To keep your gut health in check, try the best probiotics for men. To learn more, Bustle reached out to Lisa Richards, a nutritionist and author of The Candida Diet, who says probiotics are a great addition to anyone's health regiment, including men, since they aid the digestive process, reduce inflammation, boost immunity, and help maintain a healthy flora balance in your gut. Below, I’ve rounded up probiotics based on her expert recommendation.
Richards advises, “There are no particular strains that men should seek to integrate more than women,” but bacterial strain diversity is essential as different strains provide different benefits. The three probiotic strains Richards recommends for everyone are L. plantarum, L. paracasei, and L. acidophilus; all of our picks have all three and that last strain has been shown to helps relieve chronic constipation.
For colony forming units (CFUs), or the number of active, living microorganisms in each probiotic serving, Richards suggests you “ensure your probiotic contains at least 10 billion CFUs of bacteria [...]”. Further, Richards advises a probiotic with a mechanism for getting its bacteria past your stomach acid to your gut since “regular probiotics in vegetable capsules deliver a tiny fraction (around 4%) of their bacteria past stomach acid,” but avoid probiotics with sweeteners or gums, since they might inflame your gut.
Below, I’ve included tablets, capsules, and powders, all of which are gluten-free and a few that are soy- and dairy-free. If you’re kosher or looking to avoid nuts and GMOs, the first pick checks those boxes, too.