It's become nearly impossible to avoid adverts for yoghurts and yoghurt drinks promising relief from "digestive discomfort" - usually featuring a beavy of bloated women bemoaning their trapped wind.
There has been little evidence to support the claims that the 'friendly' bacteria in these probiotic yoghurt products, made by the likes of Yakult, Danone, Müller and Nestlé, provide relief from irritable bowel syndrome and even protect the immune system.
But a new study by researchers at Imperial College, London, claims to be the first to uncover evidence that probiotics have a significant impact on the digestive system.
Previously, research by the Food Standards Agency has found no evidence that probiotics have any impact on the digestive system. Some researchers pointed out that while there are around a billion bacteria in a pot of yoghurt there are a hundred trillion in the gut, so the effect is negligible.
But the Imperial College report not only found that not only a small number of probiotics can change the "functional ecology" of the gut's native bacteria, but different probiotics produced different effects. The research teams hopes that the findings can help them develop ways to tailor new drugs to best suit the metabolism of different individuals.
It's likely the study will be greeted with some scepticism though, since it is co-authored and partly funded by Nestlé - one of the main companies competing for a slice of the market for probiotic products - worth more than £300m a year in the UK alone.
I remain unconvinced that there's any benefit offered by probiotics that can't be gained from eating a balanced diet and cutting down on the processed crap that helps kill off healthy bacteria in the gut. But if anyone has used them to beat the bloat, do let us know. (Just spare us the gory details.)
