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Your digestive tract is home to more than 100 trillion probiotic bacteria. That's more than 10 times the number of cells in the human body. Despite the bad reputation bacteria has, without these "good" bacteria, we wouldn't be here.
Dr. Richard Fedorak is the director of the Gastroenterology Division at the University of Alberta. "People have always eaten yogurt because it's good for them," he says. "I think what's changed is that science began looking at these to treat specific diseases. The companies have identified that and the public has identified that." Food companies have latched onto the notion and started promoting products that already contain probiotics, like yogurt. Then, they add additional probiotics to the mix to supplement them. Why yogurt? Up to this point, dairy products have been the main targets. But other food items containing probiotic are now on offer, like breads and cereals. Dr. Gregor Reid is the president of the International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics and also the director of the Canadian Research and Development Centre for Probiotics. "Dairy is primarily used because the organisms in probiotics up to this time have been mostly lactic acid bacteria," he says. "Lactic acid bacteria survives well in dairy products, so you tend to get milk drinks, yogurt, cheese, that type of delivery system."
But probiotics don't end with dairy. They also come in dried powders, capsules tablets and more... "Some claim there is a bread with a probiotic," says Reid. "There's chocolate and there are other things. But that is more difficult to do because if you make bread and it's too hot, then you kill the bacteria. So they'd have to spray it on afterwards." The survival rate of the bacteria must also be taken into account. With bread, the bacteria would only last a few days. Reid says that may be alright for bread because it is usually consumed pretty quickly. Are these products necessary? Fedorak says they're not. "Your body has a normal amount of probiotic bacteria and you don't really need to supplement it," he says. "But over the years people have recognized that probiotic bacteria may have some health benefits and by putting in more probiotics, they believe you're getting additional health benefits." So, do these probiotic products really work? This becomes a complicated question because research shows that probiotics do have health benefits. But when it comes to adding them to foods, there hasn't been enough research to assess results. Health Canada relies on companies to do the research themselves and correctly identify their claims. According to spokesperson Stéphane Shank, they are in the process of conducting a review of the current framework for managing health claims on foods in Canada. This includes probiotics. A policy to ensure manufacturers' claims are accurate could be in place depending on how the review goes.
But Fedorak estimates that it could be years before these regulations are enforced. He says the problem is that "the science is actually going faster than the regulations." And along with the science, the food companies are close behind. For Health Canada, it is a matter of catching up. Probiotic regulations also become difficult because they have the possibility of falling under the drug classification, as well. It depends on what claims are being made. If a product promises to cure a disease or treat symptoms then it is considered a "drug." But foods with claims of maintaining or restoring health are health foods and do not have to undergo the extensive testing that drugs do. Some companies have done research into probiotics before putting their products on the market. Fedorak says that some of them haven't. "Consumers need to know that if they buy probiotics, there really are no regulations around those probiotics," he says. "So you can't guarantee what it says is in the bottle is actually in the bottle. You can't guarantee that what the bottle says the probiotics do has been tested. And so it's buyer beware at this point."
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