What are Live Cultures?
What are they?
‘Live cultures’ or ‘active cultures’ refer to the microorganisms found in foods such as yoghurt, which can have different modes of action in the body. The term ‘live cultures’ is often used instead of the word ‘probiotics’, and it seems that there is currently some movement in favour of the term 'live cultures', perhaps due to recent European legislation (the Nutrition & Health Claims regulation) which suggests that the word ‘probiotics’ could be seen as a health claim. Examples of live cultures include microorganisms such as Lactobacillus acidophilus or Lactobacillus bulgaricus.
Are live cultures always bacterial?
They are often bacterial, but not always. It is also possible to have active cultures of beneficial yeasts, for example Saccharomyces boulardii.
Are live cultures the same thing as dairy or yoghurt?
Not quite. Yoghurts will always contain live cultures (to different extents, according to various factors including pasteurisation, whether or not live cultures have been added for nutritional value, and so on), and interestingly, it is the live bacterial cultures which help to convert milk into yoghurt in the first place. However live cultures can also be found in other foods such as sauerkraut, and they may be extracted from dairy and cultivated and multiplied to make a live cultures supplement.