Probiotic foods are all those foods with added live microorganisms that, supposedly, facilitate the regular functioning of the intestine and accelerate the functioning of the immune system. These products have flooded supermarkets and have become a business in recent years, generating in 2015 more than 26,000 million euros. Its success is due, in large part, to the numerous advertising campaigns that extol its properties, despite the scarcity of scientific studies to support them. Examples of these products are: yogurts with bifidus, enriched milks, juices, etc… However, a recent study questions the benefits of these products for health.
An investigation carried out by the University of Copenhagen (Denmark) and published in the scientific journal Genome Medicine concludes that "there is not sufficient empirical evidence that probiotics have a consistent effect on the intestinal flora "
Thus, it appears that the success of these products is based on preconceived beliefs rather than solid scientific evidence. In other words, the companies that produce these products have carried out million-dollar advertising campaigns spreading the idea that it is necessary to help intestinal microorganisms so that they can work correctly, and that this is achieved through functional products such as probiotic foods . All this, despite the fact that the benefits that these products can have on the health of healthy people have been little investigated. Faced with this situation, the question was, are these products useful? And the answer given by the Novo Nordisk Foundation for the Study of Metabolism at the University of Copenhagen seems clear.
After reviewing seven investigations carried out by various universities and research centers, which took hundreds of adults between 19 and 88 years old as a reference, the group of experts concluded that there is not enough empirical evidence to support the positive effects of these products in healthy adults .
This is a conclusion that was already sensed after the millionaire fines imposed on numerous companies in the dairy sector, such as Danone, for announcing that their products helped improve intestinal health without having any scientific proof.
Therefore, this group of Danish researchers recommends carrying out new scientific studies in order to determine the effects of these functional products on the body and urges the European governments to update the regulations on the labeling and advertising of these products. .
In any case, it is important to remember that this applies only to healthy people and not to people with a chronic disease, such as diabetes or cystic fibrosis, where the benefits of these products are more evident and have been tested with success.
References
- The country
- The reason
- Genome Medicine
