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Probiotic and prebiotic foods
Nowadays, there is much talk about the good and bad bacteria in our body. To make the good ones grow and be in control and balance the intestinal microflora, we can buy pro- and prebiotics at a pharmacy or healthy food store and eat foods, that support good microflora.
Probiotic foods
In the old days, good bacteria were used to preserve food, because they protected food from rot bacteria. Examples of such foods are fermented dairy products such as yogurt, sour milk , sauerkraut and other fermented vegetables or leavened bread, cheese with wholes from Switzerland, olives, soy sauce, kombucha drink with tea fungus, miso soup, kimchi from Korea, lassi from India. These are all fermented foods made with the help of bacteria.
Prebiotics
Prebiotic food is what good bacteria consume and what gives them more power to fight the bad ones. We call everything, that the small intestine cannot absorb, such as undigested fiber of asparagus, ballast. But for large intestines bacteria this is often not useless stuff. Harmful bacteria cannot use ballast, or if only to a very limited extent, so they do not produce anything harmful from it. At the same time, good bacteria become stronger and there will be more of them. Prebiotic foods include artichoke, chicory, asparagus, green bananas, sweet potatoes, garlic, onion, parsnip, black root, whole grain wheat, rye, oats, leek.
Good bacteria like chives, leeks and other this kind of vegetables, resistant starch, which occurs when, for example, potatoes or rice are cooled down after cooking. Those people, who eat mostly ballast-free food, such as pasta or pastries, become hungry quite quickly after eating high-ballast foods, because the bacteria in their stomachs is different and such new food drives them crazy and begins to produce a large amount of gas. That´s why it would be good to change the food step by step, so good bacteria will gradually gain weight and rapid changes will not cause any discomfort.
I have read many books on health and digestion, but the most complete of these are "Gut - The inside story of our body`s most under-rated organ" by Giulia Enders and "Clean" by Alejandro Junger , of which I have written here in my blog too.