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Whether they really benefit individual customers or not, food makers are set to become very healthy on them: the market looks set to continue to blossom. Probiotic fruit juices and cheeses are already on the supermarket shelves, and ice-creams and sorbets will soon follow.

Colette Shortt, the director of science at Yakult and visiting professor of nutrition at the University of Ulster, says: “We are still at the very early stages of exploiting the potential of probiotics. It’s not a panacea. But probiotics clearly have uses and discovering how our health can benefit is what’s so exciting.”

The science bit

Probiotics are supplements of friendly bacteria that help the bacteria already in the colon to maintain normal digestion
Prebiotics are carbohydrates that stimulate the growth of good bacteria in the gut and control the bad;
Synbiotics combine pro- and prebiotics to create more potent bacteria; visit www.nutrition.org.uk

What the research says...

Research about the benefits of probiotics in general is far from conclusive. The most significant results are with bowel complaints

Diarrhoea Three major studies (meta analyses) indicate that probiotics can reduce the duration of acute diarrhoea in children by a day. There are also indications that they may help to prevent diarrhoea caused by bacteria generally.

Bowel disease Some trials indicate that some types of probiotic may help to control diseases such as ulcerative colitis, but not Crohn’s disease

Irritable bowel syndrome The evidence is conflicting on whether they help.

The effects on immunity, allergies and other health problems are not well established, but there have been interesting studies

Eczema A recent Finnish study, published in the Lancet, indicated that probiotics might prevent babies developing atopic eczema.

Cholesterol levels One small randomised controlled trial indicated that some probiotics can lower levels, but this has been contradicted by other studies.

Immunity A paper presented at the European Influenza Conference this year indicated that probiotics combined with vitamin and mineral supplements could reduce the duration of the common cold.

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