Probiotics - The bacteria in you & your food

[Toliver]

The MSN article:

"The Bacteria You Want in Food"

....The relationship between the good and bad bacteria in your gut, or in your mouth, is vital to your health. Five years ago few doctors would have believed in probiotics. Now a growing number of physicians are suggesting that patients eat more foods with live cultures or probiotics, such as yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut and miso soup. 

Inside your small and large intestines there are 400 to 500 different species of bacteria that live in synergy, as long as the good bacteria outweigh the bad bacteria. If the balance gets upset and the bad becomes more prevalent, you can develop many symptoms and sicknesses. The most immediate effects are excess gas, bloating and diarrhea. A worse-case scenario would be what happens when you have food poisoning. Your body reacts violently to expel the bad bacteria.

Here is another website with more information (that I had trouble getting back to ...so good luck with it):

USProbiotics.org

And another website with information: "Functional Foods Fact Sheet: Probiotics and Prebiotics "

As a testimonial of the benefits of probiotics, a few months ago I got the stomach virus that was making its rounds. It was a terrible ordeal and left me with lingering symptoms, to be polite.

It wasn't until I ate yogurt with active live cultures in it that my body finally returned to normal.

I also recall that when I was a child my dad had taken a round of strong antibiotics and suffered similar stomach problems. On the advice of his doctor, he bought a home yogurt maker and made his own yogurt which he ate for a month and his stomach problems also went away.

Activia and Danactive are leading the new wave of probiotic products in the market place. Danactive is promoted as helping your immune system and Activia is supposed to help regulate "intestinal transit time", which is New Speak for keeping you regular.

Probiotics are also becoming big business in Health Food and Supplement stores.

Do you consume/take probiotic products on purpose (meaning with the intent on helping your body, as opposed to incidental ingestion)?

Is there a downside to ingesting probiotics?

Aside from my personal anecdote, do they truly help? Or is it the placebo effect and it's all just a bunch of hype?

[kalypso]

I've taken probiotics in various forms off and on for a lot of years. I think they do help.

I travel frequently in Mexico and make it a habit to begin upping my ingestion of live culture products, or even probiotics in capsule from before I go. Knock wood, but I have not had any stomach/intestinal/turista problems. And while I adhere to the usual precautions of drinking only bottled water and eating fruits and veggies that have been peeled or treated with MicroDyne, I eat almost everything and don't think twice about it. I am a pretty firm believer in probiotics in this regard.

They've been around quite a while in the holistic/alternative medicine world and have been used pretty successfully. I've liked them when I've taken them.

[dividend]

I've taken probiotics in various forms off and on for a lot of years.  I think they do help. 

I travel frequently in Mexico and make it a habit to begin upping my ingestion of live culture products, or even probiotics in capsule from before I go.  Knock wood, but I have not had any stomach/intestinal/turista problems. And while I adhere to the usual precautions of drinking only bottled water and eating fruits and veggies that have been peeled or treated with MicroDyne, I eat almost everything and don't think twice about it.  I am a pretty firm believer in probiotics in this regard.

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That was the first thing I thought of when when I read the first post, that active culture pills / yogurt are great for travelling.

Also, anecdotally, I started giving my roommate yogurt with fruit and ground flax for breakfast, simply because I could get it ready the night before, and it would be an easy source of calories for the morning. An added benefit was that he started coming home feeling healthier, with less of his regular digestion issues.

I've also heard that Activia works a little too well in keeping the digestive system moving right along. Like, to the point of disrupting one's routine.

[Eilen]

I've never intentionally taken them because I've never had reason to but I do recommend them for animals, especially dogs and cats on a dry kibble diet. They need that extra bacteria to help them digest foods like wheat and corn.

One thing worth noting is that the bacteria count in yoghurt, etc. decreases significantly the longer it's in your fridge. Best to buy in small containers and eat as soon as you can, if the beneficial bacteria is your goal.

[DCP]

I used to only take probiotics when also on strong antibiotics, to avoid the aforementioned GI issues. However, Trader Joe's now sells chewable flavored acidophilus supplements, and I'm giving those a shot.

Thanks to the other posters for mentioning probiotics when traveling - hadn't thought of this, and it seems to be a great way to potentially avoid Montezuma's Revenge.

[Milagai]

May be a new buzzword in some circles but it's been

grandma's wisdom forever where I come from.

We're always urged to finish our meals with a cup

of dahi because it "helps you digest your food"

and "cools you down".

Tummy a little upset? remedy: yogurt and rice.

Prescribed antibiotics? up your yogurt intake, and drink

lots coconut water (=nature's ORT drink)

Traveling? make sure you have your daily dose of dahi

to keep bugs at bay (after all, you know that milk has been

boiled, and the good bacteria chase out the bad bacteria).

Thirsty in the summer? a little lassi (sweet or salty) really

hits the spot.

etc. etc.

Because of this upbringing, my family consumes

industrial quantities of yogurt so I make it at home every 2-3 days

(otherwise it becomes ridiculous, also unmanageable

numbers of containers).

So it's usually pretty fresh and potent...

Milagai

[Toliver]

One thing worth noting is that the bacteria count in yoghurt, etc. decreases significantly the longer it's in your fridge.  Best to buy in small containers and eat as soon as you can, if the beneficial bacteria is your goal.

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If true, I had the opposite results.

When I first intentionally ingested yogurt for the bacteria (to correct my stomach problems) I had purchased the small individual containers you can buy at the supermarket. While it did help a little, it didn't fix the problem completely.

It wasn't until I bought a couple of rather large tubs of yogurt and consumed a large bowl full each morning and night (the serving was about twice the serving of the individual containers) for a week that my stomach problems ceased completely. The large tubs o' yogurt did the job, so the bacteria still must have been alive.

I find it intriguing that one of the health claims about the bacteria in yogurt is that, supposedly, increasing your yogurt intake may decrease symptoms of lactose intolerance. It seems to be an oxymoron of an idea.

Has anyone put this to a test?

[Roxie]

Kefir is like a super yogurt. More probiotics and colonizes the intestinal track. We buy Lifeway at Wild Oats.