Improving gut feel

Yakult celebrates its 90th anniversary this year.

- PEPPER TEEHANKEE

This is one of my favorite health drinks, which I have been drinking since I was a child. I recently visited the Yakult plant in Japan and discovered they have more than the milk drink that I was familiar with.

Yakult founder Minoru Shirota is a Japanese microbiologist. Many in Japan died from infectious diseases like cholera and dysentery due to poor hygiene and nutrition during Shirota's youth. Bothered by this, he pursued a career in medicine and entered Kyoto Imperial University (now Kyoto University) in 1921. From there, the young scientist turned his attention to preventive medicine, which places emphasis not on treating illnesses, but on trying to prevent them. This was his gateway to the research of microorganisms. In 1930, Shirota identified a strain of lactic acid bacteria that is part of normal gut microbiota that he originally called Lactobacillus casei Shirota, which appeared to help contain the growth of harmful bacteria in the gut.

He founded the company Yakult Honsha in 1935 to sell the beverage that contained the strain branded as "Yakult". This strain is now known as Lacticaseibacillus paracasei strain Shirota or LcS. There are five benefits of this bacterial strain contained in the Yakult we drink: it reaches our intestines alive, it increases beneficial bacteria, it reduces harmful bacteria, it improves the intestinal environment, and it regulates the condition of the intestinal tract.