Is probiotic yogurt really effective? Here’s the answer

Some of us have been consuming many flavors of probiotic yogurt religiously primarily for health reasons. Read on to know, if this presumably health food really makes the difference it is expected to or is it just another marketing gimmick of the food industry.

According to a recent study carried out in Israel, loading up on probiotic rich yogurts will do nothing for your health. This came out as quite a shock for the food industry, which has been using the ‘good bacteria’ card for various probiotic rich supplements and food products.

It is not that these foods do not improve our gut health, sleep, and functioning of the brain. The study carried out at Weizmann Institute of Science at Israel confirms that one needs to conduct an invasive personalized test to assess the effect of probiotics on any person. This means that probiotic acts differently on different individuals and one needs to undergo a personalized test before consuming it regularly, as the current method of checking its effectiveness via stool test does not give out adequate information.

While conducting this study, the researchers found that many volunteers were actually resistant to probiotics as these supposedly healthy bacteria could not colonize their GI tract. This is how they concluded that there is no universal ‘one size fits all’ rule for this supplement and its dose should be tailored for each individual.

In the year 2016, it was published that the gut of every individual is different as gut of some can thrive off ice creams, while others can only handle rice. Another important finding of the study was that some individuals experienced an increased blood sugar surge after consuming rice than the ice creams. This came out as such a revelation because a majority of the people have this tendency to blindly follow the latest health trends without meeting individual needs.

So, a blanket approach will turn futile when it comes to probiotics as it may lead to useless or even damaging effects on some. Also, an individualized test gives a detailed effect of these and stool test results are quite misleading. Apart from this, the study also reveals that there could be long term adverse side effects of consuming probiotics with antibiotics.

These studies undertaken by the team of Dr. Eran Elinav (an immunologist) and the team of Dr. Eran Segal (a computational biologist) have certainly opened the door of the future of diagnostics from the universal consumption psyche to tailored prescriptions pattern.