Yoghurt good for people living with AIDS
http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/features/goodhealth/2007/dec/04/
goodhealth-04-12-2007-001.htm

By ROSE EJEMBI, Makurdi
Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Truly, Asiwaju Isaac Akinkunmi is not a doctor. He is not even a
scientist – perhaps by conventional definition. At best, you can call
him a researcher or a reporter who has merely applied investigative
journalism, coupled with over 20 years experience in the food
industry, 80 per cent of which is spent and still being spent in the
dairy industry to delve into what experts have discovered about
yoghurt.

In this presentation, the Managing Director and Chief Executive
Officer (MD/CEO) of Tito Group of Companies put paid to the
insinuation that milk or yoghurt makes one fat.

Milk or yoghurt does not make one fat. Before answering this
question, permit me to digress a little to correct a popular dogma
that yoghurt makes you fat. This is a fallacy. Yoghurt or indeed,
milk does exactly the opposite. You can gain weight by abstaining
from it and shed it by including it in your diet. As reported, in the
July 2002 edition of Readers Digest, Zamel, a renowned researcher on
yoghurt discovered that yoghurt actually slims one down through the
activity of calcium, which is richly contained in milk. This is how
it works. Calcium has inhibitory effect on fat cells. When the level
of calcium in the blood is high, the fat cells are inhibited from
storing calories; instead they start burning off fat. The interesting
thing in this discovery is that as far as weight loss is concerned,
it does not matter whether the milk or yoghurt is full cream.

However, taking yoghurt made from skimmed or partially skimmed milk
would have an even greater effect on weight reduction. We can,
therefore, say more yoghurt makes for more calcium and more calcium
makes for less fat cells and less fat cells make for less fat people.
This is not, however, to say weight watchers should embark on yoghurt
diet only. For quick result, it must be backed up with some physical
exercises and abstinence from some kinds of foods. Permit me to
borrow from mathematical equations to propound without any fear of
equivocation that yoghurt + exercise – some kinds of foods = weight
loss. Y + E + S = WL where S stand for other kinds of fatty foods.

Let us leave Zamel, the researcher alone and come back home to
question the veracity of this question. Let us look at our own local
Fulanis. These people, though unschooled, perhaps form one of the
most healthy tribes in Nigeria . They are generally slim, healthy and
robust looking people.

Three things we believe were responsible for this. One, their diet,
like the Maasias of east Africa is 70 per cent combination of
fermented milk (defatted) and fresh milk.

Two, though the main source of cows and meat to Nigerians, their
regular meals contain no meat. Read meat, a great source of bad
cholesterol is, therefore, eliminated from their diets.

Three, another likely cause for this healthy living is that the
Fulanis are great trekkers, covering between five and 10 kilometers
daily to hawk milk or graze. A lot of fat is burnt by this life style.

Their infants, unlike infants of other Nigerian tribes in their level
of income, are generally healthy looking. Robust and only comparable
to infants on baby friendly-feeding and the Fulanis do not know this
concept neither do they know vitamins or nutritional supplements.
Their old men and women are equally agile and seem to age in reverse
when compared with their town dweller age groups who scarcely have
yoghurt in their diets. This made us to propound this hypothesis and
we invite you to join us to prove it that `the bush Fulanis live
healthier lives, live longer and many times less likely to suffer
osteoporosis, obesity, diabetes, stroke, or other forms of
cardiovascular diseases and a breakdown of immune functions than
other Nigerian tribes.

Antibiotic induced diarrhea?
Let us put in focus the place of probiotic yoghurt in antibiotic-
induced diarrhea. To forge ahead, we shall now define yoghurt and
more appropriately probiotic.

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines yoghurt as coagulated
milk product, produced by means of specific micro-organisms. The
fermentation process in probiotic yoghurt produces billions of
friendly bacteria that are antagonistic to a wide range of pathogens
especially in the gut.

