As evidence piles up about the importance of our microbiome to our health, so too has the desire to boost it. First came probiotics, the live bacteria you need in your gut. Then there were prebiotics, or the foods these microbes need to thrive. Now, there is a new kid on the block: postbiotics, a catch-all term to describe dead bacteria and the products excreted by live microbes.
It turns out that postbiotics do a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to the relationship between your gut microbiome – made up of bacteria, fungi and viruses – and good health. And by cutting out the go-between, you can sidestep many of the problems that come with trying to optimise gut health by other means.
“There’s excitement building around postbiotics,” says Colin Hill, a microbiologist at University College Cork in Ireland. “It feels like we’re at a nexus where this field is potentially going to explode.” Certainly, lifestyle magazines and health food shops are extolling their benefits for everything from better skin and stronger muscles to stopping hot flushes and preventing diarrhoea.
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For now, diet may be the best route to postbiotic benefits. The usual advice stands: eat diversely with plenty of plant-based fare and steer clear of ultra-processed foods. It is accepted wisdom that eating fermented foods, such as yogurt, kimchi, miso, kombucha and kefir, is good for us as these contain live bacteria that can make postbiotics.
