Just add a little ‘friendly’ bacteria

Chicory, blue cheese and yogurt may not yet be on your daily menu, but these foods are emerging as possible new ways to prevent -- and perhaps treat -- common skin and intestinal ailments.

It all comes down to healthful bacteria.

Trillions of these microscopic organisms -- more than the number of cells elsewhere in the body as a whole -- populate the gastrointestinal tract, especially the colon. There they serve as a key line of defense against harmful bacteria, viruses and toxins that attempt to invade the body through the intestines.

“It is becoming more and more apparent that an appropriate microbial balance in the intestine is crucial for human health,” the University of Munich’s Ilse J. Broekaert and Harvard University’s W. Allan Walker say in a review article published recently in Nutrition Today.

The trouble is that changes in diet -- for example, decreased consumption of fermented foods such as blue cheese, buttermilk and yogurt -- have altered the natural balance in the intestines for many people. Increased use of antibiotics has also taken a toll on healthful bacteria.

That shift comes just as scientists better understand the value of these beneficial organisms, which have tongue-twisting names but are known collectively as probiotics. Among the leading strains are bifidobacteria and lactobacillus.

Studies show that probiotics, when ingested, can shorten the duration of viral diarrhea by a day in otherwise healthy children. They boost immune response to polio and rotavirus vaccinations and cut by 40% the diarrhea linked with antibiotic use.

There’s also evidence that they can help reduce the bloating and flatulence of irritable bowel syndrome, inhibit growth of the bacteria responsible for stomach ulcers and boost effectiveness of drug treatment for this common disorder. “Yogurts containing live probiotics could become inexpensive tools for the treatment” of ulcers, suggest Broekaert and Walker.

There appear to be significant benefits outside the gastrointestinal tract too, including improved immunity, possible cancer prevention and better skin.

One study found that probiotics reduced eczema symptoms in children. Another found that infants born to women with a family history of eczema were 50% less likely to develop the disorder in the first four years of life when their mothers took probiotics during the last month of pregnancy and the first few months of breast feeding.

Despite their promise, probiotics may not be for everyone. People whose immune systems are compromised by chemotherapy, HIV or medication to prevent organ transplant rejection could be at risk for rampant infections from probiotics. But in healthy people, “the use of probiotics is unlikely to cause bacterial infections,” Broekaert and Walker conclude.

Here are some foods and tips to help boost your healthful bacteria:

* Add chicory to your coffee. This practice was popular during World War II when coffee supplies were limited. Chicory root is caffeine-free, so it won’t give you the same jolt as a regular cup of java. It’s gobbled up by bifidobacteria and seems to foster growth of this healthful strain in the colon.

* Eat a cup of yogurt daily. It’s a fermented food that contains various strains of probiotics, depending on the product. So mix and match brands to get the most variety. For example, Stonyfield yogurt contains six strains of probiotics. Activia, a new product introduced to the United States by Dannon earlier this year, provides a proprietary strain of bifidobacteria that company studies suggest improves regularity. Research also suggests that foods containing probiotics must be eaten daily to keep healthful bacteria thriving in the colon.

* Sip buttermilk, kefir or drinkable yogurt. They’re all fermented foods that contain healthy bacteria. Read labels to choose the brands with the least fat.

* Top your salads with a little blue cheese. Not only does it add flavor and bone-preserving calcium, but it also delivers healthful bacteria. Among other cheeses that provide probiotics are Roquefort, Stilton and Shropshire.

* Expect to see more functional foods with healthy bacteria. At the University of Reading in England, Robert Rastall, head of food and bioprocessing sciences, has teamed with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to see if agricultural waste, such as citrus peels, could be turned into probiotic food ingredients. Also emerging: synbiotics -- a mixture of healthy bacteria and the food needed to keep them vibrant as they move through the acid-filled stomach and the bile salt-filled small intestine before reaching their final destination: the colon.

Stick to food sources of healthy bacteria. Rastall and his colleagues tested probiotic dietary supplements from around the world. They found that some products had sterile bacteria that could not colonize the intestines. Others “didn’t contain the bacteria they were supposed to, and one or two brands had bacteria that were harmful,” Rastall says.