Probiotic yoghurt is produced by the marriage of bacteria to milk. It
is manufacturered by lactic-acid fermentation through the activities
of lactobacillus bulgaricus, streptococcus thermophilis,
bifidobacterium and lactobacillus acidophilus.

What has this got to do with antibiotic-induced diarrhea?
To do justice to this question and to see the place of probiotic
yoghurt as remedy, we should first put into perspective the Gastro
Intestinal Tract (GIT) of Humans. The Gastro Intestinal Tract (GIT)
is the primary interface between food consumed and humans. According
to Chr. Hansen LAB, world largest producers of friendly bacteria and
culture partners to Tito yoghurt, the GIT of an adult human contains
over 100 trillion micro-organisms. That's over 1000 times the
population of man on the face of the earth. They are made up of over
400 different species, which, according to Rebecca Wood, writing for
Mail Tribune in India, weighs about two pounds. This complex micro-
flora exists as a delicate balance of beneficial and potentially
harmful organisms. This makes up the intestinal micro-flora and it is
the seat of the immune system working to metabolize or anabolism the
food we eat to give us the fuel needed to do our daily activates or
build tissues.

A well-balanced intestinal flora is, therefore, the beginning of good
health. It is involved in one's nutritional status, and affects aging
and immune system function. A balanced intestinal micro-flora is one
in which a healthy balance is maintained between the friendly and the
harmful bacteria in the gut.

What are probiotics?
We shall answer this question in the Nigerian way by asking another
question. What are antibiotics?
Ian Morgan, General Manager of Chris Hansen, said recently in Chris
Hansen News letter that probiotics literarily means `for life' and it
is the opposite of antibiotics. Antibiotics are drugs doctors
prescribe to kill bacteria after they have caused infection.
Probiotics, on the other hand, are not drugs but specially engineered
foods that friendly, healthy bacteria are deliberately introduced to
fight harmful bacteria before they settle down in your system to
cause harm.

Probiotics and HIV positives
Probiotic yoghurt is an excellent addition to the meals of people
living with HIV Good intestinal micro-flora and its positive effect:
By maintaining a well balanced intestinal flora, foods taken are well
metabolized to ensure good nutritional status and drugs taken have
fertile grounds to perform the jobs they are sent for. This delays
the unset and progression of AIDS. Anti-retroviral therapy (ART) must
be backed by good nutrition to succeed.

The effect of friendly bacteria:
The inhibitory effects of friendly bacteria in probiotic yoghurt
especially the activities of lactobacillus acidophilus on pathogens
can prevent numerous opportunities infections from taking hold as
explain earlier.

Omega 3 fatty acid and calcium:
Probiotic yoghurt is a high protein diet as a milk product with high
reputation for rich natural calcium which is important to build
muscles, bone mass and tissues lost by repeated infections. As a
fermented product, it generates new nutrients including omega 3 fatty
acids. This delays the unset and progression of AIDS.
Well tolerated: As a fermented milk product, it is well tolerated
even by people allergic to milk. I mean people who are lactose
intolerant. Fermentation breaks down the lactose to lactic-acid which
is metabolically acceptable to people of all ages. ART may not work
in the same way for all people but good nutrition will.

Other clinical values of probiotic yoghurt
Probiotic yoghurt has many other clinical values, too numerous to
mention in this paper. They include inhibitory effects on tumor
especially colon cancer. Others include diarrhea prevention.
Michael T. Murray, writing in Encyclopedia of nutritional
supplements, recommends acidophilus supplementation as important for
preventing and treating antibiotic induced diarrhea, candida
overgrowth, and urinary tract infection. It can correct the increase
of gram-negative bacteria observed following administration of broad
spectrum antibiotics. It equally inhibits the lowering of fecal flora
induced by ampicillin. A dosage of between 15 and 20 billion
organisms, he said, is required. And this should continue long after
the antibiotic therapy is discontinued.