Theres a good chance youre familiar with probiotics (at least familiar enough where you make sure to stock up on Greek yogurt at the grocery store or pick up pills from your pharmacy).

But when it comes to your gut health, its actually the balance of two types of bacteria probiotics and prebiotics that helps keep everything operating as it should.

There is a balance between [bacteria] in the gut called homeostasis, said Ashkan Farhadi, a gastroenterologist at MemorialCare Orange Coast Medical Center and director of MemorialCare Medical Groups Digestive Disease Project in Fountain Valley, California. When this homeostasis becomes imbalanced, its important to restore it by providing the body with good bacteria that then help gut health, Farhadi said.

Enter probiotics and prebiotics, which you can get through diet and supplements.

But downing a cup of Chobani alone isnt going to solve the issue. There are specific ways to balance your gut health with probiotics and prebiotics, and multiple ways to get them from what you consume.

Differentiating between probiotics and prebiotics

Heres an easy way to keep probiotics and prebiotics straight when it comes to their function in the body: Probiotics are good bacteria that are introduced to the gut to grow and thrive, said Erin Palinski-Wade , a registered dietitian and author of the 2-Day Diabetes Diet . Prebiotics are essentially food for these good bacteria. This means they help stimulate and fuel the growth of probiotic bacteria already present in the body, acting like a fertilizer.

It is essential to have both prebiotics and probiotics to promote gut health, Palinksi-Wade added.