ProBiotic DIGEST
Joanna Krzeslak Hoogland
Jan 2016 | Sofia Simeonidou
Joanna is a passionate educator. She promotes gut health and the importance of microbes and nutrition. She is also a natural peoples’ helper. She will help you understand why you need to make conscious choices about what you feed your body with. Reach out.
Why ProBiotic DIGEST?
I am fascinated with the huge impact of tiny microbes , residing in and on us, on our lives. I feel like I have a mission to tell the world about it. I see myself as an informant, a bridge and a voice for the voiceless microbes. And there I put a few ingredients together, my passion for science, microbes, education, and health to bring ProBiotic DIGEST to life. I want to create microbial and nutritional awareness.
Would you say it is usual for people with a doctoral degree to work with what they are passionate about?
It depends. And it is very personal I guess. Some people are always more passionate about what they do than others. Generally I think that people doing a doctoral degree have, in one way or the other, to be passionate about what they do. There is no other way; it is a very conscious choice to go down the doctoral road.
What was your favourite food when you were a kid?
Just typical enough, pancakes with jam.
Do you still eat pancakes with jam?
I eat pancakes. Not with jam.
What is the least healthy habit you have at the moment?
Not taking enough breaks away from my desk to stretch. And going to bed late.
If suddenly what is considered unhealthy today becomes healthy tomorrow, what would you choose to indulge in?
I nourish my microbial-self with healthy food. I consume real food but I would indulge (and I sometimes do) in a divine dark chocolate molten cake. Yum.
What is Real Food ?
For me real food is food that comes directly from nature with no artificial or synthetic additives at any stage of the preparation process. It’s food that simply nourishes our body, satisfies our hunger, and keeps us in physical and mental balance.
Are you a vegetarian?
I am not a vegetarian. I do eat some meat once in a while. I however reduced meat consumption out of respect for sentient beings and for health-related, environmental, and economical reason.
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I feel like I have a mission to tell the world about it.
Is it all about our gut?
Our gut together with our gut microbes is a very important contributor to our health. So indeed it’s all about:
Gut awareness, getting in touch with our gut
Gut knowledge, appreciate and respect our microbial-selves
Understanding the connection between our gut and many western maladies
Microbirth microbes are the very first “alive forms” a newborn gets in touch with.
Tell us one thing we do not know about Probiotics.
No one probiotic fits all. The diversity, heterogeneity and complexity across individual human gut microbiomes contribute to different responses to one and the same probiotic.
So how do you know which Probiotic is best for each individual? Is this part of your consultation?
I help people to select a right probiotic/foods based on their needs and/or complaints. I use current probiotic knowledge and eventually stool analysis. It is, however, not black and white and sometimes one may need to experiment before knowing which probiotic works the best in certain situation, for certain complaints, at certain age, in combination with a certain diet or medicines.
How did you come up with the name ProBiotic DIGEST?
Pro stands for “for”, “to promote” and for “professionalism”,
Biotic stands for “life”,
ProBiotic also to indicate beneficial microorganisms (probiotics),
DIGEST stands for “food digestion” and for a “summary” and it is there to indicate “gut health and nutrition” and a source of “digested information”.
