Health & Nutrition | Renew Life | Are you PRO-biotics?

Review by Catherine’s Cabinet

The first time I heard that billions, even trillions of bacteria live inside of my belly, I was utterly mortified. Ew, excuse me, um what?! I was that girl who used to pump my hands full of antibacterial products if I even got a speck of dirt on my hands and then would totally freak out if I saw a bug… so how was I supposed to handle the fact that there are tons of “icky” things living inside me? Well, I finally put my big girl pants on, went to school for Nutrition and then found out that it’s not actually that simple.

There’s something called “bad bacteria” (like the ones that can cause infections) and something else called “good bacteria” (like probiotics). Yes, you can discriminate here, all bias accepted. But, what is the deal with probiotics? Why are we hearing so much about these things all of a sudden? There are so many brands out there, too. It can be quite difficult to know what to go for and where the best advice can come from. By looking up reviews of probiotics, such as watching the Bio x4 review YouTube video, you can make an informed decision on how to help your gut and perk yourself up. Still unsure? Well let me fill you in on some of the reasons why adding them into your diet is essential to your overall health!

Your digestive tract is lined with billions of good and bad bacteria, with over 500 strains, each serving a different purpose. Yes, this sounds kinda gross, but fear not my friends, they’re helping to keep you alive! Probiotics are found in small doses in foods and can help to maintain the Intestinal Barrier in your digestive tract. This layer protects you against harmful pathogens, parasites and potentially unwanted proteins by helping to prevent them from entering into your bloodstream. This is yet another line of defence in the complex network that is your immune system, always so hard at work.

Probiotics also help to support digestion by boosting the absorption of vitamins and minerals. Some bacteria have the fun role of producing enzymes that help to break down foods for nutrient absorption and assimilation. The beneficial bacteria can also help to support detoxification by aiding in the elimination of toxic metals too. I could keep going on and on about the many jobs these little guys have in the human body, but if the ones I’ve already listed aren’t enough, I don’t know what is (and man, you’re a hard one to please!) If you’re curious to see just how a probiotic could affect your digestion you could look for reviews others have done on such products, such as this Peptiva sample review. It’s good to see someone else’s view on what probiotics can do to help.

So how do you know if you need to supplement your probiotics? Well, having a chat with your health care professional is the first thing you should do, but in my opinion, most of us need a little extra dose of these on the regular. A great brand to choose if you’re looking to supplement is Renew Life. They’re known in the health world for their fantastic cleansing kits but they also make many other products such as high dosage probiotics. At 50 billion bacteria with 10 different strains, Ultimate Flora Critical Care is a perfect balanced formula designed to replenish your bacterial colonies!

Renew Life uses a unique, water based enteric coating which serves as protection to prevent the probiotics from being destroyed in the acidic environment of the stomach. Yet, this coating still allows for the probiotics to easily populate within the intestinal tract. Ultimate Flora Critical Care doesn’t contain any starches, fillers, or excipients – thus making it the cleanest product possible. As a Holistic Nutritionist, I would recommend these in practice as a therapeutic dosage to replenish what I would deem to be depleted levels, or as a short term solution until a maintenance dose can be reached on a more regular basis.

If you’re ready to start and are not sure which one to take, Renew Life has created a simple Probiotics Comparison Chart to help you choose the right one to suit your needs!

It’s very important to take a probiotic if you’ve ever taken antibiotics, specifically after your dose is up. This is done in order to replenish the good bacterial colonies that most likely have been destroyed by the antibiotic, which doesn’t discriminate between good and bad to fight off the infection. Because of this, continual antibiotic use can eventually cause a bacterial imbalance. I’m not advocating against the use of antibiotics, because sometimes they are absolutely necessary in medical treatment, I just want you to make sure that you’re aware of the added side effects.

Your doctor might just tell you to eat more yogurt, but in reality a lot of the bacterial cultures produced in yogurt are killed off by the heat in pasteurization. This is done in order to rid the dairy of the potentially pathogenic bacteria, but most of the good ones are wiped away too! This means you’re probably not getting enough in your diet using this method.

Here are some foods high in probiotics that are a quick and easy way to introduce them into your diet: Fermented Vegetables like Kimchi & Sauerkraut, Kombucha, Organic Miso & Tempeh, Kefir and more! If you’ve never heard of any of these foods, look them up and give them a try, trust me. They’re all a regular part of my diet now because I love me some Probiotics! Nowadays, I don’t mind getting my hands a little dirty but I’ll never touch another antibacterial product as long as I live… although I still think bugs are kinda gross.

Photos: Renew Life