Holistic Wellness

Why Gut Health Is The Foundation of Your Well-Being

Science says probiotics aren’t enough for long-term gut health

By Augusta Modestino PhD, Valentina Gallani MSc Nutrition

April 15, 2023 — 5 minute read

Gut health is critical for overall health and well-being. Your gut is home to trillions of bacteria that make up your “gut microbiome.” In a balanced gut, different species of bacteria support the body in different ways.

Some bacteria produce essential nutrients your body can’t make on its own, like Vitamin K. Others support healthy digestion, regulate the immune system, contribute to a balanced mood, and help maintain normal hormone levels.

It’s best to have a diverse community of different good bacteria in your gut because they all specialize in different things. The higher the diversity of bacteria in your gut, the healthier your gut will be.

If the gut microbiome becomes unbalanced, it can have serious consequences for your health, such as bloating, digestive pain, skin problems and negative effects on your mood. An imbalanced gut can also damage your long-term health.

A Balanced Gut Can Improve Your Digestion and Reduce Pain

Symptoms like bloating, excessive gas, constipation, diarrhea, burping, acid reflux, and abdominal pain are often signs of an imbalanced gut.

People with these symptoms often don’t have the right balance of good bacteria in their gut. When you have enough good bacteria in your gut, they work together with your immune system and your body to absorb and dissolve gas.

Working together, they also regulate how quickly food moves through your body which reduces the likelihood of constipation or diarrhea.

Good bacteria also produce critical nutrients that nourish your intestinal tissues so you feel less pain.

Together with your immune system, these good bacteria can promote healing in the lining of your intestines as well as produce a protective layer that prevents bad bacteria from damaging them. This reduces inflammation and digestive pain.

A Balanced Gut Can Boost Your Mood

Research shows having an unhealthy gut can lead to anxiety, depression and other mental health issues.

Your gut produces 95% of all the serotonin in your body. Serotonin is the neurotransmitter associated with life satisfaction and well-being.

Additionally, your brain has more nerve connections to your gut than any other part of your body. What’s happening in your gut can have a major impact on your well-being.

A Healthy Gut Protects You From Illness

Over 80% of your immune system is located in your gut. The immune system in your gut defends you against pathogens and viruses that enter through your mouth and other parts of your body.

If there are fewer bad bacteria in your gut, your immune system has less work to do and is available to fight off other pathogens that can make you ill.

Why Probiotics Aren’t Enough For Gut Health

Nearly everyone has heard of probiotics. They’re specific types of good bacteria proven to have health benefits when you take them. They’re usually grown in a lab, freeze-dried and filled into capsules so you can take them conveniently.

It’s best if the probiotic capsules have a coating on them to protect the bacteria inside from stomach acid. This special coating helps the probiotics actually reach your gut alive.

But even if the probiotics reach your gut, their benefits are limited. Even the strongest probiotics can’t balance the gut sustainably. This is because there are so many bacteria in your gut - tens of trillions.

But more importantly, good bacteria and bad bacteria need different types of fuel to survive.

The Key to Maintaining Good Gut Health

Bad bacteria thrive off of sugar, red meat, oils and saturated fats. Good bacteria need powerful plant fibers - or “Prebiotics” - to survive.

Without prebiotic plant fibers, good bacteria will starve and bad bacteria will continue to overpower the ecosystem in the long run - no matter how many probiotic capsules you take.

Some good bacteria prefer fibers from broccoli. Others prefer fibers from apples.

The hundreds of different types of bacteria in your gut have different preferences. Many are flexible in the exact type of fiber they can use, but almost none can survive without any plant fiber.

Some prebiotics are highly effective and have been proven in scientific studies to boost good bacteria.

Some examples of proven beneficial prebiotics are:

  • Acacia fiber
  • Inulin
  • Resistant starch from unripe green bananas
  • Resistant starch from potatoes
  • Psyllium husk
  • Pomegranate skin
  • Flaxseed
  • Wheatgrass
  • Beta glucans found in oats or mushrooms


It’s possible to get enough prebiotics by eating enough fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes, and grains.

But most of what people eat these days - even if it comes from plants - is highly processed and refined. That means most of the powerful prebiotic plant fibers are stripped out.

95% of people in the West don’t get even the minimum recommended daily amount of plant fiber.

Even fewer people get the recommended amount of over 30 different plants in their diet every week.

Conclusion

For people with a busy lifestyle who want to keep their gut health balanced, the best way to do so is with a combination of probiotics, diverse prebiotics and fermented foods.

