We all know the Actimel and we have all seen the advertisements of this product (the last ones I remember are those of Susana Griso and the one of “Actimelízate!”) in which they tell us that it is scientifically proven that by consuming this product our defenses and those of our children increase by protecting us from The diseases.
A similar ad, in which a small bottle of Actimel jumping rope while a voiceover explains these virtues, has been banned by the UK Advertising Standards Authority for considering it misleading.
Apparently Danone presented several studies to support such benefits that, despite being close to demonstrating what they say, do not fully justify the advertising message.
These studies have been rejected because with none of them it can be concluded that Actimel is beneficial for the health of healthy children.
This does not mean that the probiotic bacteria it contains are harmful, much less, but, as many scientists think, they do not contribute much to healthy people and the benefit in people with health problems is minimal.
"These bacteria have evolved with us and in fact there is a gigantic number of them within the human body"Jeremy Nicholson, chief of surgery at Imperial College London, told the BBC. "To match the number of bacteria in your gut, you would need to take about 50,000 boats of Actimel every day“.
This is undoubtedly bad news for companies that have products with probiotics that announce similar messages of “increased defenses” and restitution of health, and it is even more so if we consider that the European Food Safety Agency a few weeks ago , an EU body, rejected everything submitted by the manufacturing companies regarding probiotics. Of the 180 theoretical benefits, the agency did not accept any.
In summary, it seems that Danone has yet to demonstrate the benefits of Actimel (at least in the United Kingdom). In Spain I suppose that we will continue “swallowing” the deceptive publicity of this and other brands and we will continue thinking that our children stop being “white” and tired when they take a Actimel.
