What Are the Health Benefits of Probiotics?
Are probiotics good for you?
“Probiotics” are a hot topic in health circles and the benefits of probiotics are constantly being researched. But what is a probiotic, actually? And what is the benefit of having a probiotic every day? Are probiotics good for you? Here’s a breakdown of everything you need to know.
Let’s start at the very beginning: what are probiotics?
To understand probiotics, you need to understand bacteria. Bacteria are microorganisms that are far too small to be seen by the human eye, and yet reside naturally in trillions in your body! When you hear the word “bacteria”, you might assume they’re something you wouldn’t want, but you’d be wrong, 99.9% of bacteria are actually not harmful for humans. In fact, some are even good for you!
Probiotics are some of these friendly microorganisms, and more specifically, as per WHO / FAO they are the live microorganisms which, when administered in adequate amounts, have a health benefit on their consumer.
What are probiotics good for?
It’s clear that probiotics offer health benefits, but what is the benefit of having a probiotic every day and what is the main health benefit of a probiotic? Amazingly, each different type of bacteria strain can serve up a different benefit. For example, the two bacteria most commonly used to create yogurt – Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus bulgaricus – can help your body digest lactose (the sugar that’s found in milk) when you have difficulties digesting it. So, when we ask, “What are probiotics good for?” we understand that gut health experts believe that a probiotic’s assistance in lactose digestion contained in the yogurt can avoid gut discomfort for people who are lactose intolerant. And including probiotics in your daily diet is assumed to be beneficial. Probiotics can be consumed in the same way as many healthy nutrients; and we need these daily, not just as a one-off intake.
You can easily enjoy the health benefits of taking probiotics simply by consuming certain types of fermented foods, but remember, not all fermented foods contain probiotics or contain them in adequate amounts to confer a health benefit. Fermented milk – specifically yogurt – always contains the live cultures Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus bulgaricus that are seen as having probiotic qualities, but what makes the yogurt probiotic is the quantity (at least 108 CFU per gram) of these live cultures present. Activia contains billions of these live cultures, and not just these two strains; it’s also packed with Bifidus cultures that are known to reach your gut alive!
The benefits of probiotics in a simple pot
We’ve made it easy and delicious to add probiotics to your daily mix with every pot of Activia in the UK containing billions of live yogurt cultures which can help you benefit from probiotics. So reap those probiotic rewards with Activia.
