Yakult

    Yakult (ヤクルト, Yakuruto^?) is a Japanese probiotic yogurt-like product made by fermenting a mixture of skimmed milk with a special strain of the bacteria Lactobacillus casei Shirota. Yakult Honsha Co., Ltd. (株式会社ヤクルト本社, Kabushiki-gaisha Yakuruto Honsha^?) (TYO: 2267) It was created by Minoru Shirota who graduated from the Medical School of Kyoto University in 1930. In 1935, he started manufacturing and selling Yakult. Official claims state that the name is derived from jahurto, an older form of jogurto, the Esperanto word for "yogurt".^[1][2] Since then, Yakult has also introduced a line of beverages for the Japanese market that contain Bifidobacterium breve bacteria, and has also used its lactobacilli research to develop cosmetics. More recently, the Yakult Honsha played a major role in developing the chemotherapy drug irinotecan (Camptosar, CPT-11).^[3]

Yakult also owns one of Japan's major baseball franchises, the Tokyo Yakult Swallows.

Today, Yakult is sold in 28 countries^[4], although its bacteria cultures are provided from a mother strain from Japan regardless of production location.^{[citation needed]}

Yakult is marketed in different sizes. In Australia, Europe and Indonesia, Yakult comes in 65mL bottles. In the USA and the Philippines, 80 ml bottles are available. Whereas in Taiwan and China, it comes in 100 ml bottles. ^[5][6][7] In South Korea, where it is also produced, it is called yakult (hangul: 야쿠르트) and is marketed by the Korea Yakult company.

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Ingredients

Standard Yakult (excludes variations such as in Yakult Light) contains ^[8]:

• Sugar (sucrose) to help keep the bacteria alive
• Skim milk powder
• Dextrose
• Natural flavours
• Live Lactobacillus casei Shirota strain
• Water

Criticism

Standard Yakult contains 18g of sugar for every 100g. This concentration is far higher than the level defined as “a lot” by the UK Food Standards Agency (described for concentrations of sugar above 10g per 100g). Sugar is a contributing factor in: obesity, risk of diabetes, tooth decay & overgrowth of candida albicans. As a comparison, Coca-Cola is 10g of sugar per 100g. ^[9]

References

1. ^ What is the origin of Yakult’s name?
2. ^ Reta Vortaro - jogurto
3. ^ Yakult company profile: Pharmaceutical Division
4. ^ Yakult Europe - Yakult worldwide. Retrieved on 2007-01-16.
5. ^ Yakult USA. Retrieved on 2007-01-16.
6. ^ Yakult Australia - What is Yakult?. Retrieved on 2007-01-16.
7. ^ Yakult Taiwan. Retrieved on 2007-01-16.
8. ^ Yakult Australia - Nutritional Information. Retrieved on 2007-01-16.
9. ^ Bacteria-rich health drinks contain 80% more sugar than cola

See also

• Korea Yakult
• Kefir