Top 10 Probiotic Boosters

Hey guys, Dr. Josh Axe here along with Jordan Rubin. Welcome to Ancient Nutrition Today. We've got a great broadcast. We're going to be talking about probiotics and how to boost probiotics in your body and transform your microbiome. Also, we'd love to say hey to all of you viewers out there. Hey, we're going to say hey to many of you. Let us know the city you're from, the state you're from, the country you're from, and we'd love to say hey to you. We know we've got people watching from all over the world. And I'll tell you, Jordan, more people need to know about probiotics. I know you've got an incredible story overcoming Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, many other digestive issues, and a big part of it was probiotics.

Absolutely. You know, when I was just starting, barely anyone knew what probiotics were. To think that germs could be good was so far out of the box. Now probiotics are everywhere, even the largest consumer packaged goods companies in the world promote probiotics during the TV shows we watch, right? When you see a probiotic commercial on ESPN, you know that it's arrived. But here's what I want everyone to understand. Probiotics are primarily focused on boosting immunity and digestive health.

Yeah.

But we know there's so many other areas, athletic performance, skin, hormones, adrenal, thyroid. I mean, if you start going down the list, certainly Candida overgrowth, etc. But what we want you to understand first is, how do you who are watching know if you need a probiotic boost?

Yeah.

Bottom line is, if you were born via C-section, which is happening more and more, if you were not breastfed long enough, if you ever took one dose, one dose of antibiotics orally or topically, you need a probiotic boost. If you've ever had conventional dairy, meat, eggs, eggs, dairy, meat, eggs, or eggs, you're getting antibiotics in there, right?

Yeah.

If you've ever consumed sugar, if you consume caffeine, we don't think coffee is bad but it does damage probiotics. If you have consumed medications such as oral contraceptives, if you've ever gotten mad at anyone, and I'm not kidding, if you breathe in toxic air, if you put on skin and body care products or use hand sanitizer, you need a probiotic boost. So now that everyone knows it's all of you. Let's talk about how to boost your probiotics in ways that you probably never thought of.

Yeah. You know, and as Jordan and I are talking about, there are so many people today, pretty much everybody, who's deficient in probiotics. And part of it is because we live in this sanitary bubble in the homes we live in. I mean, when people, you know, historically, people would be outside a lot more, people would be tending farms. I mean, the percentage of farmers is like, you know, I don't know what the number is. I think it's 40% or 60% down to less than 2% now. We used to be intact with the earth, we used to be eating locally. That rarely happens anymore, and those were big areas where we got probiotics on a regular basis. Also, in my book, I actually talk about refrigeration, one of the most damaging inventions ever to our health because we stopped relying on fermented foods. So we're going to talk about today— I want to start off saying hey to all of you viewers out there. But listen, there are millions of people that are probiotic deficient right now. I shouldn't say millions, I should say billions. Help us spread the word right now. We're going to teach you today. The top 10 probiotic foods that everybody should be eating. Take a second right now, punch your share button, and if you're loving this live broadcast, you can click the love button here as well. Well, Jordan, we've got people from all over. We've got Pat Yancey watching from Prineville, Oregon. Hey, Pat, thanks for joining us here today. We've got Rita Martins watching from Saskatchewan, Canada. Hey, Rita, thanks for watching here today. We've got Melissa Gonzalez from Santa Maria, California. Kenneth Bui from Atlanta, Georgia. We've got Tonya Pierce from Nashville, Tennessee. Bethany from Wichita, Kansas. And Alejandro Ortiz from Prescott, Arizona.

You pronounced that really well, Alejandro. That's a cool name. That's like the Zorro type. It is.

