‘Gulps of Goodness’ not always ‘good’?

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‘Gulps of goodness’ are functional foods that contain added ingredients to make them more nutritious or healthy.

Margarines that reduce cholesterol, yoghurts to improve digestion and sports drinks that boost energy are the hot favorites. Fruit juices and even mineral water with added vitamins are very popular with the health conscious.

Some Probiotic drinks claim to take oxygen into your body while others promise to act as food for good bacteria in your guts.

Ask a regular consumer, whether they have noticed any healthy difference after consuming the Probiotic drink and they will swear by it. However, ask them to quantify how exactly have they benefited from it, and they will tell you that they feel better than before. It makes one wonder if the benefit is really psychological rather then physiological.

Millions of consumers are using these foods every day. On the other hand, every month newer varieties are being introduced in the market. Yet, they are not being monitored the way a new drug is monitored at its launch.

Writing in the British Medical Journal, Nynke de Jong, project director at the Dutch Institute wrote that the cholestrol lowering products could trigger reactions in people taking statins – drugs and might, in fact, increase the risk of heart disease.

When Jeremy Hamilton-Miller, a now retired professor of microbiology who has studied probiotics, analysed the contents of some of the probiotic supplements last year, he found that only a third contained the billions of bacteria claimed on the package label. However, he agrees that probiotic bacteria are not harmful and there are several interesting studies that claim its benefits for bowel related problems.

The obvious question that comes to mind, is that as we were getting along fine without these extra vitamins and bacteria so far, do we really need them today? Perhaps not!

All said and done, these products are booming in the market while the related research is too young to give us scientific proof.

Also Read: TimesOnline

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