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Since you seem to be focused on natural healing through diet you could start with 100% grass fed raw milk, kefirs, yogurts, kombucha, or lacto fermentation. There is a natural probiotic methodology for all diets except maybe pure carnivores (I haven't look into it but there probably is a way to ferment meat too). If it is just an experiment you can start with lacto ferments which are fairly easy. It's basically just vegetables in a salt solution (brine), we use pickle pipes as those make the process even easier. We make our own pickles, sauerkraut, and vegetable medleys.

If you want a supplement then you would need to focus on a specific issue you want to resolve or a generic daily probiotic. You may be able to get decent advice from a local health food store, assuming there is one and they have an educated supplements manager. You could always call one and just ask to speak to the supplements manager.

Я начал делать свой собственный ферментированный пробиотический напиток с кокосовой водой. Слышала много хороших отзывов об этих кашах тибикос.
www.culturedfoodlife.com/recipe/coconut-water-kefir/

Hello BillPopMMS, I believe that probiotics are helpful, and worth the money, when there's an issue with insufficient gut bacteria and a problem with digestion, for example when using antibiotics and other gut bacteria killers. There are certain food products stimulating the health and growth of gut bacteria. The following text is copied from the Mayo Clinic website:

"PREBIOTICS
Prebiotics are specialized plant fibers. They act like fertilizers that stimulate the growth of healthy bacteria in the gut. Prebiotics are found in many fruits and vegetables, especially those that contain complex carbohydrates, such as fiber and resistant starch. These carbs aren't digestible by your body, so they pass through the digestive system to become food for the bacteria and other microbes.

PROBIOTICS
Probiotics are different in that they contain live organisms, usually specific strains of bacteria that directly add to the population of healthy microbes in your gut. Like prebiotics, you can take probiotics through both food and supplements. Probably the most common probiotic food is yogurt. Yogurt is made by fermenting milk with different bacteria, which are left in the final product. Other bacteria-fermented foods, such as sauerkraut, kombucha and kimchi, are also good sources of probiotics.

SUPPLEMENTS
One thing to understand about supplements is that there are many, many kinds. For instance, one type of bacteria commonly used is lactobacillus. But there are more than 120 species of lactobacillus, and at least a dozen of them are used as probiotics.

What's more, there are several other types of bacteria, each with dozens of species, making for a dizzying variety of available probiotics. And even when you select a kind of bacteria, the amount in the supplement can vary between brands. When taking a probiotic, research the condition you wish to address and select the probiotic based on that condition".

Natural supplements are obviously most wholesome. Brands may show differences in quantity of ingredients and composition. I myself rely on prebiotics and probiotics present in my daily food substances, if only for the far lower costs compared to pills etc.

I have tried a few different ones, and they all worked for a while then seemed to stop working.  My trusted naturopaths and I believe that once my body used it to solve the imbalance, it no longer needed that particular probiotic.

After that, I started using kombucha, and I have been very happy with it for several years now.  It took a while to confirm, but whenever I don't get my kombucha for a few days, I start to get anxiety, brain fog, etc.  Of course there are many other things that impact it, so it takes a while to draw good correlations.

In case anyone is interested, I make my own kombucha (unless I'm on the road, etc.), and from one starter scoby a few years ago, I have made hundreds of liters with total control of the ingredients.  Every 3 weeks when I make new batches, I save most of the scoby as treats for the dogs and chickens.  They all love them, and we have noticed very good positive effects on them.

Something to think about.  Always glad to answer questions if anyone is interested.

It’s a complex issue, and I’m no expert, but there are a couple things to consider:
1. Some probiotics to be consumed regularly
2. SOIL-BASED probiotics are super important and *theoretically* don’t need to be consumed as often because they tend to create stable colonies that stay viable long-term. And the soil-based microbes are the ones most people are most deficient in.

The best strategy is to get as much VARIETY as possible. Take some in the form of supplements and eat others. Find several good brands you trust and rotate them for maximum variety. Eat as many kinds of fermented foods as you can - kombucha, saurkraut, kimchi, yogurt and/or kefir (though most store-bought yogurts are crap), brine shots, and so on. Find ferments that use only water and sea salt. Most store-bought pickles and sauerkraut use vinegar and contain *preservatives* which is stupid, because a PROPER ferment is inherently preserved. (Food preservation is the reason humans started fermenting in the first place!)

I recently started ordering from a company called Olive My Pickle. They have a large variety of fermented veggies, krauts, kimchi, pickles, olives, and brine shots! (I don’t work for them and get nothing for recommending them; I just really think they’re high-quality products and I love them!)

I'm a holistic doctor & In my clinic our #1 probiotic is PrescriptAssist.

Hello ButterBreath. Yes, Kombucha is a great substance, I remember from the 70´s this was very popular in Holland. Personally, I can´t get used to the taste. Now, half a century later, many experiments are done with Kombucha, in my country, like adding other ingredients, such as coffee with cardamon.
This is an example of a Dutch Kombucha producer: www.kraanvogelkombucha.nl/

Yes, I agree with the view that fermented foods are excellent for our health. When I started a study in Eastern medicine and healing methods plus macrobiotics, a diet introduced in the Netherlands around 1965, by two Dutch brothers, preparing miso soup every day, and eating tempeh, and tamari, resulted in a fast rise in my health and some extra weight, moving away from a hippie trippy lifestyle. I was Twiggy!

So much so, that I´ve made food and health my main line of study until now, with the benefit also of supporting others with their diet and good health, especially since the pandemic started. Since 2018 I´m making kefir, taking a glass every morning, and share it with my 2 cats. They´re fond of it! 🐈🐈