Probiotics: How useful are "healthy" yogurts?

Probiotics: They Sound Good, but How Friendly Are They?Jennifer Huget, The Washington Post, March 24, 2009

Translation: InopressaJournalist Jennifer Huget decided to find out how useful bifidobacteria and other microorganisms known as "probiotics" really are.

Probiotics, discovered more than a century ago by Ilya Mechnikov, are the basis of a functional nutrition system: they restore the beneficial intestinal microflora. However, despite all their supposed advantages, probiotics are not a medicine, and the concept of "beneficial bacteria" oversimplifies the facts, the publication warns. In the latest issue of the scientific journal Nutrition in Clinical Practice, data on experimental treatment with probiotics are published – this is both the prevention of diarrhea and the strengthening of the general condition of seriously ill patients. The authors of all studies concluded that probiotic-based drugs are promising, but their effects have not yet been sufficiently studied. So, in the USA, no probiotic medicine has yet been certified, the newspaper reports.

In these conditions, manufacturers of products with probiotics are forced to advertise them in the language of euphemisms: for example, Activia is reported that it "shortens the duration of the path". "The yogurt manufacturer cannot directly state that his product saves from constipation, since it is a matter of medicine to treat constipation, and medicines are subject to licensing," the publication explains. Yoghurts and other products with probiotics are healthy food, but you should not rely only on beneficial bacteria, American nutritionists advise. The intestines also need fiber, which is found in whole grain products, vegetables and fruits. However, probiotics will help those who are forced to take antibiotics, but they have their own side effects – flatulence and abdominal distension, doctors told the publication.

Portal "Eternal youth" www.vechnayamolodost.ru26.03.2009