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Did you know that 80 percent of the cells that exist inside your body are essentially "non-human?"

According to a recent study done on the innocuous and necessary bacteria that live in and on our bodies researchers found about 1000 species total, which were fairly consistent from person to person; it turns out we all have similar tenants in our noses and on our backs. The number suggests that our skin is as variegated as our guts, which house anywhere from 500 to 1000 bacterial species.

Now researchers suggest that foods that cater to these bacteria to increase their efficiency and productivity will be the next step in improving human health.

"Just as people need food to thrive, so do the billions of healthful bacteria that live in our guts, our gastrointestinal tract," Rastall explained. "There's a large and expanding body of scientific evidence that bacteria in the gut play a role in health and disease. Prebiotics are foods that contain nutrients that support the growth and activity of these friendly bacteria."

Different from Probiotic foods, which actually contain friendly bacteria like Lactobacillus acidophilus believed to release healthful substances as they grow in the GI tract, Prebiotics are indigestible food ingredients that provide no nutrition to people. Their purpose is to nourish the friendly bacteria among the estimated 100 trillion microbes living inside the human GI tract.

Additionally, prebiotics do not require refrigeration. Some of the foods we eat today, Rastall note, contain small amounts of one of the most common prebiotics, called inulin, which we get from wheat, onions, garlic, chicory and certain other foods. He cited studies showing that when people eat more inulin and other prebiotics, the balance of microbes in the gut shifts to one linked to a range of health benefits.

The researcher asserts that prebiotics can help people with existing health problems as well as people who simply want to maintain the health of already thriving microbes.

Randal cites "individuals with gastrointestinal diseases, Type-2 diabetes and low-grade inflammation linked to an increased risk of heart disease and other conditions, and people at risk for travelers' diarrhea."

For information on how to sustain a healthy pro-prebiotic diet visit this site.