Over the last five to 10 years, grocery store shelves have become increasingly crammed with probiotic sodas, drinkable yogurts and fermented beverages marketed toward supporting your gut microbiome \u2014 the microscopic community of bacteria and other living organisms that live in your gastrointestinal tract.<\/p>\n
Some local businesses have even built brands around this gut health boom.<\/p>\n
Happy Gut Foods, for example, is a Leon-Valley-based pop-up grocer offering probiotic drinks and fermented produce. On the East Side, a taproom bar called Fermenteria brews its own water kefir, a bubbly fermented drink. EndoMune Probiotics, started by San Antonio gastroenterologist Dr. Lawrence Hoberman, has grown into a national probiotic supplement business.<\/p>\n
Research into the gut microbiome has accelerated quickly over the last two decades, as scientists have uncovered more and more connections between this community of microorganisms, our overall health and various diseases, including in San Antonio. <\/p>\n
UT Health San Antonio researchers recently found a link between a specific bacterium in the gut and lupus, an autoimmune disease with no cure that affects an estimated 1.5 million Americans<\/a>, a finding that could potentially lead to more effective treatments.<\/p>\n But how much of the gut health food and supplement boom is rooted in evidence versus wellness hype? According to the UT Health researchers behind the recent lupus findings, it\u2019s complicated.<\/p>\n \u201cI just had an email from a colleague asking me, \u2018I have a friend who just got diagnosed with lupus, should she take probiotics?\u2019\u201d said Laurence Morel, an immunologist who co-led the lupus study and heads UT Health\u2019s microbiology and immunology department. \u201cWe don\u2019t have simple answers.\u201d<\/p>\n What is the gut microbiome?<\/p>\n Your gastrointestinal tract is home to trillions of bacteria, fungi, viruses and parasites that float around or attach to the inner walls of the large intestine, small intestine and stomach. Scientists refer to this community of microbes as the gut microbiome, or gut microbiota.<\/p>\n Most of these microbes live symbiotically with us. They get shelter and food, and in turn help our bodies break down nutrients and keep harmful microbes in check. Without them, our bodies wouldn\u2019t be able to break down certain complex carbohydrates and fibers, and we would be deprived of important nutrients like short-chain fatty acids and vitamins B1, B9, B12 and K.<\/p>\n Researchers have also found that the gut microbiome has implications outside of our digestive system. The gut microbiome plays an especially important role in the immune system, helping us fight disease, as well as the nervous system via the gut-brain axis, and our endocrine system, which regulates hormones.<\/p>\n Research has shown that patients with a wide array of diseases and conditions \u2014 ranging from obesity, depression, Alzheimer\u2019s, eczema and colon cancer \u2014 also tend to have unbalanced gut microbiomes, or \u201cdysbiosis,\u201d meaning they lack an adequate number of healthy bacteria or have an overgrowth of harmful ones.\u00a0<\/p>\n These findings alone don\u2019t mean gut dysbiosis is causing or contributing to these diseases, explained Yong Ge, co-lead of the lupus study and gut microbiology researcher at UT Health.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have repeatedly seen that the microbiome is different between healthy people and diseased patients,\u201d he said, \u201cbut the first question is whether this is a cause or a consequence.\u201d<\/p>\n For some diseases, like lupus, there\u2019s a growing body of evidence that this imbalance is contributing to the disease, Morel said. \u201cWe are not saying that it causes [lupus],\u201d she added. \u201cBut it\u2019s part of the amplification of the disease.\u201d<\/p>\n Ge and Morel\u2019s lupus paper, published<\/a> in April in Nature Communications, found that supplementing lupus-prone mice with a specific bacterium \u2014 F. prausnitzii \u2014 alleviated disease progression. This bacterium is one of the most abundant in healthy guts, and has been shown to be depleted in lupus patients, Morel said.<\/p>\n The finding could potentially pave the way for human studies, and if successful, lead to a targeted probiotic treatment for lupus patients.<\/p>\n The growing gut health market<\/p>\n As research on the gut microbiome has grown, the health and wellness market has followed. A 2026 survey<\/a> by the International Food Information Council suggests that interest in gut health has made its way out of wellness culture into the mainstream, with nearly two-thirds of Americans considering gut health a high or extremely high priority.<\/p>\n Nationally, prebiotic soda companies like Olipop and Poppi have exploded in popularity, with Coca-Cola announcing its own line of prebiotic sodas last year.<\/p>\n Probiotic supplements have taken off too. The U.S. gut health supplements market size was estimated at $5.19 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $9.36 billion by 2033, according<\/a> to Grand View Research.\u00a0<\/p>\n Melissa Colunga, a San Antonio native, bought Happy Gut Foods in 2023. The fermented food and probiotic grocer has been around since 2015, selling out of its Leon Valley store and at local farmers markets.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople will say, \u2018Oh, I have been needing to focus on my gut health,\u2019 and we have had a lot more activity \u2026 it\u2019s like a buzz right now,\u201d Colunga said.<\/p>\n Concierge clinics and online wellness retailers have also started advertising gut microbiome testing: Stone Oak Women\u2019s Center, for example, offers a $425 GI tract assessment on their website. <\/p>\n But wellness marketing hasn\u2019t always kept pace with the research itself. <\/p>\n Evidence vs. hype<\/p>\n About 10 years ago, the general assumption was that by now, all of the new gut microbiome research would have led to several targeted treatments for various diseases, Morel said. Obesity, for example. <\/p>\n \u201cObesity has strong associations with changes in the gut microbiome,\u201d Morel said. \u201cMaybe if you could give [patients] a pill with healthy gut bacteria, they would improve.\u201d<\/p>\n But that largely hasn\u2019t happened, Morel said, in part because the mechanisms behind how the gut microbiome influences disease are still not completely understood.\u00a0<\/p>\n There are also so many different microbes, and everyone\u2019s gut microbiome is different, Ge added.<\/p>\n What is clear, Morel said, is that diets high in fiber<\/a> \u2014 like whole grains, fruit and vegetables \u2014 are generally good for your overall health, regardless of how much of those benefits can be attributed to promoting a healthy gut microbiome. Additionally, diets low in fiber and high in ultra-processed foods have been associated<\/a> with a decrease in microbial diversity and lower levels of beneficial bacteria.<\/p>\n