perhaps if I were working on my dissertation, in about five years I could expound upon the wonders of probiotics.