Photo by hfb/Flickr CC
I like yogurt. But do probiotics--those "friendly" bacteria in yogurt and increasingly added to other foods--do anything for you beyond making yogurt taste good? I wrote about probiotics in What to Eat at some length. Tara Parker-Pope has a quick summary of the state of the research in today's New York Times.
The quick answer is mixed. It includes a lot of "maybe" or "probably," always a sign that whatever probiotics might do isn't going to be much. The answer is probably yes for infant diarrhea and, maybe, irritable bowel syndrome, and maybe or no for just about everything else.
If it were up to me, food packages would have no claims on them: none at all. Foods are not drugs.
In the absence of FDA action to regulate misleading health claims, lawyers have jumped into the breach. They have just won a large class-action settlement--$35 million--against Dannon for claiming that Activia yogurt promotes immunity. According to one news account, Dannon spent $100 million marketing the immunity-promoting effects of Activia ignoring the results of its own company-sponsored research which inconveniently showed few benefits. (Did they not pay enough for the research?).
Dannon is working hard to get an approved health claim from the European Standards Agency which annoyingly wants to see some science behind health claims before approving them. Dannon has now added a tomato extract to its yogurts with the idea that this substance, which appears to help deal with diarrhea, will strengthen its bid for a health claim.
Probiotics are another reason why the FDA needs to set better standards for health claims. If it were up to me, food packages would have no claims on them: none at all. Foods are not drugs.
Image Courtesy of Marion Nestle
And here's another reason why.
Will Cocoa Krispies be the next target of those pesky lawyers?
FDA: get to work!
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Tomatoes for diarrhea! That's a new one.
I agree that food are not drugs - but they are sometimes our best medicine. I find it laughable that yogurt makers that add all sorts of fillers and gums and HFCS to their products can deem them healthy in any respect.
Lacto-fermented dairy products provide Lactobacilli Acidophilus and other strains of healthy, LIVE bacteria that can help balance a gut. Your standard yogurt bought at your local market is a far inferior product to what is made by a natural fermentation process and any positive results from those products are negligible. Any probiotics once found in the yogurt our dead simply because of pasteurization and homongenization.
I'm a big fan of Ms. Nestle's but I think foods can and should claim health benefits when the science backs it up. Whole foods. Processed foods are another game altogether.
Definitely not if they are flavored. Best yoghurt is made at home. In Indian homes, rice with yoghurt is a panacea for all stomach related illnesses.
It seems like every food manufacturer is trying to come up with something more "healthy" all the time. Probiotics may just be one of those unsubstantiated claims out there about better digestive health. I guess with $100 million in marketing people can be led to believe anything. I agree with the previous comment that natural homemade yogurt is best for you. http://www.mydochub.com