Probiotics: 'Good Bacteria' More Beneficial When Consumed With Dairy
The word "bacteria" might not carry the most positive connotation in your mind. Yet the live bacteria and yeasts that make up probiotics have been shown to benefit the digestive system and are particularly helpful for certain health conditions.
Yet new findings published in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology reveal that getting the most out of our probiotics may depend on how they are consumed. The study results suggest that consuming dairy products may boost their effectiveness.
"Our findings indicate that the manner in which a probiotic is delivered--whether in food or supplement form--could influence how effective that probiotic is in delivering the desired health benefits," study author Maria Marco, PhD, an associate professor in the Department of Food Science and Technology, of the University of California at Davis, said in a news release.
For the study, researchers examined mice with colitis--an inflammation of the colon's inner lining that may result in rectal bleeding, diarrhea and/or abdominal pain. For mice in the study that were given the probiotic strain Lactobacillus casei BL23, findings revealed that their symptoms were significantly reduced compared to those just given milk without the probiotic or just given the probiotic.
"Strains of L. casei are commonly added to dairy products as probiotics and, while strain BL23 is not commercially available, it is genetically similar to commercial strains and has also been studied for its capacity to prevent or reduce intestinal inflammation," Marco explained.
"Remarkably, the question of whether it makes any difference to consume probiotics in dairy products rather than other foods or nutritional supplements has not been systematically or mechanistically investigated in clinical or preclinical studies," she added.
"Because we know that bacteria can adapt to their surroundings, we thought the conditions that probiotics are exposed to prior to ingestion might influence their capacity to maintain or improve human health," Marco concluded.
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