Can You Get Enough Probiotics From Food

Fermented foods vs. probiotic supplements compared.

Hi, this is Dr. Ruscio.  Let’s discuss the question:

Can you obtain adequate probiotic health benefits from probiotic-rich foods like fermented foods sauerkraut, kimchi, kombucha, miso, or kefir?

The answer is yes, probiotic foods are definitely an important aspect to a healthy diet and—in my opinion—you should at least attempt to routinely consume them, as long as you aren’t having any kind of symptomatic reaction when consuming a given fermented food. These do seem to be healthy and health promoting because of the live bacteria they contain, and because these beneficial bacteria tend to have a favorable impact on our digestive systems. The health benefits of probiotics include being anti-inflammatory, helping repair leaky gut, and also providing or assisting in the creation of certain vitamins. So consuming fermented foods and the live cultures they contain is good health practice. This practice seems to have dropped off in Western societies, even though more traditional cultures appear to have made fermented foods a routine part of their diet.

Do Fermented Foods Have a Clinical Dose of Probiotics?

Now, a deeper question is, can you obtain a clinical dose of probiotics from fermented foods?

How we define “enough” is a challenge. There’s not necessarily one magical intake of probiotics in the diet that is going to be right for everyone. So perhaps another way we can look at this question is, if you have a gut health imbalance or symptoms—if you have irritable bowel syndrome, if you have reflux, if you have a presumed overgrowth of bacteria or fungus, or even a diagnosed imbalance, or something like inflammatory bowel disease—can you get a clinically impactful amount of probiotics for gut health from your diet?

This is where the answer leans in the direction of no. When you look at most of the research studies that have used probiotic supplements, the amount contained in these trials is actually significantly north of what you can obtain from foods. Now, this is not to say that we should just throw the fermented foods out the window. They are a foundation, but supplemental probiotics do seem to have merit as something to try for a term to overcome imbalances.

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Fermented Foods vs. Probiotic Supplements Compared

Let me show you an actual breakdown so you can see the food sources of probiotics and the probiotic bacteria they contain. This chart shows the amount of probiotic bacteria, and then the amount of bacteria in a similar probiotic supplement. This is quite enlightening.

• Sauerkraut Probiotics: 1 cup contains about three billion CFU or colony forming units.
  • How much would be found in a typical probiotic capsule? For our Lacto-Bifido blend probiotic, one cup of sauerkraut equates to 1/8th of a capsule.
  • Considering this, we see that we’re really not getting a clinical dose from the sauerkraut. Knowing that one may use anywhere from two to four probiotic supplement capsules in a day, one cup of sauerkraut equaling 1/8 of a capsule falls a little bit short of what may be needed in order to create a robust clinical effect for gut health rebalancing, healing, and symptoms.
• Probiotic Yogurt: 1 cup containing 2.5 billion CFU = about 1/10th of a capsule.
• Lacto-Fermented Pickles: Each pickle contains 1.3 billion CFU = about 0.05 of a capsule.
• Probiotic Kefir: 2.5 billion CFU -= about 1/10th of a capsule.
• Kimchi: (the winner) 1/2 cup containing 11.5 billion CFUs = about one half of a capsule of our Lacto-Bifido blend probiotic.

Probiotics vs. Fermented Foods Recommendation

Certainly fermented foods are part of and promote a healthy diet and gut health. However, we may not be able to get everything that we need—at least from a perspective of trying to remedy, rebalance, and heal the gut—from fermented foods alone.

This is where, at least in the short term, considering a probiotic supplement may really amplify what you are able to do with your diet. Adding probiotic supplements will ideally help:

• to combat something like small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO)
• to remedy the symptoms of IBS
• to help reduce leaky gut
• to help facilitate healthy intestinal motility
• to help support balance in the microbiota

So, we want to do both. But it does look like, for clinical effect, that fermented foods may fall a little bit short from ideal. I think it’s reasonable to start with bringing these fermented foods into your diet, and then reevaluate. If you’re not feeling better, then consider adding a well-formulated probiotic supplement. This is Dr. Ruscio and I really hope this helps you get healthy and get back to your life.