Bacteria for Health
On January 13th, the Wall Steet Journal published an article on the many benefits of taking probiotics to supplement your beneficial intestinal flora. Some of the benefits proven through various studies include:
- Strengthening your immune system
- Improving digestion
- Healing the digestive tract from conditions such as IBS
- Preventing infections and improving conditions of yeast overgrowth such as Candida
- Preventing cavities and cholic, among others
The article also highlights that many food manufacturers are using this research to add health claims to certain products. Some of the claims are based on reputable scientific studies. But others are unproved, and their advertising claims can be exaggerated.
The conclusion? Do your homework as a consumer. Don't just accept what a label says. A few tips:
- Make sure that a product claiming to have probiotics, actually says the cultures or bacteria are live
- The product should state which strain of bacteria is present. It should also be the scientific name and not a fancy marketing name.
- The product should not pasteurized after the cultures are added. Pasteurization kills all bacteria, good and bad.This can be hard to find out, but if it says "live" cultures it's likely that it has not been pasteurized.
Read the full article on the WSJ to see which products make probiotic claims, which have research behind them and which might not.