We love Zorro. All right, guys. So we're going to jump in and start talking about probiotics here. I'm going to dive into number 1 here, sauerkraut. This is one of my favorite foods. Jordan, I know we both love the brand Farmhouse, which we've both had. My wife loves the dill pickle Farmhouse. Honey, if you're watching. But sauerkraut here is loaded with probiotics and specifically a species called Lactobacillus plantarum. And this is a probiotic that has been shown to be very beneficial for nutrient absorption and helping repopulate good bacteria in the gut lining. Also, sauerkraut has And Jordan, I'll have you talk about this maybe with your next one, but the power of sour, that sour flavor, it's something we're missing in our diet, hence the name sauerkraut. But sauerkraut comes from fermented cabbages. And we also know that cabbage is high in vitamin C. We know it's also a good source of other vitamins and minerals and organic acids, which we could talk about. But again, sauerkraut, a great and amazing superfood to be getting in your diet. And just some recipes, I love doing this with Some grass-fed chicken sausage or grass-fed burgers, it's great with a side of those. But getting one serving a day of sauerkraut is great for your health and can help boost up your probiotics.

Absolutely. Had some last night. There's a local farm, they call Todd the Fermented Farmer, so we were opening up our jars trying the different versions. Fermented vegetables are wonderful, they're affordable, and they're good for almost everything. Miso is number 2. Miso is what they put in your soup. where there's sort of little seaweed floating around in Japanese restaurants. Miso is fermented soy. Now, I know that soy is getting a bad rap, but soy and miso can be fermented up to like years.

Yeah.

And what you're getting is powerful peptide proteins that support the gut and certain microorganisms. The cool thing about miso, you still get the benefits even when you heat it. So, some of these foods boost your probiotics and they— it's not even a direct result of consuming a probiotic. So, miso is a fermented food. Great for the gut, great for hormones. You just need a little bit in some warm water. I like drinking miso broth. It's really, really awesome. So try to consume a little more miso. It lasts a really long time, available at almost any health food store or progressive grocery, really great.

Awesome. The other species here or another superfood here, which we have several things in here, we've got yogurt, kefir, and masala. We could talk about lassi, but fermented dairy products.

Yeah.

Jordan, I know that this is something that transformed the health of my own mom. In fact, my mom was having issues with chronic constipation. She started adding in goat's milk kefir into her diet along with some flax oil and flax meal and really changed her overall bowel health. And so again, we know that this is great. And we talked previously, Jordan, about Greek yogurt or low-fat specifically. When you're buying kefir or yogurt products especially, You want to make sure they come from grass-fed cows, ideally A2 animals, so it could be goat or sheep. And also, you want to make sure it's not low-fat. You want to make sure it's the real deal there and ideally certified organic. We're going to jump into apple cider vinegar here. As Jordan and I are talking about though, probiotics are key to your health. Listen, if you are struggling with any type of digestive issue, it can start in the gut. Any type of immune-related problem, that can start in the gut, even joint issues, brain issues. It's all about transforming the health of your gut. And we know today that probiotics or this really system in your body or all the probiotics that line your gut, they're called the microbiome. Some doctors are even calling it its own separate organ within the body. We've got to repopulate these probiotics to be healthy. We want to teach people how to do that. Take a second right now if you're on mission with us and press your share button right now and help us spread the word. On how to use probiotics as natural medicine to repopulate the gut. Jordan, number 4 superfood here, apple cider vinegar.

Now, apple cider vinegar is a raw food and if you get it with the mother, so unfiltered, it actually is a living culture. Apple cider vinegar has acetobacter and also produces various organic acids such as acetic acid and malic acid. Apple cider vinegar is an old-time folk remedy. You know what I love to use apple cider vinegar for? People that have heartburn that think they have— they need to suppress their stomach acid, using apple cider vinegar before meals helps to increase your own digestive juices. I saw a commercial for one of the proton pump inhibitors.

Yeah.

It's so sad when they say, we can suppress your stomach acids for 24 hours. That's the worst possible thing. You're suppressing bone growth, you're suppressing all kinds of things, but apple cider vinegar With water, warm water, a little bit of honey is an old-time remedy. Dr. Jarvis wrote the book, I believe, Folk Remedies, where he talked about apple cider vinegar, certainly Paul and Patricia Bragg. Apple cider vinegar is really great. You know what else is awesome? Coconut vinegar.

Oh, yeah.

Coconut vinegar comes from the sap of coconut palms. That can be really, really great. So these are great for your gut. They help lower the colonic pH and they're really good for a lot of things including blood sugar.

