Probiotics. You’ve probably seen this word as you’ve read the labels of yogurts and supplement bottles. Maybe you know what it means, or maybe you just recognize that it’s the opposite of the word ‘antibiotic.’ You might know that it’s good for you and your body needs it, but what else is there to probiotics? And why do we need them? And most importantly, how can we get them?

There are other ways to get your probiotic fix other than just greek yogurt or a supplement.

Recently, many drinks have come out that promote the fact that they have probiotics in them. Doctors promote probiotics to help with digestive health problems and, in general, are pretty good for you. If you struggle with your digestive health, it's time for you to check out some of the probiotic drinks.

Keep reading for some suggestions on delicious and purposeful probiotic drinks that will help maintain your gut health.

What Are Probiotics?

First and foremost, we should probably explain what probiotics are. If you didn’t know, probiotics are live bacteria and yeasts considered good for you. Your body has a mixture of good and bad bacteria that balance until you get an infection and more harmful bacteria become prevalent. Probiotics bring more good bacteria into your body which can help to combat harmful bacteria when it arrives in excess.

What Do They Do?

A probiotic’s goal is to maintain balance in your body. Good bacteria are needed to fight off harmful bacteria, and probiotics want to make you feel better. But probiotics don’t just fight off harmful bacteria.

Probiotics support your immune function and help to control inflammation. Good bacteria helps your body digest food, creates vitamins for your body to absorb. It also supports the cells that line your gut by preventing bad bacteria from entering your bloodstream.

Common Types of Probiotics

The two types of probiotics that people most commonly consume are strains of two species. To know which strain of probiotics you are consuming, you need to know how to read the labels. The two most common species are lactobacillus and bifidobacterium.

Probiotic strain names are labels as the initial of the species, followed by the strain name. Each strain will have a different effect on the body, so it's helpful to know which ones you are consuming.

Lactobacillus

Lactobacillus produces lactase, an enzyme that breaks down lactose and produces lactic acid to control the bad bacteria from overpopulating the gut. The lactobacillus bacteria are usually found in the mouth, vagina, and small intestine and generally serve as muscle fuel.

An example of a lactobacillus strain on a nutrition label would look like: L. reuteri.

Bifidobacterium

This species is found in foods and supplements and is thought to support your immune system, control the growth of bad bacteria in the intestine, and help break down lactose into nutrients that are helpful to the body.

An example of a bifidobacterium strain would be B. lactis.

Saccharomyces Boulardii

Saccharomyces boulardii is a yeast that is used as a medication to treat diarrhea. It also treats many digestive health-related issues like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and Crohn’s disease.

What Are the Health Benefits of Probiotics?

We now know that not all probiotics do the same thing or protect the same part of your body. The treatment of diarrhea has made it clear that probiotics can be very useful. In babies and children, it has been found that Lactobacillus GG can benefit you when consumed in small amounts to decrease diarrhea.

Probiotics might be useful to those who have Crohn’s disease and IBS, but there hasn’t been enough research done to learn which probiotics work better than the rest to do this. Overall, we need probiotics for our gut health because they work against bad bacteria to maintain a balance. When the balance is thrown off, that is where we see issues.

What Probiotic Drinks Will Best Support My Gut?

Not everyone is a fan of greek yogurt, and not everyone likes to take supplements. Both of these things are valid to feel, but that means you should find a different way to get probiotics. Probiotic drinks are a way to do this!

There are new kinds of drinks, from soda to filmjolk, to kombucha. You can find the perfect probiotic drink for you. With different flavors, consistencies, and purposes, the drinks that we have compiled will do wonders for your overall gut health!

Siggi’s Filmjolk

Siggi’s delicious Swedish-style Filmjolk is a non-fat yogurt drink that comes in many different flavors, loaded with probiotics, and packed with protein to get your gut feeling good and you feel even better. This probiotic drink offers consumers one billion probiotics per serving. Yes, you read that correctly—one billion (1,000,000,000 in numbers if that makes it any clearer).

It only has 4 grams of sugar and meets one-third of your daily calcium needs, making it both a healthy and nutritional probiotic choice. Siggi's flavor choices are raspberry, blueberry, plain, and vanilla, so either pick your favorite or try them all out! Who are we to judge?

It sounds good, looks good, and does wonders for the body, so if you want to find it, you can visit their website to locate the store that carries them closest to you!

Chobani Greek Yogurt Drink

Chobani is known for its delicious Greek yogurt with multiple flavors that satisfy a variety of flavor cravings. Chobani’s Greek Yogurt Drink comes in a variety of flavors as well, so there’s something for everyone! These probiotic drinks provide consumers with 10 grams of protein and multiple strains of probiotics per serving, making them extremely good for your gut health and for boosting your energy.

