[Closed] Actimel/Activia - what do they do?

I eat them because they taste nice, usually on offer and might do whatever is they're supposed do.

But WHAT is it they're supposed to do Jimmy? The vague claims on adverts don't really tell you what it is they're meant to do except give a healthy gut...

They help your immune system because nobody will get near you because of the smell, so you don't get their germs.

Unfortunately you will still get colds because people with colds have blocked up noses so don't get put off.

[url= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactobacillus_acidophilus ]More info Here[/url]

I was half listening to something on R4 t'other day about this, and there's some quite compelling evidence to support the health benefits of this bacteria. Can't for the life in me remember what they were now though, but there have been clinical tests done.

They are full of "good bacteria". In tests they stopped old people who were on antibiotics from getting as much diarrhoea.

My favourite story about "probiotic" yogurts is that when they invented the bacteria, they had to make different cod-latin names for each country, for example "Bifidum Actiregularis" presumably doesn't have the same marketing connotations when translated, so in France is called "Biffidum actif essensis".

"People on Antibiotics getting less diarrhoea" I hear you say? I'm right in there! Thanks Davey.

ive heard that the amount of sugar in them undoes any good they may do.

ive heard that the amount of sugar in them undoes any good they may do.

How so? Is sugar bad for you?

Hmm.. a bit of googling later and it turns out that [url= http://rheumatic.org/sugar.htm ]sugar is apparently responsible for every bad thing ever[/url].

Marketing = finding a problem for a product.

From what I've read they don't do a great deal. Your bowel is an organic system and stuffing in a load of a particular culture won't necessarily reap any beneficial rewards. That's assuming it manages to somehow get past the highly acidic stomach on the way to poo alley.

Also, why do you have to keep taking them? Don't bacteria multiply all on their own?

Most complete marketing scam since alka seltzer introduced the plink plink fizz campaign and doubled their sales. Just eat a live yoghurt. Longley farms are delicious and only 23 p. Not covered in spurious marketing bs
either.

ive just read somewhere they have a lot of sugar in em, and if youre having one or two a day, it soon adds up. and becuase its highly refined it isnt exactly a health suppliment.

Also, why do you have to keep taking them?

because they're nicer than the psychotic 'bad' bacteria which kill them 🙁

and becuase its highly refined it isnt exactly a health suppliment.

refining something doesn't necessarily make it bad. 100% pure sugar is much the same as 99% sugar with stuff in it, and all carbs are broken down in glucose/fructose before passing into the bloodstream. The unsugar parts of unrefined sugar may confer some slight benefits or just be floor sweepings (which of course might be good in themselves)

Welcome to the forum Dr Barnes 😆

Is actimel the one with the unbelievably irritating advert? Some brassy northern bint that can't pronounce bloated properly? "Bhlouuuuuted." Cow.

what do they do.........

erm.....empty your wallet?

Your gut contains a whole mix of bacteria - these are present in varying quantities. If the levels of the various bugs go out of balance - from antibiotics or other cause these things give you a nice dose of the "good bacteria" ( acidophilus???) How much use they are in healthy folk is not clear but very useful [i]after[/i] a gut upset.

adverts don't really tell you what it is they're meant to do

They don't because they can't. All the supposed health benefits associated with 'friendly bacteria', and antioxidants and other guff are disseminated by paid patsies in the press. Thats because if you have a totally unproven point to make you can write about it at will as 'news' or 'fact' but you can't make unfounded claims on labels or adverts.

So you place adverts in the media that make hazy claims about how you can overcome a general sense 'blah' and non-specific 'hurumph' with a product, or use even more vague claims like "excellent source of antioxidants" without saying what antioxidant might do.

Then you get the press to talk about specific, but un-demonstrated, benefits of your product in the column inches around the advert, or in the 'news' between the adbreaks.

So if an advert or a label doesn't make a very specific claim then the product doesn't really do anything measurable at all.

The only exception is cosmetics, where you seem to be at liberty to make any claim about a product on the basis that if a cosmetic could actually achieve any active effect, it wouldn't be a cosmetic but a pharmacutical.

EAt natural live yoghurt it's cheaper. As above your stomach is designed to kill everything that enters it so only a minute quantity will get through if any.

Research by Swedish scientists has found that the yoghurt-type drinks are indeed beneficial by apparently boosting the immune system and shortening the effects of minor ailments such as cold or stomach upset.

The researchers gave 94 workers for the packaging giant Tetra Pak a daily probiotic drink and found they were 2.5 times less likely to take time off work for sickness than a group which was given a placebo.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20051107/ai_n15767204

As above your stomach is designed to kill everything that enters it so only a minute quantity will get through if any.

what of intestinal flora ? Did they crawl up your arse ?

THe "acidophilus" part of the name indicates they like acid conditions (like those in the stomach) so they are not killed, and pass on down to the lower guts, where they displace the bacteria which cannot handle some polymers such as dextrans, so you fart less. Which must be good.

Fart Less - that's a plus point.