Remember those Activia commercials?

According to research done by Katherine Harmon Courage, probiotics are more important than we think. Not only that, but the prebiotics—what we eat that feeds the microbes in our gut—are also essential to our digestive health. It is important to take care of the little guys in our bellies because they provide benefits such as fighting infections and moderating our weights.

In her book “Cultured: How Ancient Foods Can Feed Our Microbiome”, Courage explores the role our microbes play in our diets and the history of ancient foods rich in probiotics. For instance, Courage discusses that when humans were hunter-gatherers, we used to eat much more fiber than we do today, which is an important prebiotic that feeds our microbes. She says that if we do not feed our microbes, that they will eventually eat at the lining of our lower intestine (which honestly sounds kind of scary).

She also discusses how foods rich in probiotics should be an essential part of human’s diets. In Korea, for instance, kimchi is an essential part of a Korean diet, and even in remote Greenland, probiotics can be found in traditional Inuit foods like kiviak: birds fermented in seal skin.

By incorporating foods rich in probiotics and fiber into our diet, we create an environment where our microbes can thrive. In turn, our guts will be a lot healthier.

I always knew you could trust Jamie Lee Curtis.

To learn more about the importance of our microbiome, check out this article by Jonathan Lambert.

For more in food news, check The Salt by NPR.