If you’re looking to improve your digestive health or to boost your overall wellness routine, combining the best prebiotic supplements with a healthy dose of probiotics may help. To learn more, Bustle reached out to Dr. Heather Tynan, ND from Evergreen Naturopathic. Below, she details how prebiotics work, their health benefits, and what to look for in a prebiotic supplement.
First things first: it’s important to understand the purpose of prebiotics in the human body. Dr. Tynan tells Bustle to think of prebiotics as food for probiotics, which she describes as: “[...] those helpful microorganisms that are responsible for everything from helping break down the foods we eat so that we can obtain maximal nutritional value to allowing for optimal immune functioning to contributing to neurotransmitter production and thus aiding in mood regulation and mental health.”
Dr. Tynan says you should look for a prebiotic supplement that contains fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS), inulin (a type of FOS), or galacto-oligosaccharides, “[...] but recognize that there are multiple prebiotic formulations that will be effective [...]”. Dr. Tynan also points out that the ideal option is to get most of your prebiotics through your diet. Having a wide variety of fiber sources from fruits and vegetables in your diet ensures you're getting not just a broad spectrum of prebiotics but probiotics, too.
As with any supplement, Dr. Tynan advises purchasing from a quality controlled, transparent, reputable source; “[...] opt for third party tested when possible,” she says.
Take a look at the best prebiotic supplements on Amazon. All are highly rated and meet one or more of Dr. Tynan’s criteria.
We only recommend products we love and that we think you will, too. We may receive a portion of sales from products purchased from this article, which was written by our Commerce team.