Probiotic yogurt possibly pointless
Slugging down a shot of probiotic yogurt may be pointless, according to new research.
Despite a long held assumption that downing shots of probiotic-filled yogurts will benefit the gut by bombing it with “good bacteria”, it seems it may not make any difference at all.
New research by Israel-based Weizmann Institute of Science concludes that there is no “one size fits all” probiotic to balance everyone's bacteria.
Speaking to The Daily Mail, immunologist Dr Elinav, said “people have thrown a lot of support to probiotics, even though the literature underlying our understanding of them is very controversial”.
“We wanted to determine whether probiotics such as the ones you buy in the supermarket do colonise the gastrointestinal tract like they're supposed to, and then whether these probiotics are having any impact on the human host,” he said.
“Surprisingly, we saw that many healthy volunteers were actually resistant in that the probiotics couldn't colonise their gastrointestinal (GI) tracts.
“This suggests that probiotics should not be universally given as a 'one-size-fits-all' supplement. Instead, they could be tailored to the needs of each individual.”
Sheridan Randall, 7th September 2018
