Health claim of probiotics not accepted
£220m-a-year 'dairy shots' industry in disarray following EU scientists' ruling
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Independent Minds
Drink this yogurt for a healthier stomach. Thirty million shoppers have swallowed the claims for probiotics as enthusiastically as the sweet fermented milk in the belief that "good bacteria" will defeat "bad bacteria" in epic microscopic battles inside our bodies.
But claims that probiotic ingredients improve health can not be supported, according to an extensive review of scientific research by a team of experts from the European Union.
Of 180 claims for probiotic ingredients, the EU's food agency the European Food Safety Authority (Efsa) threw out every one. Ten were rejected outright and a 21-member expert panel could not assess the remaining 170 because the ingredients for which the claims were made could not be identified.
The findings on ingredients such as lactobacillus and bifidobacterium are an embarrassment to the UK's £220m-a-year "dairy shots" industry, which has relied on heavy advertising to persuade shoppers of its products.
However Britain's best-selling yogurt drinks, Actimel and Yakult, were excluded from Efsa's findings yesterday because Danone, Actimel's maker, and Yakult, the Japanese firm which introduced probiotic drinks to the UK in 1996, withdrew their claims before they could be scrutinised.
They have since re-submitted them, but the results will not be available until next year.
Efsa is reviewing all health claims made for food products following the introduction of a new EU law, the 2006 Regulation on Health and Nutrition Claims, which stipulated for the first time that all medical-sounding marketing boasts must be verified. Brands whose claims are not approved will have to stop making the claims.
Efsa has been studying 2,000 applications submitted by member states on behalf of companies. Releasing results on "general health claims" yesterday, Efsa's 21-member expert panel rejected two-thirds of the 523 applications for 200 vitamins, minerals, fibre, fats, carbohydrates, and "probiotic" bacteria.
On probiotics, an Efsa spokeswoman said: "They have been assessed but the outcome was negative or our scientists said they didn't have sufficient evidence to evaluate them."
Yesterday, Danone, the French dairy giant which is thought to have withdrawn three claims for Actimel and Activia from Efsa in April, made no comment.
Yakult, which introduced probiotic drinks to the UK in 1996, said the results did "not relate to Yakult."
Yakult, which markets its best-selling yogurt as "self-defence for your gut", said an application for its principal ingredient, Lactobacillus casei Shirota, had duplicated other claims with Efsa. The Japanese firm said: "Evidence for its health benefit is based on over 70 human studies and over 70 years of research."
Sue Davies, chief policy officer at Which? said the rulings showed that eventually shoppers would be made aware of what did, and did not, work.
"For too long the fact that people are getting more interested in health has been seen as a marketing opportunity, and companies have been putting claims on their products. And now that we are getting systematic research we have been able to say some of these claims cannot be supported."
180
Number of claims for probiotic ingredients rejected by EU.
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Comments
I tried a leading brand for a week or two and all I got was a weird feeling in my gut, wind, and watery bowel movements...
The best diet is a simple one, in my opinion. As long as you're getting a balance of the different food groups and not too much grease, salt or sugar, it's all good.
But then everyone is different - I reckon if one food doesn't agree with you, even if it's widely known as "healthy," then don't eat it. Fruit gives me stomach upset - excepting bananas - so I rarely eat it. Though being well aware I need Vit C in my diet, I make sure I eat vegetables to make up for it.
Whereas on the unhealthy side - crisps give me stomach cramps and wind, and milk chocolate a tendency to migraine, and a lot of tea/coffee gives me cold hands and feet....(Trial and error - it's called Reynaud's Syndrome - narrow capillaries.) So...I rarely drink either, and now drink the caffiene-free Rooibos tea instead.
If you're taking a yoghurt supplement to help stop feeling bloated, then why not just take a look at your diet and change/ substitute the problem-causers, rather than spending extra cash on something else?
And one thing is certain, the bacteria wont harm you as much as the milk
The information about cows milk is
a) common sense - Modern Diary cows produce between 20 and 30 litres of milk a day for nine or more months of the year. They were designed to produce two or three litres a day, until their calves were weaned. The Insulin growth factors and other hormones necessary for this prodigious feat are put out in the milk. The diet of these animals is any but healthy, including, at least in the past, other cows. Something in the industrial food complex has to give, in this case it is the cow, usually dead after five or six years.
No other adult animal drinks the milk of another species and even a fighting bull (pure muscle) does it, without milk products, on a vegetable based diet.
b) the book by Professor Jane Plant "Your life in their hands" This is based on her own story of overcoming three recurrences of breast cancer, which is rare to survive. Professor Plant's book is a thoroughly researched book on the epidemiology of diseases associated with the consumption of dairy products, which includes breast cancer. Insulin growth factor stimulates tumour growth.
Of course the diary industry and pharmacological industry are some of the most powerful forces in society today and to speak out against them is to invite censorship and punishment on a scale only matched by the Chinese abuse of human rights ;-)
One reason that people brought up on a diet of milk etc is firstly the generation you are referring to is in part the war generation, which had rationing.
Another perhaps more important reason is the quality of products was significantly better in those days. Nowadays vegetables have a fifth of the nutrients that 50 years ago. It is no coincidence that where once it was "An apple a day" it is now "Five a day"
If I had to choose between drinking a pint of milk from a cow the 1950s or even 1960s or a pint of Diet cola, I would choose the milk without a moment's hesitation.
Finally, I never believe the glossy leaflets from big Pharma, the more they have to spend to persuade me of their claims, the more they are likely to be lying. "Truths" can be passed on for free!
If you like milk, buy organic - that way you'll know that the cows have only eaten vegetable matter and haven't had too much in the way of hormones and antibiotics. And if milk doesn't agree with you, then it won't matter how "natural" it is.
At last. The ridiculous make-it-up-as-you-go-along health claims for these drinks and all that "good bacteria / bad bacteria" marketing nonsense has been irritating me for years. I'm just amazed they were allowed to get away with it for so ling.
This post is very long and you are hungry. CARE for some milk?
"The 9 million cows living on dairy farms in the United States spend most of their lives in large sheds or on feces-caked mud lots, where disease is rampant. Cows raised for their milk are repeatedly impregnated. Their babies are taken away so that humans can drink the milk intended for the calves. When their exhausted bodies can no longer provide enough milk, they are sent to slaughter and ground up for hamburgers."
By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer David Bauder, Ap Television Writer ? 8 mins ago
Late-night host David Letterman acknowledged on Thursday's show that he had sexual relationships with female employees and that someone tried to extort $2 million from him over the affairs. CBS says an employee has been charged with attempted grand larceny in the case.
No this ^^^^is a virus
I thank you
Firozali A. Mulla
The yogurt drinks really upset me because there are actually some really good probiotics out there. My son, for example, had extremely bad eczema for years and its only since taking probiotics (thankfully recommended in my local health food shop) that it has cleared up. Years of using lotions never worked. I give him Optibac probiotics - fantastic!