Commonly-known probiotics work in a wide variety of ways to improve your overall health. They crowd out “bad” bacteria, break down toxins, help with digestion, and combine certain essential nutrients such as folic acid and vitamin K.

Foods such as yogurt and kefir are packed with probiotics. But are you maximizing your probiotics’ potential? Just as athletes warm up before a game or race, your gut needs ‘warming up’ before it’s ready to put probiotics to work. The answer? Prebiotics.

Prebiotics are defined as “food ingredients that induce the growth or activity of beneficial microorganisms, such as bacteria and fungi.” They are as important for your diet — and gut health — as probiotics, because they feed the flora that keep your digestive tract healthy.

Without their nourishment, the probiotics you’re consuming won’t work up to their potential.

Aside from fueling the growth of probiotic microorganisms, prebiotics offer a wealth of health benefits you might be missing out on.

When the bacteria in your gut “eats” prebiotics, they produce short-chain fatty acids, or SCFAs. These SCFAs sow a variety of health benefits that include:

Preventing intestinal hyperpermeability, or leaky gut — a condition that allows toxins, bacteria, undigested food particles, and other undesirable gut contents to enter the bloodstream and circulate to the rest of the body. A leaky gut can cause systemic inflammation. Because of this, the immune system may not protect the body as well as it should, leading to fatigue as well as joint and muscle aches. Digestion is also adversely affected, and people with leaky gut often complain of bloating, cramps, and diarrhea. SCFAs help strengthen the integrity of the intestinal wall, playing a key role in preventing leaky gut.

Reducing inflammation. SCFAs help with decreased inflammation throughout the body. By reducing inflammation, your gut and immune functions are better maintained.

Curbing cancer cells with the help of SCFAs. The SCFA butyrate has been found to slow the growth of cancer cells in the colon; another SCFA called acetate helps inhibit pathogenic organisms.

Supporting satiety. Who doesn’t want the added benefit of weight loss when they’re eating healthy? Increased SCFAs in the gut contribute to better satiety and weight loss, as well as an improved glucose metabolism.

To incorporate prebiotics into your diet, choose plant-based foods that contain prebiotic fibers such as asparagus, cabbage, garlic, Jerusalem artichokes, and onions. Unripe bananas, cashews, pistachios, lentils, and chickpeas are great prebiotic-packed foods, as well.

To maximize the power of prebiotics, be sure to pair them with probiotics. For example, start your day off with a dose of unripe bananas.

While perhaps a bit unappetizing on their own, unripe bananas can be blended in a smoothie with a nut butter and a probiotic like full-fat yogurt. Looking for a healthy snack? Try making homemade tzatziki dip. Chop up a couple cloves of garlic, your prebiotic fiber, and blend with probiotic-packed Greek yogurt, grated cucumber, chopped dill and some lemon juice.

Incorporating prebiotics in your diet is not only easy–it’s an easy way to improve your overall health, too. Paired with probiotics, prebiotics lay the groundwork for a healthy gut, brain, and immune system. Soon, you won’t meal prep or plan without them.