How to Choose the Right Probiotic for You?
To do that, you need to research your personal microbiome, which might not be a viable option, as it can be expensive. Bacterial strain combinations, delivery mechanisms, a person's microbiome (which depends on age, diet, location, and lifestyle), and clinical studies should also be considered when we access particular products containing probiotics.
Currently, many probiotic supplements advertise high colony-forming units (CFUs) as if this is the only marker for quality. For many people, checking the number of colony-forming units has become a habitual practice when choosing a probiotic supplement or any food like yogurt and kefir. Some companies heavily advertise their superior count. As a result, many people believe that the higher the CFU count, the better. Colony-forming units, or CFUs, are a unit of measurement used to determine the number of bacterial cells in a probiotic supplement, lab sample, or some dairy foods like yogurt and kefir. High CFU counts are sometimes seen as a quality indicator, but it is just one factor that determines the quality.
Not all probiotics are effective. People have been trained to focus on criteria, such as CFU count, that actually don’t determine probiotics’ impactfulness.
What matters most is the selection and combination of probiotic strains and the delivery mechanism. These factors matter far more than an unnecessarily high colony count. This is particularly important when discussing fermented food. When yogurt and kefir are made authentically without additives, thickeners, or sugar, the high quality and numbers are guaranteed. The bacteria will not be able to convert milk into yogurt if they are not able to grow and multiply in sufficient numbers under the right conditions. But when they did that, the number was sufficient, and the conditions were right. The result is high-quality yogurt and kefir.
In some countries, requirements for a CFU count in those foods were adopted simply because the food industry can now make yogurt with absolutely no probiotics.
As the microbiome is different from person to person and microbiome research is complex, the best thing to do is consume a variety of probiotic foods with proven positive health records, such as yogurt and kefir, but also kimchi ( the Asian variant of sauerkraut), sauerkraut, kombucha, various kinds of cheese, pickles and many more.
Finally, many people assume that diversity might be helpful, but this depends on the person’s microbiome. Some people will feel better consuming diverse foods with various different species of probiotic foods, while others may experience side effects.
Start slow and small and increase the dosage to avoid the negative side effects. Frequently change the probiotic blends you consume as a pill or just consume variable probiotic-loaded food.
It might be a good idea to change from time to time your so nice and thick yogurt with kefir and vice versa(or consume simply other probiotic foods like sauerkraut and cheese)
In essence, the colony-forming units are successfully delivered in their viable forms into the intestines; gradually adding more and various species will improve the overall health rather than simply counting the colony-forming units that might be different until they get to the right spot and able to multiply and find the right conditions in the gut. It is just easier to concentrate them in yogurt and kefir and increase their chances of survival.