Yeah, great stuff. So apple cider vinegar, you know, and it's beneficial for so many things in the body. One question here we have from somebody is, how often do you take it and how much do you take at a time? From Ling So. You know, we would typically recommend probably a teaspoon to a tablespoon, you know, before each meal is a great remedy. So typically about a teaspoon, a lot of people could do a tablespoon sort of with the meal or before a meal is a great way to do it. And a great thing to do is also do what Jordan did, add a little bit of honey, just drink that as a beverage throughout the day. It's absolutely delicious there, guys. All right, we're going to jump in here and talk about natto.

Ding, ding, ding. Did anyone guess it? So out of all these 10 probiotic-boosting foods, natto has the highest amount of probiotics. We've actually studied 3 separate nattos from around the world and one of them had over a trillion CFUs of probiotics per serving. Now, it does vary, but I have never seen anything that high. We've tested yogurt kefir. Sauerkraut can get pretty high too, but that's— isn't that awesome?

That's amazing.

I mean, and you think about it, natto is a condiment that people in Japan and Indonesia use every day. This is a triple threat. Natto has probiotics, and my favorite probiotic, Bacillus subtilis natto. It's got vitamin K2, MK-7 or menaquinone-7, which is great for the heart and the bones. And it's got nattokinase for the arteries. Only problem, it stinks. Yes, it stinks, literally stinks.

It doesn't—

it's not bad, it just stinks.

And it doesn't taste the best either.

It doesn't, but natto rocks if you want to build your bones, your joints, your immune system. It is the winner of the highest probiotics in any food on the board.

You know, Jordan, you literally said natto has trillions. Think about this, a lot of times people get concerned or we both get questions, how many probiotics is too many probiotics for people? Is it 100 too much? Is it, you know, or 100 billion? I mean, when someone's taking a probiotic supplement, how much should they be taking or is that not important?

This would be a long program in and of itself, but I believe the type of probiotic you take is more important than how much. Here's the cool thing. Whereas the lactobacilli, you need a lot because they tend to be killed off by heat and our bodies are 98.6 degrees, so if you need something refrigerated all the time, to remain potent, what happens when you consume it?

Yeah.

Acids, because we have digestive juices, different pressure, pH, temperature, all that. So, you need a lot and it's kind of like the sea turtle story. I grew up in Florida. We learned as children that a mama sea turtle lays thousands of eggs.

Yeah.

A certain percentage of them don't come out of the egg, right? They don't hatch. Some of them make it halfway to the water, some make it to the water, birds eat some, and 2, out of those several thousand actually become adult turtles.

Yeah.

Probiotics are like that. You take a whole lot so that a little can get in. And here's the cool thing, one probiotic cell multiplies every 20 minutes in the right environment. They call it the vegetative form. Soil-based organisms such as Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus coagulans, and Bacillus clostridium can be effective in 500 million CFUs. But here's how important that is. I know this is mathematical. If the average probiotic today touts 50 billion and we're talking about 500 million, that's 100 times different. So I believe that some soil-based organisms as found in natto could be 100 times more potent because stomach acid doesn't kill them, heat doesn't kill them, bile doesn't kill them. You can microwave them and that's why they're soil-based organisms.

Wow.

It's really, really cool. So it's not a numbers game as much as it is Understanding the source, and of course, food is key. If you're consuming a probiotic that is a fermented food, you're even better.

Yeah. So when you're getting probiotic supplements, look for species like Lactobacillus plantarum as a good one from a food standpoint. But even more importantly are the SBOs that are like Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus coagulans, Bacillus clausii, as Jordan's talking about. Jordan, next thing here, tiger nuts. All right. So now, this isn't actually a probiotic, is it?

It's a prebiotic. And some people would argue that you're better off taking foods that build your gut full of probiotics. And actually, 3, actually 4 on this board do that. Apple cider vinegar does not give you probiotics, it creates an environment that is conducive. The organic acids and the nutrients are really, really important. But I love tiger nut. It's not really a nut, it's a tuber. The name was certainly cool.

Yeah.

I was driving home from Northern California. on a trip to a farm and I went in and I saw this tigernut horchata and I tried it and I just thought it was so cool. These are tubers that are grown all around the world, Africa, they're grown in South America, they're grown in Eastern Europe, and they are a good source of resistant starch and fiber and they are shown to boost your levels of bifidobacteria 2 to 3-fold.

