The difference is quite simple, probiotics are friendly bacteria which live in our stomach while prebiotics are the nutrient which promote the growth of that bacteria. Prebiotics are non-digestible food ingredients that stimulate the growth or activity of the good bacteria (known as probiotics) in the digestive system which are beneficial to the health of the body. Prebiotics also can be described as selectively fermented, dietary ingredients that results in specific changes in the composition and/or activity of the gastrointestinal bacteria. The most common prebiotics are carbohydrates such as oligosaccharides. Most of the dietary fiber has shows some level of prebiotic effects. Common sources of prebiotics are soybeans, oats, unrefined wheat or whole wheat. Two most common prebiotics are fructooligosaccharides (FOS) and galactooligosaccharides (GOS).

Consuming functional foods which contains prebiotics will stimulate the growth of healthy bacteria such as lactobacilli in the intestine thus increase the resistance towards invading pathogen.

Probiotics as introduced earlier are organisms that contribute to the health and balance of the intestinal tract and are commonly referred to as the friendly, beneficial or good bacteria, which when ingested act to maintain a healthy intestinal tract and help fight disease. Common friendly bacteria that are referred as probiotics are Lactobacillus acidophilusand bifidobacteria. The activities of these good bacteria in the intestinal tract can be increase by consuming prebiotics. Prebiotics will promote the growth of the probiotics hence giving lot of benefits to the host.

A large body of scientific research has examined the role of probiotics in the treatment of gastrointestinal diseases such as diarrhea, inflammatory bowel diseases as well as urinary tract infections and some cancers.

These beneficial bacteria can be obtained through consumption of fermented foods such as yogurt as these are produced using live cultures of lactobacillus or bifidobacteria. To choose probiotics products, several points should be considered:

All probiotics products are not the same. Some contain a single type of organism and others contain many.
The health effects are species and strain specific and cannot be generalized to other bacteria. For example, lactobacillus has been shown to be helpful for childhood diarrhea but not for other intestinal disease.
Look for product with billions of bacteria in it. You need this many to to effectively colonize your intestine.
Store probiotic supplement in a cool, dry place such as refrigerator.
Yogurt or any fermented milk product must contain 100 million bacteria per dose to be effective. Products which are pasteurized or have been sitting in the refrigerator for a long time will have very few active bacteria.

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