Are probiotics worth it‪?‬ Verified by Metafact

Hello everyone,
Each month Metafact members vote on a topic for us to investigate with the world’s top experts (remember to vote here). We call these Metafact Reviews - and they are science-powered guides giving you the state of knowledge today on key topics.
One of our recent reviews was on Probiotics - which has become a huge $48billion industry with nearly 4million Americans using probiotics regularly. You can see its impact every visit we make to the grocery store with hundreds of probiotic fortified products from milk, yogurts to kombucha drinks. All these probiotic products and supplements try and lure you into believing the science behind them is solid. Are they?
We wanted to examine these claims, so we asked over 30 top gastroenterologists, microbiome and medical experts to share the facts. Today I wanted to share some of the key findings for everyone in both written form and in audio format (above).
As someone who has purchased probiotic yogurt in the past, the key things I learned from our review:
* Probiotics are safe but the evidence is weak on the benefits for healthy people, expectant mothers, and infants
* You don’t need probiotics to have a healthy gut, just eat lots of fiber (fruits, vegetable, whole-grains) and your microbiome will flourish
So if you don’t have a digestive condition, don’t waste your money on kombucha or Probiotic Yoghurt - I sure won’t anymore. Instead use the savings to buy more fruits, vegetables, and fibrous foods - or maybe you’d like to use some of the savings to become a Metafact member so we can examine more topics important to you :)
Enjoy our probiotics review and always remember…
May the facts be with you!
Ben McNeil
Founder, Metafact
The ‘Magic’ Yoghurt
For hundreds of years, people have been consuming foods that are supposed to promote good digestive health, but the modern science around probiotics is typically traced back to a guy named Élie Metchnikoff. An immunologist and Nobel laureate, Metchnikoff theorized in the early 1900s that a person’s health could be improved by introducing good bacteria to the gut’s microbiome via yogurt. His ideas languished for a time, but they began to gain steam in the 1990s, when the modern probiotics industry was born.
As a 2013 article in the journal Frontiers in Public Health recalled, “Metchnikoff’s concepts laid the foundation” for the science, but that same article notes that Metchnikoff’s work has spawned plenty of fringe medical theories about the role the gut plays in any number of ailments, both real and imagined.
CONSENSUS
Do probiotics make it past the stomach?
100% Affirmative via 5 experts
In order for probiotics to be most beneficial, they must be able to make it to the gastrointestinal tract. There are two related questions we needed to verify. The first: Do probiotics actually make it past the stomach? Some experts have cast doubt as to whether the bacteria in probiotics supplements can survive the acids found in the stomach.
The second question? If they do make it to the intestines, do probiotics organisms spend any meaningful amount of time there?
Let’s start with the first question. All of our experts agreed that probiotics do make it past the stomach. But the time of day when you take the probiotic can help in determining how much of the bacteria navigates all the way through your digestive tract. “Although the pH of the gut is generally considered to be highly acidic (i.e., pHnoted Case Western Reserve University professor Mahmoud Ghannoum. “Approximately two hours after eating, the pH then returns to pre-ingestion levels.” What does that mean? “This indicates that taking your probiotic after a meal makes sense since the acidity will decrease.”
So probiotics microorganisms do make it to the gut, but do they stay there for very long? Highly unlikely. “Actually, it is quite difficult to get new strains to establish in a healthy bacterial gut community,” wrote