Wow.

And they taste good, they have good fats, I really love it, I eat tigernuts. We're now formulating products using tiger nut, which is pretty exciting. So check it out, go to your local health food store and ask for it. For a while, resistant starch was popular in the form of potato starch, but that's exactly what I told people not to consume with a gut issue is potatoes because of the disaccharides. So tiger nut is a really good food and it's suitable for a lot of different diet programs, even a paleo-type diet.

Yeah, I love tiger nuts and I think that, you know, if you're out there looking for a good nut milk or milk alternative, Tigernut milk is actually a great thing to check out there as well, as we talked about, as well as the flour for cooking and baking. All right, kvass here, one of my absolute favorites. This is something I currently have in my kitchen, and specifically I have beet kvass. We know beets actually help increase NO2 in the body, nitric oxide. This is one of the reasons why a lot of athletes today are starting to do beetroot juice and beetroot powder is because of all of— because of the way it actually helps increase Nitric oxide in the body, which helps oxygenate your body. It actually increases endurance, increases stamina. Kvas is great for that reason, but also it's just a great form of probiotics. Specifically, Lactobacillus plantarum is found in beets or beetroot juice. And so, kvas is a great way of getting the benefits of juicing—

Absolutely.

Along with the benefits of getting high doses of probiotics. So, it's a great gut shot to do. Jordan, is typically— I don't typically drink a whole bottle of kvass. What I tend to do—

Unless it's a bet of some kind or a dare.

Exactly. What I tend to do is just do a swig before a meal, and I do that before every meal, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, is I do a big swig of kvass. And it's a great way to ignite and support your digestive system. And I want to take a view here of what everybody is saying here, getting some questions here as well. Okay. One question, it looks like we are getting some questions, Jordan, about tiger nuts, about what it is exactly, that versus potato starch, why tiger nuts are better. What's your opinion, a little more detail on tiger nuts?

Well, tiger nut is a food. Potato starch is really a starch. It's not a whole food. It's low in fiber and super low in nutrients. Tiger nut has vitamins, minerals, good fats, fiber, and resistant starch, and it can be consumed. They're little small... nut-looking things. You can consume them whole. They have them peeled because the whole takes a long time to chew, nothing wrong with that. They've got flour, they've got oil, and they've got now in some trail mixes. So tiger nuts are very small. They're about the size of a— I would say a peanut really. I mean, they're not the same shape, but they're really small and they taste pleasantly sweet, but the resistant starch feeds the good microbes.

Yeah.

An incomplete food. Potato starch, especially if it's not organic, it's just a waste. So sorry, whoever thought that was a good idea. In my opinion, it's not the best way to get the prebiotic effect.

Great. We got a couple more questions here. I want to say this though, as Jordan and I are talking about, you know, if somebody is struggling with digestive issues today, it can be caused from a lack of probiotics in the body. In fact, Jordan, there's even studies on weight loss and probiotics supporting that. Nutrient absorption, Jordan, I had a patient years ago, her name was Miriam.

Yeah.

I had a patient who came into my office, she was getting vitamin B shots every week for 2 years and her B levels every time I tested still weren't normal. I put her on a diet really, really high in probiotics, actually some ones that you created, and she started doing them. 3 months later, we went back and her B levels were completely normal. And there are studies that show that if you take probiotics, it's probably more effective than taking multivitamins or a B vitamin and actually increasing your levels of nutrients in your body. Just think about this, the importance of probiotics also comes to your ability to absorb and to digest those nutrients. Jordan and I both said this, you aren't what you eat, you are what you digest. More people need probiotics. So hey, help us spread that message right now. Take a second, if you would, to be on mission with us. Punch that share button if you feel like, you know what, more people need to know this information, or if you're surprised by Some of what you're hearing today. Jordan, question here from 2 people who are asking, both Lisa and Janelle and Sherry, is kombucha a good fermented food?

