Probiotics In Dairy Work Better Than Supplements

Probiotics, the living bacteria that offer a variety of health benefits, especially for the digestive system, are available in tablet form, sold online and in health food stores. They are also available in the form nature put them in: daily products. Which is better? That’s what researchers at the University of California at Davis wanted to know, so they did what curious researchers everywhere usually do: they called in the mice. A UC Davis news release reports that the researchers found that mice fed Lactobacillus casei, (L. casei) one of the most common probiotics, in milk exhibited fewer symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease than did mice fed milk alone or the same probiotic strain in a nonfood supplement format. They also found that mutant forms of L. casei, which were unable to produce certain milk-based proteins, were unable to prevent the disease, further underscoring the importance of the dairy-based delivery system for this probiotic.