If you walk through a grocery store, you'll see probiotic kombucha, probiotic yogurt, even probiotic chocolate across various isles. These "probiotic" foods advertise numerous benefits for your health. You might even pick up that probiotic sweet, justifying some extra dessert after dinner.
Sales of probiotics are over $40 billion. Yet, a quick Google search on probiotics leads to confusing and conflicting results. Consumers have a hard time determining when and how to apply the widely touted but unclear benefits of probiotics to their own lives.
Federal regulation on the term probiotic is complex. It was first coined in 2001 by an Expert Panel of the United Nations and supported by the World Health Organization. The panel defined probiotics as "live microorganisms that when administered in adequate amounts confer a health benefit on the host." In the U.S., the FDA can regulate probiotics as a dietary supplement, food ingredient, or even a drug. Most probiotics are sold as dietary supplements, which means they don't require FDA approval before they are marketed.
The unclear use of the term probiotic has prompted the release of a new paper this week outlining how microorganisms used for probiotics must undergo rigorous scientific testing on humans or the intended host. It underlines the need for "researchers to employ precision and consistency in both their investigations and communication of data pertaining to microbes for human health."
Some may notice the definition of probiotic includes the term host - probiotics can bring benefits to various organisms, from humans to livestock to insects. Cosmetics and other products for human use are often tested on animals. The same can happen with products labeled for probiotic use. Because of this, it is crucial that testing of probiotics occur in the host organism the probiotic is designed for.
The scientists advocate that probiotics products should be carefully vetted. Probiotics should be administering live microbes in an adequate number. Appropriately sized and designed studies should use bacterial strains on the host that the probiotic is intended for. Finally, the application of the probiotic should be restricted to the host and condition they were originally studied for (i.e., not using the probiotic for another application or condition).
Prebiotics are compounds, often fibers, that the bacteria in probiotics require to grow. Adding prebiotics preferentially favors growth of probiotic bacterial strains in the microbiome, which is a community of various bacterial species. Synbiotics are probiotics delivered with prebiotics and generally confer the greater benefits. Synbiotics maximize various direct and indirect health benefits conferred by beneficial bacteria.
The Los Angeles-based company Seed sells daily synbiotics tailored for men and women. The cofounders and CEOs, entrepreneur Ara Katz and scientist Raja Dhir, have invested in an educational approach to microbiome science and probiotics in general. They have found that educating the public and sales of their daily synbiotic go hand in hand. Indeed, their company's scientific advisory board includes several scientists from the National Microbiome Initiative and Dr. Gregor Reid, who chaired the original panel on probiotics.
The bacterial strains in their daily synbiotic - 24 for women and 20 for men - have been tested in several peer-reviewed human clinical research studies, as well as lab studies focused on understanding mechanistic changes inside the human body. Another bonus? Seed's synbiotics come in biodegradable packaging that dissolves in water.
Probiotics can also be used for other organisms, including honeybee colonies. Honeybees can be infected by a fatal bacterial disease called American foulbrood. SeedLabs, the environmental arm of Seed, has developed probiotic BioPatties that reduce the impact from neonicotinoid insecticides and improve survival rates of American foulbrood. The BioPatties are being tested in California and Canada and help with both prevention and treatment of American foulbread.
Consumers should take care to educate themselves on the benefits of the specific probiotics they purchase. More detailed information on probiotics can be found here and here.
