I like yogurt. But do probiotics – those “friendly” bacteria in yogurt and increasingly added to other foods – do anything for you beyond making yogurt taste good? I wrote about probiotics in What to Eat at some length. Tara Parker-Pope has a quick summary of the state of the research in today’s New York Times.

The quick answer is mixed. It includes a lot of “maybe” or “probably,” always a sign that whatever probiotics might do isn’t going to be much. The answer is probably yes for infant diarrhea and, maybe, irritable bowel syndrome, and maybe or no for just about everything else.

In the absence of FDA action to regulate misleading health claims, lawyers have jumped into the breach. They have just won a large class-action settlement – $35 million – against Dannon for claiming that Activia yogurt promotes immunity. According to one news account, Dannon spent $100 million marketing the immunity-promoting effects of Activia ignoring the results of its own company-sponsored research which inconveniently showed few benefits. (Did they not pay enough for the research?).

Read the full article : Health claims for yogurt? Really?