How you can make prebiotics and probiotics the star of snack time!
2020 is shaping up to be a very different year. With most of us home together as a family, there comes a need for almost every snack and meal to be homemade (send help!) ?
To help uncover some new snack-time inspiration, we’ve created an interactive activity to get the kids involved and make fruit, veggies and probiotics the snack of choice.
Probiotics and prebiotics: what’s the difference?
Before we get to the activity, let’s quickly recap the role of probiotics and prebiotics.
Probiotics are live beneficial bacteria that help the overall balance of bacteria in the digestive system, commonly referred to as the “good gut bacteria”. Whether it’s assisting digestive processes, reducing the number of potential harmful gut bacteria or supporting the immune system, probiotics have made a household name for themselves (and for good reason!). But what about prebiotics?
Prebiotics differ from probiotics and can be described as non-digestible fibres that help feed and encourage the growth of beneficial gut bacteria (probiotics). Prebiotics can be found in common foods such as bananas, apples, garlic, rolled oats, sourdough, wheat bran and barley.
It may help to visualise this relationship as a chain reaction. Prebiotics support good gut bacteria (i.e. probiotics) and probiotics help to reduce harmful gut bacteria and support overall health. They need each other! Hence, including both prebiotics and probiotic sources in your family’s diet is one of the easiest ways you can help to keep your intestinal microbiota happy ?
The digestive rainbow:
To help make prebiotics and probiotics the star of snack time, the Yakult Australia team has created an engaging way to teach kids about the organs of digestive system and gut friendly snacks: enter the digestive rainbow! At the end, pair your digestive rainbow with a refreshing probiotic drink and you’ve got the ultimate gut nourishing snack!
Instructions:
- Print out the digestive system template here – (this document is spread over two pages with a landscape orientation).
- Stick the pages together so the organs line up. Cover pages with plastic wrap or baking paper so its hygienic to place food on top of the printout
- Chop up a variety of fruits and vegetables, aim to have something from each colour group (examples below)
- For each organ, place a different coloured food to fill in the outline from the template.
- Finished! Now you have a rainbow digestive system that you can enjoy for an afternoon snack
If you need some fruit and vegetable inspiration, check out the below food group colours:
- Red – tomatoes, apples, strawberries, raspberries, watermelon, capsicum
- Orange – oranges, mandarin, cantaloupe, apricot, carrot, mango
- Yellow – banana, capsicum, pineapple, nectarine
- Green – snow peas, broccoli, apple, capsicum, kiwi fruit, grapes, cucumber
- Blue/Purple – blueberries, blackberries, grapes
- White – nectarine
Have fun, get messy and don’t forget to tag us in your digestive creations via Yakult Instagram or Yakult Facebook