First, they talked about the bacteria in your gut and what it does. Most people, including me, thought it merely helps digest food. That’s true, but it does a lot more than merely aiding digestion, including the creation of vitamins, amino acids, and interaction with your immune system. We learned there is no common gut bacteria, that every individual has their own complex set of trillions of bacteria in their guts. I think you should research this fascinating subject because it has immense potential for treating serous health issues in the future. For example, scientists are looking at the possibilities of:
- Transferring bacteria from a thin person to an obese individual
- Transferring bacteria from a healthy person to a sick individual
After establishing the above, they analyzed adding probiotics to a variety of foods, which is very common today. What impact does it have or doesn’t have on your health? Probiotics are a hot commodity, as they are added to a variety of foods, including baby food. 60 Minutes spoke with the leading experts in the field and a research team from Israel. They learned that probiotics are a fascinating area of research, but at this point in time, very little is known about them and/or how they work. They concluded that adding probiotics to food has no known advantages, and it’s possible, it could be somewhat harmful. But nobody has any proof that it helps or hurts in any way because so much about probiotics is still an unknown. More long-term studies are needed. But they do know that any health benefit statements you read on a package are not true. This includes adding probiotics to baby food.
The Israeli study was fascinating because they were trying to ascertain exactly what probiotics, added to food, does when they make it to your gut. Guess what they learned? They couldn’t answer the question one way or the other because they learned that probiotics added to food never makes it to its intended destination in your gut. They thought adding probiotics to your body would have some kind of impact, but they learned it just passes through your system. In sum, it doesn’t have a positive or negative impact, it has no impact. That was fascinating because very often scientists with a pre-conceived outcome miraculously prove what they believed all along. In this case, the results contradicted what they expected to find. However, the scientists still believe there’s tremendous potential in studying the complex world of probiotics and gut bacteria.
There was one other area they briefly talked about and that were the many claims of individuals who believed adding probiotics to their food proved to be beneficial. The scientists attributed that belief to the infamous “Placebo Effect”.
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