Fellow yinzers and burghers, fitness fanatics and foodies, tonight’s post is short, simple, but detailed enough that you will be able to satisfy your inner nerdiness. We’re talking probiotics tonight, and I have a product for you all that is gut and taste bud friendly.
By now, you are all probably aware of the amazing benefits probiotics have to offer! These little guys help overcrowd the bad bacteria in your gut and aid in your immune system as well as your digestion. Want to be less sick with sinus infections? Take your probiotics! Need to regulate your digestion? Probiotics will help! Want to see a nerdy medical article I have been spending my evening reading on the matter? Click here. Want to chuck out serious money for them? Wait…no, you don’t! So let’s break things down financially to find something way more worth your time and..well, money (sorry for the redundancy!).
Now, this may be my own personal “beef” (primal pun intended) with the diet/supplement industry, but I don’t like taking an outrageous amount of supplements. In fact, to date, I really only take 3 daily, and a 4th one every so often (in case you’re curious, just a multivitamin, Vitamin D3 because I live in PA and the Sun hides a lot up here, and fish oil. I have been on and off selenium as it helps with my thyroid regulation, but since my diet is pretty rich in nutrition now, I find that I don’t take it as often. Maybe 1 to 2 times every other week). In the past, I would take probiotics in pill form, but found that it became costly and annoying to remember to take another pill, yadda yadda. You get the picture. I will say this though, I have tried some awesome products over the years, and if there are any products I highly recommend, I’ll leave you with my top three choices for probiotics.
Primal Flora-visit primalblueprint.com
Primal Flora is probably the most reasonable, high quality probiotic ranking in at $26.95 for a 30 day supply. Has three strains of bacteria. No refrigeration necessary!
Femdophilis- visit jarrow.com
This one specifically targets the ladies. Wonderful product but I ultimately stopped taking it for a few reasons. One, at $27.97, you have to start with taking 2 pills a day. So that’s a 30 day supply to start. Then, you can move to one a day. Not outrageously expensive, but these buggers need refridgerated. I ended up having to stock up during the winter months with these guys and found it to be a neuisance with the probiotic expiration dates (yes, they do expire). 2 strains of bacteria in this one.
HLC Intensive Capsules- Visit Rockwellnutrition.com
These probiotics are AMAZING! But, I ultimately stopped taking them. Cost: $33.84 for a 30 day supply. Refrigeration is needed, so that means you better buy in bulk. Finally, these guys are actually packed with 5 strains of bacteria derived from humans (yes you read correctly). That last bit ultimately freaked me out so bad that I stopped taking them. True story! But man the stuff works so well!
With all that said, that leads me to the next bit. Food sources. Because I don’t like taking pills and because I find it annoying to spend oodles of money on hoarding bacteria that is subject to go bad quickly, I like sticking with food sources for my friendly bacterial friends. Less of an annoyance and honestly, less expensive. Plus way more fun for my palate! Over the years I have tried every single form of yogurt, kefir, and fermented food products you can imagine. While I was pretty set on Kefir (which normally runs anywhere from 10-15 strains of bacteria), I found something richer, cleaner, and ABSOLUTELY LOADED with 30 strains of bacteria!
Ladies and gentlemen of the foodie and fitness world, I give you Amasi! (well, actually it comes from Beyond Organic, but you know what I mean!) This stuff is loaded with a bunch of friendly folks for your gut and tastes absolutely amazing! I actually find it to be a lot richer than kefir, and also not as watered down as you might find some store bought kefirs to be. Plus, WAY MORE PROBIOTICS than the average Kefir. So what have we learned?
Amasi > Kefir
And that’s real talk, ya heard?
I highly suggest you get yourself a sample of Amasi. I normally go with the plan version as I can play around with adding things into it. Beyond organic does have flavors such as Raspberry and Milk and Honey. However, if you sign up for a preferred membership, you’ll get this delicious liquid for a 20% discount (note: Amasi six packs normally run $37.50 for retail, but are $30.00 for preferred customers). Also, Beyond Organic just came out with Mango Peach and Blueberry Acai flavors. Talk about a major yum factor! Finally, this stuff is made from grass fed cattle, which all us primal enthusiasts are die hard fans of! Highly nutritious. Simply delicious! Go get you some. NOW!
Finally, I want to wrap everything up tonight with an interesting recipe I made this morning by sheer accident using the entire bottle of Amasi (by the way, If you’re like me and love eating, you will not be able to stop yourself from inhaling the entire bottle. I was warned about this “hormonal reaction” to this product once before, and I am warning you all upfront now. You WILL CONSUME this entire bottle even though the label indicates two services to a bottle. Go ahead! Try to hold yourself back! It wont happen!). It doens’t get any simpler than this.
Spice Amasi Lassi
1 bottle of plain Amasi
1-2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1-2 teaspoons ground ginger
Stir everything together and you have something that tastes ridiculously close to a spice chai latte, only minus the annoying soy milk base. Mmmmm….. that was superb!
Well folks, it’s getting late and I have a date with some chamomile tea. Tomorrow is Friday, and I hope you all have a great weekend! Be on the look out for a blog post this weekend, as I have some pretty adventurous things in store for you all. I’ll leave you all in suspense until then. MUAHAHAH!
Until next time, eat smart, train hard, and enjoy your life!
-Janelle
