I like Michael Pollan‘s advice in his landmark book In Defense of Food: “Never eat anything you’ve ever seen advertised!”  And is there any food more heavily advertised than Dannon’s Activia yogurt with those probiotic/prebiotic bacterial cultures that hint at (but don’t exactly promise) magical digestive benefits if we eat Activia for 14 days?  Well, just as Michael Pollan warned us, it turns out that there is no scientific evidence to back up Dannon’s dubious health claims.

Last week, the European Food Safety Authority published its evaluations of over 500 foods or food components (vitamins, minerals, fibre, fat, carbohydrates, probiotic bacteria, etc).  They found that two-thirds of the products evaluated – including Dannon’s Activia and DanActive yogurts – lacked scientific evidence to support their advertised health claims.

This is yet more bad news in a very bad month so far for Dannon, a subsidiary of Group Danone in France and makers of the top-selling yogurts worldwide.

Last month, a Los Angeles federal court heard that even Dannon’s own studies fail to prove that Activia has health benefits superior to any other brands of yogurt, in spite of the company’s claim that these benefits had been proven “clinically” and “scientifically”.  Continue reading →