What's the difference between prebiotics and probiotics?

What's the difference between prebiotics and probiotics? 
And why do we need both?

The short answer is to keep good bacterial in your belly and to help your gut stay strong and healthy. You want to have both in your diet. 

Prebiotics are specific nutrients naturally occurring in whole grains, fruits, legumes, and certain plants. They stimulate the friendly bacteria in the digestive tract, making them either grow or become more active. When this happens it increases good digestive health which is what we all want, right? Prebiotics are foods that nourish the bacteria already present in your gut. Whole wheat and oats, mushrooms, raspberries, artichokes, beans, and asparagus are all good sources of the soluble fibers that make great fuel for your intestinal microbes

Probiotics helps support regularity, healthy intestinal bacteria, and a strong immune system. Once they pass through the small intestine undigested, the prebiotics enter the large intestine where they are fermented by preexisting anaerobic bacteria. Here, it acts as fuel or nutrients for the bacteria in the gut. Yogurt and Kombucha are great sources of Probiotics. 

You could buy these individually in various forms at the store or take the easy (more tasty) way and drink one Shakeology a day.  

Shakeology contains both prebiotics and probiotics from the most potent food sources.You can lose weight and fight disease at the same time. Way more efficient if you ask me. 

Probiotics used in Shakeology is Bacillus Coagulans which is a powerful strain proven to survive the acids in the stomach and reach the intestine where it is intended to function. 

Probiotics are good bacteria that help create a healthy environment in the intestines, to maintain healthy and improved digestive function. These friendly organisms may also help fight bacteria that cause diarrhea and there's also evidence that probiotics help maintain a strong immune system. This is why the probiotics need to reach the intestines instead of being eaten up in the stomach.

In Shakeology, prebiotics are found in the yacon root. The yacon root is a tuber similar to the sweet potato that has the highest natural form of FOS, a powerful prebiotic.

Benefits:

Digestion  If your digestion is feeling good, you are most likely feeling pretty good.  Today, we can trace so much back to our gut flora. Probiotics bring in that good bacteria that keeps our gut strong. 

Immune System   Our gut has a lot to do with our immunity. Prebiotics and probiotics increase the body’s natural ability to absorb vitamins and minerals, when our bodies are absorbing the healthy food we eat, our immune systems are naturally strengthened. I can speak first hand to this. Since I started drinking Shakeology daily back in 2009, I have not been sick once. No medicines, no doctors, just healthy living to keep my body performing optimally. If you don't have a good healthy foundation in your gut, you're more susceptible to bad bacteria making its way in. 

Stress Management Our diets and hormones have a lot to do with how our bodies handle stress. It is much easier to rebound from stress when our guy in also healthy. Without a healthy gut, we are compromising our health and allowing stress to do even more harm. When you take probiotics, you are less reactive to stress and able to focus more on the positive outcomes rather than negative. It's all connected! Having healthy gut flora acts as an adaptogen (also found in Shakeology). This helps our bodies more resilient to overall environmental stress