Fermented foods often include good bacteria and some of the beneficial nutrients they’ve produced from the plant fibers. However, most people also don’t eat fermented foods very often.

Supplements can help. Finding a supplement or an evidence-based system that includes all these elements at a reasonable price can be difficult.

However, with the aid of a grant from the European Social Fund, biotikur has developed a complete gut health system with all of these essential ingredients.

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One Time Purchase

€127

€4.23 per day

Try out biotikur balance:

   biotikur balance all-in-one prebiotic

   biotikur balance daily multibiotic

Over 75 beneficial probiotics, prebiotics, fermented foods, vitamins and minerals to balance and maintain your gut.

Just two capsules and three small scoops a day.

Text

One Time Purchase

€127

€4.23 per serving

Try out biotikur balance:

   biotikur balance all-in-one prebiotic

   biotikur balance daily multibiotic

   Ships once

Most Popular

Single Subscription

€97 €127

€3.20 per serving

Subscribe and save 24%

Best for starting your new gut-health habit

   biotikur balance all-in-one prebiotic

   biotikur balance daily multibiotic

✓  Delivered Monthly, Pause or Cancel Anytime

✓  FREE Welcome Kit - Sustainable glass prebiotic container and glass jar

✓  FREE Shipping

✓ 60 day Money-Back Guarantee

Best Value

Double Subscription

€194 €254

€3.20 per serving

Subscribe and save 24%

Best for balancing your gut together with a partner or loved one

   60 servings balance all-in-one prebiotic

   60 servings biotikur balance daily multibiotic

✓  Delivered Monthly, Pause or Cancel Anytime

✓  FREE Welcome Kit - Sustainable glass prebiotic container and glass jar

✓  FREE Shipping

✓ 60 day Money-Back Guarantee


No artificial additives

No GMOs, No Herbicides or Pesticides, No Artificial Colors, Flavors, Preservatives or Sweeteners

Vegan

Gluten and nut-free

Low-plastic

No artificial additives

No added sugar

Made in Germany

Vegan

Gluten and nut-free

Low-plastic

No artificial additives

No added sugar

Made in Germany

Whole Food Sourced Ingredients + Proven Probiotic Strains

Here's how it works:

Part 1: biotikur balance multibiotic - Twenty strains for a happy gut

The probiotics in biotikur balance multibiotic are selected for their digestive, mood, skin, metabolic, and immune benefits.

Just 2 capsules per day reinforce and amplify the benefits of good gut bacteria, producing beneficial nutrients and reducing inflammation.

Contains:

  • Proven strains such as​​ Lactobacillus fermentum, Lactobacillus acidophilus, and Lactobacillus bulgaricus.
  • A​cid-resistant capsule so the probiotics make it through your stomach and arrive where they do their best work, in your large intestine.

View full multibiotic supplement facts:

Part 2: all-in-one prebiotic - Fiber, functional and fermented

Formulated by experts and designed with gut health in mind, we packed 57 varieties of fruits and vegetables into a powerful daily dose of plant-based nutrition.

3 scoops per day include fermented ingredients for easier absorption while essential vitamins and minerals support gut health.

Contains:

  • Prebiotic fibers: Good gut bacteria's favorite food! Including inulin, acacia fiber, and flaxseed powder.

  • Fruits, vegetables, and herbs: Boost your fruit and vegetable intake with leafy greens like kale and spinach and superfoods like blueberry and pomegranate.

  • Vitamins and minerals: Recommended daily doses of essential nutrients for well-being and gut health, including Vitamins D, K, and B12 as well as Selenium, Calcium, and Zinc.

Replaces most of the supplements in your cupboard with one easy daily dose.


View full all-in-one prebiotic supplement facts:

Whole Food Sourced Ingredients + Proven Probiotic Strains

Part 1: biotikur balance multibiotic - Twenty strains for a happy gut

The probiotic strains in biotikur balance multibiotic are selected for their digestive, mood, skin, metabolic, and immune benefits.

Just 2 capsules per day reinforce and amplify the benefits of good gut bacteria, producing beneficial nutrients and reducing inflammation.

Contains:

  • Proven strains such as​​ Lactobacillus fermentum, Lactobacillus acidophilus, and Lactobacillus bulgaricus.
  • A​cid-resistant capsule so the probiotics make it through your stomach and arrive where they do their best work, in your large intestine.

View full multibiotic supplement facts:


Part 2: All-in-one prebiotic - Fiber, functional and fermented

Formulated by experts and designed with gut health in mind, we packed 57 varieties of fruits and vegetables into a powerful daily dose of plant-based nutrition.