This probiotic drink also contains mango puree, which boosts nutrients like magnesium, potassium, and vitamin A. It’s important that you choose drinks that will have the most impact on improving your health. If you want to maintain your gut health but still enjoy Chobani’s products, their Yogurt Drink will do the job.

GT’s Organic Kombucha

Kombucha is up there with the most available products that provide probiotics, but it’s not the drink for everyone. For some, drinking kombucha takes a few tries before you can say you enjoy drinking it. Kombucha is fermented and can taste rather tart and tangy when you first sip it. It’s a very distinctive flavor, a mix between acidic and fruity, though the taste will change depending on the flavor you choose.

GTs Organic Kombucha is a product you have likely seen when passing by in the grocery store. It has a bright and colorful logo and is hard to miss. This drink has billions of probiotics per serving and can help manage the bad bacteria in your gut, so if you want to try kombucha, this might be the go-to probiotic drink choice!

Good Culture Probiotic Smoothie

If you aren’t a kombucha person, that’s all good! But let’s find you another product that can give you billions of probiotics per serving, okay? Okay!

Sometimes, when you are trying to add more of something into your diet that you need, it’s easiest to start with familiar products. Probiotic smoothies exist just for you. You might be someone who makes yourself a smoothie each morning anyways, and with Good Culture Probiotic Smoothie, all you have to do is wake up and take the cap off to get all the goodness.

This probiotic drink contains seven grams of protein and 35 billion probiotics per serving, so you and your gut can enjoy this one together.  

Farmhouse Culture’s Gut Shot

If kombucha and smoothies aren’t your thing, maybe a shot of ginger beet juice is? With Farmhouse Culture’s Gut Shot, you can take one a day and get a boost of digestive strength and immunity from loads of probiotics found naturally in the product.

This product comes in a pack of two apple cider vinegar drinks flavored apple cinnamon and Tumeric ginger. This is an easy way to get your probiotic servings in, and it tastes pretty good as well!

Obi Organic Probiotic Soda

If none of what we have mentioned sounds appealing and you are beginning to lose faith, let us have one more shot at it with something unique. Obi’s Organic Probiotic Soda might be the drink for you. This drink has 25 verified Kefir cultures in it, making it extremely beneficial to your gut health. It 's made from water kefir which makes it different from the rest because it is dairy-free and vegan-friendly.

This drink is not as thick and is a bit easier to drink throughout the day, so you might enjoy it better if you are an active, on-the-go type of person. Obi’s Organic Probiotic Soda comes in various flavors, like root beer, cherry vanilla bean, orange and grapefruit, and lemon and lime, so pick your favorite and give it a go!

Activia Probiotic Dailies

People with gut-related health issues now realize how impactful probiotics could potentially be, and they are trying to increase their intake to see if it will provide them relief as well. If you are looking for a quick and easy way to get loads of probiotics to send to your gut, then consider trying Activia Probiotic Dailies. These drinks are only 3.1 fl oz per serving, so you can drink them quickly and be on your way!

Activia has been known to promote gut health for years, so it’s no surprise that they have perfected these drinks! You are guaranteed to feel good putting these onto the conveyor belt at the grocery.

Suja Organic Wild Probiotic Drink

Another vegan alternative to consuming probiotics is the Suja Organic Wild Probiotic Drink. This drink consists of purified water, lemon, cayenne, maqui berry, vegan probiotics, and stevia. This drink is naturally sweetened with lemon and berry, making it lower in calories and a better beverage to hydrate on that is not water.

Finding a probiotic drink that you enjoy can help to ensure that your body is getting what it needs, so knowing what consistency you want in your drink will get you one step closer. The consistency of Suja is thinner, making it easier to consume quickly, which might make it easier for those who want faster results in improving their gut health.

Maintaining Gut Health Matters

Without realizing it, your gut controls a lot that goes on in your body, and when bad bacteria are overrunning it, you might find yourself feeling a little worse than you usually would. This isn’t beneficial for anyone, but you can work to prevent bad bacteria from taking over with probiotics. Finding probiotic drinks that you like will help send billions of probiotics into your gut, improving its health and fighting off bad bacteria.

If you want to learn more about your body and what is going on inside it, reach out to a representative at Vessel Health to learn about our services.

With our Wellness Test Card, you can find information about your body by simply peeing on a test that we send to you and scanning it using our application. We provide information back to you regarding your nutrient and vitamin levels and offer suggestions to improve your body’s nutritional composition.

Our goal is to get you to a better place in your life, so don’t hesitate and sign-up with Vessel Health now!