
Our bodies depend on bacteria. Bacteria digest the food
that we eat and form the underpinnings of our immune system. And we have LOTS
of bacteria inside us, about 10 bacteria cells for every body cell. Since bacteria have
something of an image problem (thanks, antibacterial soap), marketers have
decided to call beneficial bacteria probiotics. Would that make harmful
bacteria antibiotics using the same naming scheme? No, stop that.
Our bodies are full of probiotics naturally. What marketers
call probiotics are particular strains of bacteria that have been cultured and
raised in a factory. More attention is paid to the hardiness of the probiotic,
especially regarding its shelf life and flavor, than to any particular proven health
benefit.
To be clear, there is no scientific proof that probiotics
are harmful. In fact, there is a lot of anecdotal evidence to show that
probiotics are harmless. It is merely that there is no peer-reviewed scientific
proof that probiotics deliver any positive health benefit. That’s why
probiotics are considered supplements (barely regulated by the FDA) rather than
medicine, where the FDA takes a “show me” attitude toward claims of benefit.
Most of us get our “starter” dose of probiotics during
birth. While we are in the womb, we are bacteria-free. During our journey down
the birth canal, we ingest bacteria from our mother. That is the start of our
own personal inventory of probiotics. Those of us delivered by Caesarian
Section miss this bacteriological jump-start and need to make up the deficit
on our own.
So do we need additional probiotics from our food supply?
In most cases, no. Our daily lives expose us to millions of different bacteria,
many of them beneficial. If you have just completed an aggressive course of
antibiotic treatment, your doctor might recommend some probiotic yogurt or supplement pill. That’s
probably more palatable than having you lick the door handle at the grocery store.
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