Yakult: Not A Health Drink

Probiotics have been gaining popularity all around, from kombucha to kimchi, but everyone's favourite seems to be the milk-based Yakult. Kids and parents alike have been choosing this probiotic drink for its health benefits and drinking it daily for all the good bacteria it claims to provide.

Probiotics are great, and I advocate for improving our gut microbiome. However, Yakult is on the avoid list when I prescribe probiotics to my patients.

Ingredients 

Looking through the ingredient list, does any of it look appealing enough for you to add to your kitchen rotation, let alone make it part of your daily routine?

Red Bottle: Water, Sugar, Skimmed milk powder, glucose, LcS bacteria, added flavours

Total Sugar	10.5g
Added Sugar	9.5g

About 2.5 teaspoons of sugar in each bottle sounds to me like a recipe for diabetes, heart conditions, and chronic inflammation.

Now you're probably wondering why this article does not apply to me since I chose the "skinny" blue bottle, which contains a much lower sugar content:

Blue Bottle:

• Skimmed milk powder

• Sugar

• Glucose

• Natural identical flavour

• Water

• LcS

• Steviol Glycoside

• Vitamin E

• Vitamin D

• Pectin

Again, the second most abundant ingredient is still sugar!

Any and all white sugar is bad, and at 3g, almost 1 teaspoon is too much for daily consumption.

Steviol Glycoside is a processed chemical component of the stevia plant. Only the high-purity versions are considered "safe," and artificial sweeteners have a list of other problems, the main one being spiking insulin.

Pectin is a thickener and a sugar-based derivative from plants. Does consuming thickener, even the natural kind, seem like a healthy ingredient in your daily diet? Especially when you have a variety of cleaner, healthier, cheaper options available.

Effectiveness

The whole point of consuming a probiotic is to help your gut lining and bacteria. However, with milk stripped of all its nutrients and tablespoons of sugar, the drink might be doing more harm than good.

Your gut bacteria needs nutrients and fibre to survive: bananas, apples, spinach, and almost all fruits and vegetables. Processed white sugar overloads the bacteria and kills them. Instead of adding more bacteria to our gut lining, taking care and not killing the ones we currently have might be a better place to start.

Final Thoughts

I have seen numerous patients complain about gastro- and inflammation-related problems even after using probiotics. First things first, it is always about the quality and never about the quantity. One good-quality probiotic once a week will have a beneficial impact on your system compared to a sugar-laden one. Second, different bacteria strains are found in a variety of fermented foods: yoghurt, kimchi, and even kanji. Opt for homemade options when possible because you control the ingredients.

If you know the pros and cons, there is nothing wrong with a drink like Yakult. Love the taste? It may be a soft drink substitute, but be cautious if mistakenly referring to it as a "healthy" beverage. Make an informed choice, and look at the ingredient list when in doubt.

For a deeper dive into the scientific evidence, read here.

Leave a comment, and share your experience if you have used the product before.

Wishing you health and happiness

Shruti