Garlic, leeks, onions, dandelion greens, and Jerusalem artichokes are the most prebiotic-rich foods available and may help improve gut health.
Prebiotics are a type of fiber that function as a food source for probiotics, bacteria that help maintain a healthy community of microbes in the gastrointestinal tract, has been linked to the health of the immune system and even protection against some medical conditions.
To discover the richest prebiotic food sources, cassandra boyd at San Jose State University, California, and his colleague John Gieng reviewed 70 scientific articles on prebiotics in foods, nine of which contained a sufficient amount of data to be included in their analysis. From these, she analyzed the prebiotic content of 8,690 types of food.
The researchers found that the top five foods containing prebiotics were, in descending order: dandelion greens, Jerusalem artichokes, garlic, leeks, and onions, each of which contains between 100 and 240 milligrams of prebiotics per gram, as featured in Nutrition 2023 in Boston, Massachusetts, the annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition.
The International Scientific Association of Probiotics and Prebiotics, in California, recommends a daily intake of prebiotics of about 5 grams per day. This could be accomplished by eating just half a small onion, Boyd said. in a sentence.
Other rich sources of prebiotics include foods containing these vegetables, such as onion rings and creamed onions, as well as asparagus and black-eyed beans, also known as cowpeas. But about 37 percent of the foods tested did not contain prebiotics, with wheat, dairy, eggs, oils and meats scoring low.
In addition to potentially benefiting gut health, prebiotics are also a type of dietary fiber, which is good for digestion. Data show that fiber intake is insufficient in every region of the world. “By consuming more prebiotic fiber, you’re also consuming more fiber overall,” says Boyd.
