Procarenow.com for free samples. Use Code: Susan10 to save 10%Related: 5 Surprising Foods that Contain Powerful PrebioticsFrom neck and face creams to waters, cold brew coffee, almond butter and supplements, probiotics are being added to everything. Plus, there are also natural probiotic food sources such as yogurt, kefir, and sourdough bread. Do these probiotics help with weight loss? Three things to know about probiotics in the episode of Bariatric Surgery Success.Hi, I’m registered dietitian nutritionist Dr. Susan Mitchell. You’re listening to the Bariatric Surgery Success podcast episode number 71. Most of my career I’ve worked in some type of media, particularly radio where I did morning drive nutrition spots for over 18 years. That’s what lead me to start podcasting and ultimately to you. I created Bariatric Surgery Success to provide you with life-changing information based on science along with simple strategies and tools to help you be successful in your transformation and your entire journey. So happy you’ve connected with me. You’re in the right place and I’m glad you’re listening.Are you receiving the weekly Breaking Down Nutrition newsletter? It’s a quick way to find out first what’s going on in bariatric nutrition from new freebies, upcoming courses, tips, product discounts and the latest podcast episode. Be sure and sign up at the bottom of my home page . It’s also an easy way to communicate with me. Just hit replay to the newsletter. I read all the emails.  Probiotics are bacteria that offer a health benefit to your body. Bacteria can be a good thing as probiotics may help prevent or treat certain illnesses. It’s no wonder probiotics are often nicknamed “the good bacteria”! Why does this matter to you? Your gastrointestinal tract or GI tract contains many species of bacteria that make up what’s known as the intestinal flora. It’s a balancing act going on in the GI tract between good and bad bacteria. Think of it this way. Medications, diseases, even some environmental issues can alter this balance. This flora can “get out of whack” when you take antibiotics or other medications, and can be effected by various illness. Diarrhea is one of the most common symptoms that reveals something abnormal is going on. This is where probiotics may be helpful. Certain probiotic strains may help digestive health, positively influence cardiovascular risk factors, reduce inflammation, support your immune system, and even help fight depression and anxiety.Probiotics are live bacteria that occur naturally in foods that you can include in your daily diet such as yogurt, kefir, kombucha, tempeh, kimchi, sauerkraut, sourdough bread, even pickles and traditional buttermilk. These different foods provide a variety of probiotic bacteria strains in modest amounts and are beneficial to the intestinal flora. Probiotics can also be purchased as supplements and when taken in larger amounts or doses are considered a therapeutic treatment more like a medication. But not all probiotics survive and thrive. What does that mean? For you to derive health benefits, these good bacteria must survive the manufacturing process and storage along with the trip through the gastrointestinal tract once you take them. Since they are live bacteria, all of these factors matter, along with prescribing the right ones for the health benefit needed.Don’t miss this. It’s the bottom line for therapeutic treatment which we’ll tie to weight loss in just a moment. When using probiotics for disease-specific prevention and treatment which means a therapeutic use, it calls for the precise probiotic species that has been shown to confer health benefits for that specific medical condition. Probiotics must be identified by the genus, species and strain. For instance, with Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG, the genus is Lactobacillus, the species is rhamnosus, and the strain is GG. If the treatment calls for this probiotic and another is used, the benefit is missed.Plus the supplemen