Kombucha is a good fermented food. It's definitely tasty. I could have put it on the list, but really, and you might disagree, I think kombucha is more of a fun food than a therapeutic food. Folks, just so you know, because I don't want to be... anything but upfront. I love kombucha mixed with chia and I've been consuming kombucha as a treat for years and years, but I've not found anyone personally, not saying that there's not anecdotal information, that has their health transformed by kombucha. And one of the main reasons, it is very high in sugar and I believe higher than the labels indicate.

I agree.

And so, I think kombucha is the coolest soda out there, it's really wonderful as a treat. I love it when I want something sweet, but I would not call it a therapeutic food, certainly not when it stacks up to these.

Absolutely. So, Jordan, let's jump into bacteriophages, then actually I got a great question here I want you to answer afterwards.

Absolutely. Bacteriophage is, believe it or not, are you ready for this? A friendly virus. It's actually a virus that attacks E. coli. So, if you look up bacteriophage online, Wikipedia, etc., It's found in certain cheeses, it's found in your tears, and in the ocean. We don't get enough of it and there are entire clinics that practice bacteriophage therapy. But here's the cool thing, very small doses of bacteriophage can increase your own probiotics 7 to 8-fold without bloating, gas, etc., because it's not a fiber, right? So your body doesn't have to adjust to it. Check out bacteriophage or phage, I think you'll really, really like it. means killer. So bacteriophage is a killer of bacteria, but what it does, it rids your body of excess E. coli to allow your probiotics to grow.

Pretty cool. Awesome. Next one here is cultured whey. And Jordan, this is something I know that you've drinking plenty of over the years. And you may not know this about Jordan, but Jordan actually owns thousands of acres of organic land in Missouri, sort of the border of Arkansas, beautiful land in the Ozarks area, and Jordan Also owns lots of cows and sheep and goats. And one of the products Jordan has created in the past has been cultured whey. And we know that whey has actually been known as a superfood. It was recommended by Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine. And so whey is— a lot of times today when people hear of whey, Jordan, they think of whey protein. We're not talking about whey protein here, we're talking about cultured whey. Really a probiotic superfood, right?

Absolutely. Cultured whey acts as both a prebiotic and a probiotic, provides lactic acid which is an organic acid, vitamins, minerals, and hydration. So it's really, really great to boost your gut. Some doctors we know put people on a cleanse, a whey cleanse or what they call a suero cleanse. It's been a very successful product. It's also great to do for rehydration as I mentioned and refreshment. If you can tolerate dairy, Cultured whey is amazing.

Absolutely. Last one here, bone broth. Actually, before we get that one, Jordan, I've got a question here from Nicole. What is the best thing on this board in your mind for Candida or maybe your top 2 or 3?

Okay, absolutely. I'm going to share about bone broth and I'm going to do that specifically and we maybe can go over some other conditions. This is going to surprise you and it surprised me. There's a study going on right now at a university and I've been privy to some of the preclinical results, bone broth properly prepared has actually increased probiotic levels in the gut.

Wow.

It's positioning bone broth as a prebiotic or microbiome booster. So now, we know that when you go on a bone broth cleanse, you're starving some of the bad bacteria. And that's probably the mechanism of action, but that's really great because we all hear bone broth is good for the gut. Now, we know why. So bone broth... can grow your probiotics and it doesn't have any probiotics, doesn't have any fiber, doesn't have any resistant starch. It just does so many good things. One of them is as a probiotic promotant. So, back to the question, what 3 would I recommend for Candida? Bone broth is number one.

Wow.

Because what is the dictum of medicine? First, do no harm, right?

Yes.

So, before you kill Candida, you've got to not feed it. Bone broth has nothing in it to feed Candida and it can do so many things for your body to fight it, including arm your immune system.

Love it.

Bone broth is really, really great. I actually think that kvass, I mean, I could go through all these, but kvass with its lactic acid, lactic acid kills Candida. Kvass could be really good. Go to this side of the board and I'm going to go natto. Bacillus subtilis natto creates what they call a zone of inhibition which doesn't allow Candida to live. Bone broth, kvass, natto. Natto, you can get it in Asian market or some fine health food stores. Kvass, you now can get at health food stores. Easy to make yourself, it really is, and affordably. Bone broth, same thing. Get going and start to lower your Candida levels by boosting your good probiotics.

