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Protect your body with probiotics

Yakult has a unique strain in its milk drink that has been proven to boost immunity. Excerpts from an interview with Raneen Tenbakji, a Clinical Nutritionist at Yakult Middle East, on the importance of probiotics

What are probiotics?

Probiotics are live, naturally occurring microorganisms that live in our bodies. In other words, they are beneficial bacteria. The word bacteria is often viewed as something harmful, but with probiotics, it is not the case.

Aside from occurring naturally in our bodies, they have also been found in fermented foods such as yoghurt, kefir, kimchi and are now given as supplements as well.

Many studies are being performed to witness the benefits of probiotics and what good they bring to our bodies. Some of these benefits include: regulating our bowel movements, managing symptoms of various digestive disorders, fighting the occurrence of cancer cells and boosting the immune system.

How is the immune system boosted with probiotics?

With more than 100 trillion bacteria, both good and bad living in our body, the number of beneficial ones must outnumber the harmful ones to keep our body in balance. It has been proven that 70 per cent of immunity lies within our guts.

Therefore, if the harmful bacteria are in abundance, it will cause the occurrence of infectious diseases, leading to a weakened immune system. Once the intake of probiotics starts, it helps keep the gut in balance, and in fact, helps keep the beneficial bacteria present in a higher number. This will cause the Natural Killer (NK) cells that are given off by the immune system to fight harmful and unwelcomed microorganisms, increase in number, which thus keeps us safe from reoccurring infectious diseases.

What is Yakult?

The most effective types of probiotics are the lactobacilli and bifidobacterium species. Yakult is a fermented milk drink that contains lactobacillus but has a unique strain only found in it called Lactobacillus casei strain Shirota (LcS). For more than 85 years, ongoing researches have been done and scientific evidence proves that this specific strain indeed boosts the immune system by stimulating the function of NK cells, which helps avoid infectious diseases, as well as the reoccurrence of cancer cells. With 30 billion live LcS, it surely will deliver the benefits required for your health!

Yakult can be found in all supermarkets across the UAE.