With the rising health awareness of modern people, they will supplement probiotics or related products for themselves or their family members, such as common probiotics powder, yogurt, yogurt and other related lactic acid bacteria products. It is often seen in advertisements that probiotics products contain The extremely high total bacteria count even claims that the “live bacteria count” exceeds 100 million, but does the higher the number of probiotic bacteria eaten, the more effective it is? Is more probiotics the better? What precautions should you pay special attention to when taking probiotic-related products?
Is the higher the total number of probiotics the better ?’
In general, the total “bacteria count” in food is closely related to the degree of bacterial contamination of the food during production, transportation or storage. The level of this value can represent the quality of the product and serve as the basis for food hygiene. Therefore, the quality of probiotic products does not depend on the “number of bacteria”, so don’t be confused! Does the total bacterial count contained in probiotic products mean that the higher the bacterial count, the better the effect?
“The number of probiotics that can colonize (reproduce) in the digestive tract is limited, and an excessively high number of bacteria may not be able to fully exert their effects, but may cause the problem of mutual jamming between strains. Therefore, if probiotic products are advertised as If it contains more than 100 billion strains, the colonization rate of the strains is doubtful, because eating too much is just wasting.” In fact, these claims are completely groundless! Paradoxically!
The well-known probiotic products on the market range from billions to hundreds of billions of bacteria, and the factions with few or many bacteria also have their own advocates. In the selection of the number of probiotic bacteria, the most important thing is to be able to present scientific research data, to explore the best bacteria number through experiments, and then convert it into a suitable dose for human beings. is the real effective bacterial count.
Probiotics only survive in the digestive tract for 3-5 days on average, so a daily supplement is recommended! Professor Cai Yingjie, an authority on bacteria and probiotics, said that in terms of digestive health care, 10-20 billion bacteria a day is enough; the number of bacteria for health adjustment function is 20 billion a day, and you can see the effect after eating for three months; and special functions ( For example: physical and mental maintenance, metabolic regulation, etc.), you need to eat more than 30 billion bacteria a day.
Please put aside the myth that the higher the probiotic count, the better! It is the most important to choose the number of bacteria that has been proved to be effective by experiments and to make an appropriate amount of supplementation!
Notice! Be careful that the probiotics you eat are not only ineffective bacteria, but also harmful bacteria!
What you eat matters! Professor Cai Yingjie said that most of the probiotic products on the market take advantage of consumers’ “more cost-effective mentality”, claiming that each product contains more than 100 billion bacteria counts, but more than 90% of the ingredients are added. Small size, easy to cultivate in large quantities, weak health care effect, and low cost bacteria (such as: Enterococcus, Bacillus). Enterococcus belongs to the lactic acid category, which is relatively fragile, and most of them have been eliminated before entering the digestive tract; Compared with high-cost strains with more anaerobic, stricter culture and preservation conditions, and true health-care functions (for example: Bifidobacterium, Bifidobacterium, Lactobacillus, Lactobacillus rhamnosus or Lactobacillus plantarum, etc.), adding amount is less than 10%.
As a result, the pile of “bacteria” eaten in not only has doubts about the health of the digestive tract, but even in Europe it has been expressly prohibited to add enterococci in health food, so when choosing raw bacteria, do not take the number of bacteria into consideration. , please get to know each strain of bacteria you eat, and choose to eat finely instead of eating too much!
Probiotic “strain” and “strain” are stupidly unclear
Prof. Cai Yingjie pointed out that the difference between “strain” and “strain” is not just a game of words. Under the same probiotic strain, it is subdivided into many kinds of “strain”. Strain is directly related to efficacy. Probiotics The function is “strain-specific”, even if it is a different strain of the same species, the function will be different!
Some are related to the adjustment of physique and defense, some are related to digestion and metabolism, and some are related to physical and mental maintenance. Just as vitamin A, vitamin B, and vitamin C each have their own distinct physiological effects, the same is true for probiotics. To be confused with the word “probiotics”.
Take the strain of Professor Cai Yingjie’s research and development team as an example. It is also Lactobacillus plantarum (Lactobacillus plantarum). PS128 TM has the function of physical and mental maintenance, while K21 TM has the function of digestion and metabolism. In addition, there are other Lactobacillus plantarum that are particularly effective in adjusting physical fitness. , Of course, there are also Lactobacillus plantarum that are ineffective, so it cannot be said that they are all the same strain, but they all have these three functions at the same time.
The basic function of probiotics is to promote the health of the digestive tract (this is the basic function of general probiotics), if you want to adjust your body, only specific strains have its function.
Please understand what you want first? Make another choice!
Are more probiotic “strains” better?
There are many probiotic products on the market that advertise the addition of diversified strains to emphasize the product advantages. Does this mean that it is a good product? Will too many strains be mutually exclusive? In fact, this is also a business method used to grasp the shopping mentality of consumers, so that consumers think that they have bought products with high CP value.
Many people on the Internet have suggested that “if probiotic products contain too many strains, the strains will repel each other, and the bacteria will compete with each other and interfere with each other, which will affect the efficacy.” Basically, it is a matter of opinion as to how many strains should be put in a product. There is no research to prove that different strains are mutually exclusive; there is no research to prove that the more strains are, the better the effect of the product. It is better to put a few strains than a few strains. There are indeed research data to support its health care efficacy, safety and stability, and it is a good strain that has been confirmed by experiments.
According to the International Association for the Science of Probiotics and Probiotics (ISAPP), daily supplementation of effective doses and strains that conform to the literature can achieve the specific health benefits you want. Therefore, when choosing probiotics, please put aside the wrong high bacterial count Myth:
When choosing probiotics, you should not only care about the number of bacteria and the number of strains. Choose a professional R&D team, patented strains with clear resumes, functional efficacy supported by research results, reliable and safe research reports, and complete The product inspection report and reliable brand are the probiotics with quality assurance!