Love it. Great comments here. A question here from Magdalena, Jordan. What probiotics or what would you recommend specifically for somebody who keeps getting UTIs?

That's a great question. Now, UTIs are very related, in my opinion, to an imbalance in the gut. Any of these are really, really good. I would try to consume a few of these. I actually believe that probiotic-rich foods are better for your urinary tract or more important on an ongoing basis than cranberry, etc. Now, cranberry and mannose and blueberry are good when you have a UTI. Ongoing, getting your probiotics is really important. Years ago, there was someone I was working with with interstitial cystitis, which is awful, and they had great results from probiotics when nothing else would work.

Wow, awesome. So Jordan's saying, if that's you, blueberries, cranberries especially, some just fresh-squeezed lemon juice and water, D-mannose as a supplement, doing herbal teas, these things are beneficial, but loading up on the probiotics, get some sauerkraut in your diet, get some kvass in there. And get bone broth. Those are all great things to be adding in there as well. Heather asked a question, what are the best things for leaky gut? I'd love to take that one and answer that. You know, for leaky gut, I would say my number one thing by far, Jordan, is bone broth. When it comes to leaky gut, we know the amino acids, proline, hydroxyproline, glycine, glutamine, these are the amino acids that are high in bone broth. Bone broth, they're the most therapeutic for the gut lining. So bone broth, hands down, if you've got leaky gut, should be the first thing you're getting in your diet every day. What I do is I do 2 scoops of a bone broth powder every morning in my morning smoothie. I did it this morning as well for breakfast. You're a genius, Josh. So that would be number 1. Number 2, I would say, I mean, again, I would probably do kvass or after that sauerkraut on there. I think kvass and sauerkraut both. are going to be tremendous for the gut lining. And then really just eating a diet that's, you know, in the Crock-Pot, you know, a lot of chicken soups and nourishing things like that for the body. Those are some of the best things you're going to want to consider for leaky gut. And then as another supplement, I would take a quality probiotic supplement that has those SBO organisms that we talked about.

Absolutely.

Great. All right, guys. Well, one last question here for you, Jordan. Any ideas on the best probiotics for shingles or in general for fighting shingles viruses, the immune system, that type of thing?

Yeah, I'm going to keep going to the well here, but when it comes to viruses, particularly lipid envelope viruses, some of the viruses that cause chickenpox or shingles, soil-based organisms, Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus coagulans, Bacillus licheniformis, these Actually produce compounds that destroy the outer coating of viruses.

Wow.

Really, really important. So, you're looking at natto or you're looking at a supplement with SBOs. And folks, I can't say this enough, all these foods are great for the immune system, but bone broth is really, really important because it hydrates you, nourishes you, boosts your immune system, all that together. But all of these foods, I can't emphasize enough, if you are depressed. If you've got hormone imbalance, thyroid, adrenal, leaky gut, Crohn's disease, rheumatoid arthritis, if your child has autism, it is so important for pervasive developmental disorders to get your gut balanced. If you've used a lot of antibiotics, Lyme disease, especially those who are undergoing antibiotic treatment for a long time. If you have Candida overgrowth, UTIs, you need to boost your probiotics and today, perhaps for the first time, You see 10 powerful foods or substances that you can get every day, keep in your fridge or your pantry to boost your probiotics and transform your life.

Yeah, absolutely. So guys, hey, help us spread the word about this video right now that we've just done, you know, talking about the top 10 probiotics that everybody needs to be getting in their diet. Hey, take a second right now and punch your share button. And if you've enjoyed this live training and want Jordan and I to continue to do more, Take a second now and punch that love button here as well. And Jordan, I know we've got some great topics coming up next week. It's been Jordan Rubin, myself, Dr. Josh Axe, talking about the top 10 probiotic-rich foods. Have a great weekend and we'll see you on Monday. Hi, Dr. Axe here. I want to say thanks so much for checking out this YouTube video and also don't forget to subscribe if you want to get more great content on things like herbs, essential oils, natural remedies and how to use food as medicine. Also, check out more of our content on my YouTube channel. Thanks for watching.