There’s a lot of conflicting data on probiotics, which I believe is due to some unappreciated nuances we may not be aware of.

I think it’s overall good, but the question is whether probiotics are temporary or can we change our gut flora permanently. I think there’s a few points we should consider, one is the loading dose. I think for probiotics to take over, they have to compete against an already established gut microbiome and I suspect one needs a large dosing to overcome that.

Additionally, there are things are prebiotics which help probiotics propagate, or at least that’s the theory. But it makes sense in that you not only need to plant the probiotics, but you need to feed it. This typically involves fiber rich food and fermented foods. I think the fermented foods help feed the probiotics. Also, perhaps sourdough bread may be helpful here, as it’s essentially flour that’s been broken done by yeast and bacteria which are killed during the baking process leaving behind nutrients for the probiotics. Now, it’s also possible that the baking process changes some of the broken down compound, but I’m thinking there should be some that do make it through that are beneficial to the probiotics.

One should remember that it’s not like the probiotics are diplomatic communities, I’d say that it is more like warring tribes with the battle grounds being our intestinal tract and the food we consume. So by adjusting what we eat, we can make it more advantageous for the good bacteria to grow and the bad bacteria to not.

I believe that bad bacteria thrive on unhealthy food and good bacteria thrive on healthy food.

By eating the healthy food we are giving the good bacteria the higher ground and by take probiotics supplements, we are sending reinforcements to win the battles. The question is how many reinforcements do we need and once they’re there, how do we keep them fed? At some point, will we not need to send to supplement? Unfortunately, I don’t have answers to these questions. The GI is a bit of a black box in that regard, but I feel that we may need higher dosing than what is typically recommended. Could be wrong.

Those are my thoughts for now