Scientists are only just discovering the enormous impact of our gut health – and how it could hold the key to everything from tackling obesity to overcoming anxiety and boosting immunity
The great opportunity – but also the great difficulty – of gut microbiome science is that poor gut health is associated with such a vast range of conditions, from obesity and degenerative brain diseases to depression, inflammatory bowel disease and chronic inflammation. “The microbiome is associated with everything,” “Pick a disease, it’s associated,” says Kinross. The microbiome is like a convergent science – you have to be an ecologist, a geneticist, a bioinformatician, a clinician and an epidemiologist, to try to make sense of it.”
The Guardian
OK, here's the scoop on the commercial probiotic products you find in the supermarkets: Don't believe the marketing claims that they contain probiotics. The bacteria in the yogurts were already dead on arrival (DOA) when they were placed on the supermarket refrigerated shelves. Why? Probiotics have a very,very short life. So don't waste your money on these expensive, hyped-up yogurts that have been sitting on the shelves for weeks or months.
ReplyDeleteProbiotic yogurt and fermented probiotic milk is very easy to make -- even fermented teas like Kombucha. So make your own. For example, make probiotic yogurt batches that will last for few days, then repeat. This way, you'll get the full benefits of probiotics.
Another note. Avoid the sugared yogurts and the 0% fat yogurts. You need the damn fat. It's the damn added sugar in your yogurt you don't need. Sssh!
ReplyDeleteOne more quick note while I am trying to decide which team I'll be cheering this afternoon: England or Italy. If you're crazy enough (brave?) to eat dairy products late at night, make sure the stull you eat is fermented like there is no tomorrow. Like what? Like cheese that is hard as a rock -- that is what.
stuff, not stull :(
ReplyDeleteThis is the way I see it:
ReplyDeleteIf England wins, the French, the Scots, the Irish and Spaniards will be pissed. Really. How do I know this? Well, I asked one of my Irish neighbours who lives just down the street the other day if she'll be cheering for England. The reaction I got from her, you'd think I had invited her and her mother for a free-for-all Roman orgy or something.
If Italy wins, I here in Montreal will have to endure the loud street parades from the HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of Italian fans.
Trivia: Gore Vidal was a big fan of orgies. Did you know that? In his autobiography (the early years), he writes that orgies where all the participants are willing (no prostitutes), they are really a lot of fun.
Al Gore also was a fan of orgies.
ReplyDeleteS400, they were related.
ReplyDeleteBtw, at the risk of saying the bloody obvious, all guts are not created equal. You know, If you can't digest or don't like dairy products, for example, then just don't eat them. Nothing abnormal in that. So just get your prebiotics and probiotics elsewhere... like from the "million" of edible plants out there. In other words, get them from the vegetable and fruit sectios in your supermarket. You know -- variety :)
PS: What a loser that Al Gore. Lost his own damn state (Tenn.). That's all he needed to do was win his own damn state. Still a double loser for giving up on the recount.
Where is your evidence that probiotic yogurt is a scam?
ReplyDeleteI consume 2 x 650g of Activia probiotic yogurt (blueberry) per week.
This brand is produced by Danone.
In other words, get them from the vegetable and fruit sectios in your supermarket. You know -- variety :)
ReplyDeleteYes, the section of the supermarket with clouds of fruit flies swarming around the produce. No thanks.
Science knows little about gut bacteria, bacteria in general, viruses, and how they interact.
ReplyDeleteEven Parkinson's disease now considered to be due to bad bacteria, but sometimes good bacteria can start pumping out toxins too when stressed with a high fat / high sugar diet.
DeleteMy evidence? The probiotics themselves. (Reread what I said.)
ReplyDeleteYes, the section of the supermarket with clouds of fruit flies swarming around the produce. No thanks.
ReplyDeleteJust be more discerning where you shop next time.
How short is a short life?
ReplyDeleteThe freshest yogurt I buy will have an expiry date within 2 weeks.
I'm calling bullshit on your claim.
Fruit fly infestation was at Sobeys. To be fair, there might be nothing they can do about it. Fruit flies have become resistant to all sorts of insecticides.
ReplyDeleteForza Italia!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteMy claim? Not my claim. I was just kind enough to inform readers here what every microbiologist knows, especially those in the dairy business.
ReplyDeleteUpdate: It’s “Rome,” not “home.” Football is coming to Rome!
