Back to school is a big occasion for children, parents and teachers alike! It means getting back into a routine, packing lunches again, and heading back to a germy classroom (parents, we know you know!).

Yes, catching a cold is inevitable, but most of us still strive to do everything we can to stay healthy.

To keep energy levels high and maintain a strong immune system as school starts back up, it is important to prioritize healthy meals and snacks. Combining prebiotics foods with healthy probiotics is the perfect recipe for keeping your gut microbiota healthy.

Healthy Food for You and Your Gut Bacteria

The gut microbiota is a set of over 100 trillion microorganisms living mainly in the large intestine and working in synergy for our overall health. A diverse microbiota contains a sufficient amount of various good bacteria families.

A healthy diet is full of nutrients, like prebiotic fibre, that boost the health of our good bacteria. This, in turn, helps enhance our immune system. When we eat fibre, it becomes fermented by our gut bacteria, producing a byproduct known as short-chain fatty acids. Short-chain fatty acids are fuel for our good bacteria and helps to increase the production of intestinal mucus (a protective layer that prevents pathogens from spreading).

Looking for Prebiotics? Eat the Rainbow!

So what foods give us the fibre that our good bacteria love? Prebiotic fibre is found mainly in plant-based foods such as fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds. Very colourful fruits and vegetables are also a good source of polyphenols, a group of antioxidants that are also beneficial to the health of intestinal flora.

You've Done the 'Pre' Work It's Time to Go Pro

Prebiotics are only one part of the equation. You have to make sure you've got the healthy bacteria to feed in the first place. You can get your daily dose of probiotics by consuming fermented foods and taking a probiotic supplement. Fermentation allows a food to become filled with probiotics (different good bacteria families) and improves how well nutrients are digested. Miso, tempeh, sauerkraut and kimchi are all examples of fermented foods. Interestingly enough, the unique way drinkable Bio-K+ is made makes it a fermented food as well as a clinically proven probiotic.

Bio-K+ drinkable probiotics has been proven to be beneficial and effective for human health. Each bottle contains 50 billion live and active bacteria that support the growth of good bacteria and support digestive and immune health.* To keep your intestinal flora healthy, we recommend you consume ¼ of bottle each day. To strengthen your intestinal flora at certain important times of the year (like back to school!), we recommend you consume 25 to 50 billion probiotic bacteria per day, equivalent of ½ to one full bottle every day.

Drinking a bottle of Bio-K+ is always an easy and delicious option, but you can also incorporate Bio-K+ into your favourite, no-bake recipes for an added boost of probiotics.

This protein-rich tzatziki dip recipe is a perfect application for this. When served with raw vegetables, this snack is the all-star combination of probiotics and prebiotics to keep your digestive and immune health strong and resilient all school year long.

Bio-K+ Tzatziki Dip

Ingredients

1 bottle of Bio-K+ Original

60 ml (1/4 cup) of cream cheese

60 ml (1/4 cup) of plain Greek yogurt

125 ml (1/2 cup) of chopped spinach

30 ml (2 tbsp.) of chopped chives

Organic lemon zest

Preparation

Mix all ingredients together.

Serve with your favourite veggies.

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*For little ones, consider our Bio-Kidz line which has 12.5 billion bacteria per bottle, perfect for smaller tummies. Kids love our strawberry or vegan raspberry flavours.