3 scoops per day include fermented ingredients for easier absorption while essential vitamins and minerals support gut health.

Contains:

  • Prebiotic fibers: Good gut bacteria's favorite food! Including inulin, acacia fiber, and flaxseed powder.

  • Fruits, vegetables, and herbs: Boost your fruit and vegetable intake with leafy greens like kale and spinach and superfoods like blueberry and pomegranate.

  • Vitamins and minerals: Recommended daily doses of essential nutrients for well-being and gut health, including Vitamins D, K, and B12 as well as Selenium, Calcium, and Zinc.

Replaces most of the supplements in your cupboard with one easy daily dose.

View
full all-in-one prebiotic supplement facts:

biotikur was developed with grant support from the European Social Fund

biotikur was developed with grant support from the European Social Fund

Start your gut health journey today!

✓ 60 day Money-Back Guarantee

FAQs

Gut Health

What's the difference between prebiotics and probiotics?

Probiotics are good bacteria that support a flourishing gut microbiome.

Prebiotics are the food they feast upon - primarily indigestible dietary fiber.

And here’s the thing: you can probiotics on their own, but without a diet rich in varied plant fiber (i.e. prebiotics), their effects are limited and short-term.

That’s why biotikur has developed a complete system, one that includes both probiotics and prebiotics to support them.

Why is gut health so important?

Your gut is home to 40 trillion bacteria (also known as your microbiome). The “good” bacteria thrive on fiber from plants and the “bad” ones feast on sugar and processed junk food.

Good bacteria do important things like help your body make essential nutrients. But when bad bacteria dominate, bad things happen. That means digestive problems like bloating, diarrhea, or gas.

But not only digestive issues: science shows that an imbalanced gut can play a major role in depression, skin problems like acne or eczema, and weight gain.

Okay, but why fruits and vegetables? And why so many?

The human body can only digest about 16 different fibers on its own. A diverse gut microbiome on the other hand can digest over 60,000! And it can turn them into lots of good stuff like neurotransmitters and cancer-fighting antioxidants.

The catch is, good gut bacteria are divas - they’re picky about what they eat. Some need broccoli to work their particular brand of magic and some need spinach. You can’t eat only broccoli every day and expect a balanced gut.

That’s why getting enough quantity AND diversity of plants in your diet is fundamental to gut health.

If gut health is so important, why am I only hearing about this now?

Get this: 80% of all research on the gut microbiome was published in only the past five years. It takes time for people to learn about it— even a lot of doctors are too busy to read the new research.

What have scientists discovered? The single biggest factor for gut health is the diversity of plants in your diet—meaning the number of different fruits and vegetables you regularly eat.

As if it wasn’t hard enough, eating 8 servings of plants per day doesn’t cut it—you need to get at least 30 different fruits and vegetables in your diet every week for decent gut health.

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Subscription purchases will renew on an ongoing basis, so your refill for the next month will arrive just in time for when you’ll need it next.

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We ship anywhere within EEA member states and Switzerland.

How does the 60 day Money-Back Guarantee work?

If you’re not 100% satisfied with biotikur balance, write to us within the first 60 days after purchasing at care@biotikur.com and we’ll initiate the refund process.

Can I cancel my subscription?

Yes, you can cancel your subscription at any time in your account dashboard or by simply emailing care@biotikur.com.

Ingredients, allergens, and safety

Is biotikur balance for everybody?

Yes, biotikur balance has been developed for everyone! It is also formulated to be safe for daily use by pregnant people. That said, if you are pregnant or nursing, it’s best practice to speak to your doctor first about your specific needs.
biotikur balance is vegan friendly and has no harmful chemicals, artificial colors, preservatives, artificial sweeteners, or added sugar.
biotkur balance is low allergen, has less than 1.5g of sugar per serving, and is suitable for most diets. If you have any concerns about your specific dietary needs we recommend checking with your doctor before taking any supplements.
We’re available to answer any other questions you may have via care@biotikur.com.

Does biotikur balance contain allergens?

Our products are free from allergens such as lactose, gluten or nuts.

However, some of our ingredients are produced in a facility that processes allergens. biotikur balance all-in-one prebiotic plants+ may contain detectable traces of seeds, gluten, soy, nuts, celery, dairy, lupine, and/or mustard.

*These statements have not been evaluated by the European Medical Authority. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
 
**biotikur reserves the right to provide product packaging that has variation from what is visible in product photography.

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*These statements have not been evaluated by the European Medical Authority. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
**biotikur reserves the right to provide product packaging that has variation from what is visible in product photography.
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