Let us cut to the chase, shall we? Should you be sceptical? In short.YES.
If someone claims that a specific product can boost your gut health and miraculously make you healthier my alarm bells start ringing.
You might be thinking….WHY? Aren’t you totally into all things gut health? Well… yes. But let me explain.
The gut and all the trillions of microorganisms living in it have become an incredibly hot research area. The microbiome has become a “buzzword”.
The gut and all the trillions of microorganisms living in it have become an incredibly hot research area. The microbiome has become a “buzzword”.
But what you should know is this: There´s lots of questionable research and companies overstating unproven claims about the microbiome with the intention og making money. It’s big business! The global dietary supplements market size is expected to reach USD 272.4 billion by 2028. Think about that for a moment. People are willing to invest a lot of money for things that claim to make them healthier. And others are raking in a lot of money.
You’ve probably seen advertisements for supplements promising you a “healthy gut” or skin products claiming to be “microbiome friendly”,- just to name a few. But if you dig deeper you will quickly see that many of these companies have not actually conducted any studies to prove that their products actually work in the ways they claim.
The same goes for probiotics. Can probiotics be beneficial? Yes, in some cases- they absolutely might be. But they’re almost completely untested for the kinds of things that people are promoting them for.
My bottomline: Even though we know that the microbiome is very important in human health, we can’t assume that probiotics and other treatments that try to manipulate or even protect the microbiome will be effective!
Maybe in some years time we might be able to get products that do indeed boost our microbiome.
But we’re not there yet. Well- the science isn’t. So don’t be tempted to purchase some expensive products that influencers on your feed keep bragging about (with a discount code obviously…).
Save your money.