All algore had to do was resign when the DNA test came back positive… would have won in a landslide…
ReplyDeleteWho was the daddy?
ReplyDeleteWhat every microbiologist knows, is that to make such a claim, carries legal consequences, namely libel. If there were an issue with a product, whether it be yogurt, milk or supplements, consumer watch organizations would have sounded the alarm.
ReplyDeleteOK, PP -- don't forget to pick up the overhyped (and surely overpriced) omega-3 eggs on your way to the check-out counter. If I remember correctly, one walnut (or is it 2?) has more omega-3s than a dozen of those omega-3 eggs.
ReplyDeleteFolks, there's a lot of money to be made off of the ignorance of consumers. Try not to be one of them.
And as I said before, everyone's gut is different. So play it smart and put the odds in your favour by eating a variety of foods, especially fruits and vegetables (plants!)
Example, I had for breakfast today:
-- one fried egg along with half a cup of precooked frozen mussels (fried together with the egg)
-- half cups of spinach, cabbage, and onions (all sauteed)
-- add Greek sea salt from the Aegean sea and then garnish with parsley and oregano.
-- filtered coffee (not into mud coffees like the cowboy or Greek coffees)
Look at that. I had 6 plant foods this morning. 6! (What do you think oregano, parsley and, yes, COFFEE are? )
Variety is indeed the spice of life :)
PS: Italy was by far the better team. The England coach should have reminded his players that the game is not 20 mins but 90 mins long.
PPS: "Rome," not "home." Football is coming to Rome.
I live on a fixed income. The staples in my diet are milk, bread, peanut butter, apple sauce, yogurt, sardines, tuna, luncheon meat, beans, and cereal. I rarely have fresh fruits or vegetables unless they come from a farmer's market, or I'm able to harvest them myself.
ReplyDeleteBread seems to be a culprit for intestinal problems. But bread provides more nutrients than fruits or vegetables.
PP,
ReplyDelete-- we here in Canada have one of the best dairy industries in the world. We should be proud of that. I see milk and yogurt as nutritious foods per se (protein, fats, carbs). So when I buy yogurt I buy the plain, simple, inexpensive varieties and avoid the overhyped, expensive, sugared, probiotic stuff. Maybe some yogurt brands will be more forthcoming and say "live cultures added" instead of saying just "probiotic yogurt" where pasteurization would have killed the probiotics to begin with. And even if live cultures have been added, two things wrong with that. One, because of the time it takes for the yogurt to get to the market (distribution channels), the live cultures are not live any longer or almost nil. Second, that live culture they added, how do you know it's right for you? For all you know, it could be useless for you or even worse for your health. As was said before, no one gut is the same. Or, more generally, one man's food is another man's poison.
-- nothing wrong from getting vegetables and fish that are frozen or canned. Just as nutritious if not more so. That's how I get most of them. Best deals are the frozen and canned fish, vegetables, and fruits from Costco.
--i try to buy local as much as possible. So in the summer and fall months I'll go to the farmers' market (Jean Talon market). Eggs, i'll pay a little more and get free-run eggs if i happen to buy them at the supermarket if i forgot to buy them at the farmers' market. Not that these eggs are any healthful or anything like that, but I just stand the thought of a million hens stacked in a tiny cage laying eggs.
--I still remember the Acai berry craze 20 years ago being pushed by the likes of Oprah. Man, that so stupid i don't know where to begin :(
Not all probiotic yogurts are created equal. Does yours measure up?
ReplyDeleteNot all yogurts are probiotic
In Canada, all yogurts are made with Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus – bacteria not recognized as probiotic by Health Canada. These yogurts are still a good source of protein, calcium, magnesium and zinc, but they don't contain beneficial probiotic cultures.
Some yogurt manufacturers, however, have added pre-approved probiotic strains to enable their products to deliver probiotic health benefits.
To be called a probiotic food, yogurt must contain at least one billion live colony-forming units (e.g., active probiotic cultures) of a recognized probiotic species per serving.
Danone's Activia yogurt, for example, contains the patented probiotic strain B.L. Regularis, which has been shown in clinical trials to lessen abdominal pain and bloating in people with irritable bowel syndrome.
The company's DanActive drinkable yogurt has L. casei Danone DN 114-001, a well-studied strain associated with a reduced incidence and/or duration of colds and flu, as well as fewer asthmatic episodes in children.