Bought a bottle of prebiotics to try: The gummy-drop GOS I use costs 90¢/day. The Jarrow cost 60¢/day and contain not only 1g of GOS, but also have 1g of XOS (xylooligosaccharides.) The NIH has several articles on XOS, which is made from plant fiber (apparently has been around since the 1980s, but I've not encountered it before.) The only consistent downside I read in the Comments relates to the tablets themselves. Some said they are "chalky." Others said they are rock-hard (one person claims to have broken a tooth.) I'll see for myself. They'll save me $120/year AND add another prebiotic to the mix. If nothing else, maybe they'll soften or dissolve in cranberry juice or in the ginger/turmeric tea I brew.
Can’t you just swallow the tablets, @John Brunner , or is it necessary to be able to chew them ? If you are taking them along with a meal, they should dissolve and be digested right along with your food, I would think.
That's a good question. I've mentioned before that when I started taking supplements in the early 90s there was a big debate regarding how well they were absorbed because the process the FDA used in no way resembled the human gut. That debate specifically centered around what you & I are talking about right now...do whole pills break down enough to be fully absorbed. The FDA's process ground the pills before subjecting them to the simulated digestive tract. Safemom.org says: The pill will pass through your system and end up in your toilet. Hello Pharmacist says: Chewable tablets that are chewed may work a little faster than non-chewed tablets, but the time difference generally isn't significant. The acid in our stomach will dissolve them and they will be absorbed like usual. Settled Science, huh?
What I have read was that it almost completely depends on whether you take the pills along with other food. Our body does not recognize a hard little pill as any kind of nutrient that our body needs, so it just mainly ignores it and lets the pill pass on through our digestive system, minus whatever does happen to dissolve on its own. Stomach acid will dissolve them, but we only produce that acid when we eat actual food that starts the digestion reaction. When we eat actual food, our body starts making the digestive enzymes and acids and whatnot that it needs to digest the food. It sits in the stomach for a while and also in the gut for a while, so there is plenty of time for a pill to be dissolved. The other option would be to crush the pill, or leave it in something liquid (boiling hot water ?) long enough for the pill to dissolve. Maybe, blend it up in a smoothie ? Yogurt and kefir have natural probiotics, and would help make a smoothie that would provide both once you added the prebiotic pills to it.
I had not heard of taking pills with food so they will digest, but it makes sense. One would think this to be settled science. I was thinking I could dissolve the prebiotic in a cup of chicory tea, since I'd also be getting inulin/FOS. But yogurt's not a bad idea.
Kate, I got the lid covers and sleeves for my mason jars. They look like they will work well with the Aerogarden pods, or other hydroponic setups in jars. I'll be setting them up this week so we'll see. Set up with the pod in place... My latest purchase was a floor lamp and a couple of GE grow light bulbs. The lamp looks like this...
I may get a few of those sleeves to use for making sprouts. The sprouting trays come with a blackout bag, but I just lay a black cloth over the jars when I make sprouts.
Just ordered a Garmin Drivecam 76, which has a built-in dash cam. My older, but not that old,Garmin GPS (i.e., a Drivesmart 65) got sunstroke last year sitting in a hot car, began acting schizoid by occasionally flashing strange numbers and changing screens. When it stopped communicating today and wouldn't reset back to semi-normal behavior, that was the last straw, triggering the online order. I often plan my trips to a fare-thee-well using the Garmin Basecamp app and then load them into the GPS. It is a habit I picked up from flight planning when learning to fly.eons ago.
I always take my vitamins in the morning after breakfast. I just feel they work better with something in my stomach. I wonder, though, about instructions on certain drugs that say, "can be taken with or without food". I figured it was to show they don't upset a person's stomach but what about the dissolving issue?
I think taking with food diminishes the speed at which bad side effects occur. It may , or may not, sort of dilute the toxins so that the body is better able , more slowly absorbed, to deal with them and de-toxify more.
I wondered the same thing myself. I think all they're saying is it won't upset your stomach...they are not making any representation regarding how well they dissolve.
I found some nice little metal spice shelves that are magnetic and will stick to the "hidden side" of my refrigerator. These are convenient for the stuff I use most often and cleared out some real estate in my spice cabinet.
All I need is one of those P-38 can openers which were in each case of C-Rations. I think I still have one on my dog tag chain. If they ever declare cans hazardous to the environment I'm outta luck.