Four Tasty Ways to Add Probiotics to Your Diet

When it comes to holiday eating I know I’m not the only one who falls off the ‘healthy eating’ wagon- staying on the wagon is especially hard when you are invited to events hosted by Sprouts for Good Day Chocolate company! While green juice, salad, and healthy fats are staples in my diet during most of the year, come the holiday season I’m pretty sure about 80% of my caloric intake is in every type of cheese under the sun. So, needless to say, my gut can use (more than) a little extra help around the winter holidays.

Every body is different when it comes to what makes them feel good. For me, and cheese-filled stomach the golden ticket is probiotics. While I know there is a super easy way to supplement my diet with a probiotic pill each morning, I am HORRIBLE at remembering to take something every day. So, here are four tasty ways I add extra probiotics into my diet during my ‘not the best for me’ holiday diet period without having to remember a pesky pill.

1 Kefir

A close relative of your standard yogurt, kefir is a thick, cultured dairy product. Because of their similarities kefir and yogurt are often used interchangeably, but their most major different lies in the types of good bacteria that they contain. The bacteria in milk kefir can actually help repopulate the flora of your intestinal tract, contains a larger range of good bacteria, and contains yeasts. Kefir cultures don’t require heat to populate like yogurt does and so your belly reaps the benefits! My favorite kefir is by the brand Green Valley Organics– it is lactose free and you can grab the plain flavor or my top pick- the blueberry pomegranate acai!

2 Good Day Chocolate

Yep, not joking here! Good Day Chocolate, a local Boulder-based company here in Colorado has recently come out with a chocolate candy that on top of being made from fair trade, non-GMO dark chocolate is stuffed with one BILLION CFU (colony forming units) of probiotics per PIECE of chocolate! As a I mentioned above, I was invited by my lovely friends at Sprouts to a super fun event where we made our own probiotic chocolate- we mixed the Bacillus coagulans probiotics into beautifully melted chocolate and poured it into molds to let set- just like the founders of the company did when they first started Good Day! I love that this supplement is tasty, healthy, and super easy. Supplement pills don’t feel like pills when they’re chocolate, right!?

3 Sauerkraut

Now, I know sauerkraut can sometimes be an acquired taste, but you can switch sauerkraut with your favorite fermented veggie (maybe kimchi?!) when I’m talking here! Aside from being 1. delicious, and 2. packed with lactobacilli probiotics, sauerkraut is also a wonderful source of vitamin K, vitamin C, calcium, potassium, phosphorus, and fiber (..speaking of a healthy gut!) You can grab sauerkraut at your local health foods store or make your own on your counter top- I’m currently experimenting with creating my own perfect sauerkraut recipe so keep your eye on Modern Hippie Habits for that recipe soon! (I am currently using a mason jar but have my eye on this gorgeous crock!)

4 Kombucha

You know I couldn’t have gotten through this list without mentioning kombucha! Kombucha is pretty omnipresent around grocery stores and healthy restaurants here in Denver, and for good reason! You get the fun effervescent feeling that you get with soda, the tasty flavors of tea, the amazing benefits of Bacillus coagulans and S. Boulardii probiotics strains, and on top of all of that glucuronic, lactic, and acetic acids which are great for liver detoxification.

I’d love to know how you are altering your diet during the holiday season, do you need a little extra help like I do because of all of the excessively rich holiday foods or are you one of the good kids, keeping on track with just a few indulgences here and there?

Also, I know that this is supposed to be just a probiotic post, but oh my goodness, Good Day Chocolate’s entire line is amazing! On top of their newest probiotic supplement, they also carry a sleep aid, a tea-caffeine energy aid, an anti-anxiety ‘Calm’ aid, turmeric, and Vitamin D3- such an amazing company led by really knowledgeable people who were more than happy to answer all of the very in-depth questions! 

Have a wonderful holiday season!

I was compensated with product and payment for this post. Some links are affiliate links. All opinions are my own.