How Many Probiotics Should You Take A Day?
You buy a probiotic supplement, you read the label on the back of the packaging. One capsule contains 10 billion bacteria and the serving size is 1 capsule a day. Are 10 billion bacteria enough for the desired outcome? Do probiotics reach the gut alive? Can you get these bacteria from food instead? Let’s explore all of this in this post!
How can we determine whether probiotics taken orally make it alive into the gut?
#1 — Researchers check specific parameters of probiotics
In the lab, researchers check the acid/bile tolerance, antibiotic resistance, adherence to human intestinal cells, and antibacterial activity towards other bacteria.
#2 — Check how many bacteria appear in feces
The longer it takes to find these bacteria in feces, the longer they remain in the gut and the more health benefits they can provide. Usually, the number of bacteria found in feces decreases once probiotic use is discontinued.
#3 — Check how many bacteria are in intestinal samples
This is the best measure but requires an endoscopy, something that is only done in people when they have an underlying intestinal problem.
What is the recommended dosage for probiotics?
Currently, there is little guidance on the dosage of probiotics. There are, however, some guidelines:
- To prevent hospital-acquired diarrhea: 10^9–10^10 CFU/day of Lactobacillus rhamnosus (LGG®) for 7 days.
- To cure antibiotic-associated diarrhea in children: 3.10^8 CFU of spore-forming bacteria, 3 times daily.
- Overall, it has been suggested that the consumption of 10^9–10^10 CFU/day (10 billion) would be necessary to induce an effect on the gut microbiota.
How much fermented food should you take for probiotics?
#1 — Commercial yogurts
Depending on the brand, commercial yogurts contain different numbers of probiotics. For example, the commercial brand Activia® (Danone) contained between 10^7 and 10^8 CFU/ml.
This means that we would need to eat around 100 g of yogurt a day in order to meet the recommended dose of 10^9–10^10 CFU/day.
#2 — Other fermented foods
Microbial counts for sauerkraut generally range from 10^3 to 10^8 CFU/g, while Korean kimchi often contains 10^7 to 10^8 CFU/g of probiotics. Other fermented foods (kombucha, cheese, olives, kefir, and pickles) were found to contain somewhere between 10^6 and 10^9 CFU/g or mL.
This means that taking 100 g/mL would be sufficient.
Check out the BodyGutMind blog for more posts on this topic!
