Everybody is so caught up with "Fake News" that nobody cares about things that may actually affect us. There are many fake "health claims" out there - products that claim to be healthy and beneficial while actually not being beneficial at all.
The aim of many people to live healthy life is a good one. Many people exercise regularely, eat healthy and use products that claim to be healthy. Our wish to live long and healthy sadly seems to make us naive and we trust the most vague claims without checking what is actually behind it. Today I will look into probiotic yogurt drinks and the myths surrounding them.
Probiotic Drinks - What Is That, Probiotic?
Probiotic drinks are usually milk based yogurt drinks that contain certain stems of bacteria. The Japanese brand yakult contains Lactobacillus casei Shirota, named after their discoverer and founder of Yakult Dr. Shirota (1). The French-based brand Danone produces Activia, which contains Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus bulgaricus, and Streptococcus thermophiles (2).
There are many bacteria living in our guts, forming a biofilm which helps us to digest certain materials that we would otherwise be unable to use. The composition of said biofilm can change rapidly when your diet changes. For example, the amount of certain microbes that metabolize plant sugars (like cellulose) decreases when we eat mostly meat, and the numbers of bacteria that are resistant to bile and other fat emulsifiers (neccessary for meat consumption) increase (3). The composition of our gut bacterial biofilm can change our ability to harvest energy from foods. In obese mice it was found that the composition of their gut bacterial population enhanced their ability to get energy from foods, thus favoring the development of obesity (4). Furthermore, gut bacteria may be able to prevent infections by fighting off disease-causing bacteria. Bacteria in our body seem to play a very imprtant role as they have implications in oral health (5), autism spectrum disorders (6) and regulation of immune system homeostasis (7). So it is no wonder that people start to care about the microbiome in their guts. And it is also no wonder that some companies see a nieche that is worth billions.
Probiotic Drinks
In 1935 Yakult hit the market in Japan, spread to Taiwan in 1964 and to the US in 1990 (8). Yakult makes roughly 2.8 billion euros in revenue and employs 31.700 employees (9). In 1994 Actimel became available and brought in 1.4 billion in revenue in 2006 (10). There is a lot of money to be made from probiotic drinks. Part of this comes from health claims and big advertisement budget. In 2008 Danone invested 50 million euros in its marketing in Germany alone (10). All the fuzz aside, what is actually in probiotic drinks?
| Category | Yakult (80mL) | Actimel (100mL) |
|---|---|---|
| Bacteria | 6.5 billion | 10 billion |
| Calories | 50kcal | 71kcal |
| Sugars | 11g | 10.5g |
taken from varying sources (9), (10) (11), (12),
Yakult Ingredients:
Water, Sugar, Skim Milk Powder, Glucose, Natural Flavors, Lactobacillus Casei Shirota
No Fat. No Cholesterol.
No Preservatives. No Gluten.
No High Fructose Corn Syrup.
Activia Strawberry Ingredients:
Yogurt (skimmed Milk, skimmed milk concentrate / skimmed milk powder, cream (milk), yogurt cultures), Skimmed milk, Sugar/ Liquid sugar (sucrose: 8.5%), Strawberry (2.1%), Dextrose, Milk minerals, Stabiliser (modified tapioca starch), Natural flavourings, Acidity regulator (sodium citrate), Lactobacillus casei (L. casei Danone®), Vitamins (B6,3).
Source
The Controvery
In 2010 the European Food Safety Authority concluded that Yakult does not effectively help to prevent upper respiratory tract infections, because these claims are not sufficiently supported by scientific studies (12). Actimel was awarded the "Goldener Windbeutel" by foodwatch Germany, which is an award for false advertisement (13). Many journals in Germany are criticizing Actimel for false advertisement, especially the claims that Actimel has positive health benefits (14), (15), (16).
I already stated the ingredients and nutritional information for Actimel and Yakult, and, in summary, they both are sugar water mixed with fermented milk (or it´s powder form). If you compare the sugar content of either drink to coca cola, they both are comparable or even higher (coca cola has 10.6g of sugar in it´s classic version (17)).
While it has been shown that probiotic drinks contain as many or even more bacteria as promised, it appears that the number of probiotics decreases significantly while passing through the stomach and small intestines, which would mean that the promised benefits from "good bacteria" cannot be achieved by drinking probiotic drinks (18). However, it is difficult to research the number of bacteria that make it to the gut after ingestion, because science has not yet developed very accurate models of the human digestive system.
It appears that the general consensus in science is that probiotic preparations may be beneficial in the treatment of certain diseases.
A study has shown a possible improvement of oral health (decreased occurence of dental caries) due to consumption of probiotics (5). The Mayo clinic suggests possible benefits in the treatment of gastrointestinal disorders with the help of probiotics (19). On the other hand, a study has shown that commercial probiotic drinks do not cause significant improvement of disorders caused by treatment with antibiotics in elderly hospital patients over a span of three days (20).
In summary, probiotic preparations can have positive health benefits in people with disordered gut microbiomes. Claims that probiotic drinks such as Yakult and Actimel help your immune system and make you healthy seem to not have sufficient scientific backing.
It is probably best to stay away from probiotic drinks. Most people are fine without probiotic supplements (19). A healthy lifestyle does not need products that claim to have health benefits. The best way to stay healthy is to stay active, and eat healthy. Supplements are not just not neccessary, but can be harmful in the worst case.
Be sceptical of health supplements and products claiming to be "scientificly proven". Read research papers. There are many great sources out there like google scholar or science direct. Or simply go to a library - they still exist!
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