What is a prebiotic? Elizabeth Tracey reports

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Just when you thought you knew about probiotics and how to incorporate them into your diet, along comes prebiotics. Ashli Greenwald, a dietician at Johns Hopkins, explains. 

A prebiotic is a non digestible food component that helps stimulate the growth or activity of the healthy micro organisms that are in our gut. Probiotics help increase the gut bacteria, prebiotics kind of feed the good gut bacteria once they're there. The prebiotics are keeping healthy. Good dietary sources of prebiotics are things like asparagus, a banana but more on the greener side than the brown side, some garlic, some jerusalem artichokes or leaks or oats or onions or soybeans.  :32

Greenwald notes that both pro and prebiotics are essential components of a healthy diet, designed to keep both you and your gut microbiome healthy. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.