The Hype behind Probiotics (Dec 2025) Popular supplements with billions of “good” microbes really help only a few illnesses, research shows Probiotics

[Michael Harrop]

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-hype-behind-expensive-probiotic-supplements/

“The average person likely doesn’t need probiotics and is unlikely to benefit from them for day-to-day use.”

“It’s not because probiotics lack promise but because the science remains uneven, highly strain-specific and difficult to generalize,”

“Clearly, the marketing is ahead of the reality,”

Another concern is that in the U.S., probiotics are dietary supplements, not medicines, and aren’t rigorously evaluated in the same way as pharmaceuticals.

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Wow, misinformation:

We regularly replenish our helpful gut bacteria when we eat yogurt and yogurt-based drinks, kefir, or other fermented foods such as kimchi, kombucha and miso. These are all natural sources of a wide variety of microorganisms. Fiber-rich diets provide fuel for the beneficial bugs once they are in our systems.

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I wonder how much that was impacted by this:

This article was made possible by the support of Yakult and produced independently by Scientific American’s board of editors.

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