Institute For The Future

Ulcer-Fighting Yogurt

While new studies find associations between some food and disease pretty much every day, this study is the first study I can remember that tests the curative properties of a specific food: yogurt. Described as both functional and tasty, the yogurt contains a an antibody called IgY-Urease, which blocks a bacterium, which is the leading causes of ulcers, from attaching to the stomach.

 

Though the yogurt is less effective than traditional antibiotics, but it's effective enough that researchers hope that based on a trial of 42 patients, some who ate the yogurt and others who did not, that it will be approved for use in the United States. And perhaps more importantly, it gives early validation to the concept of using food to deliver medicine. The study's lead author has noted that a similar process could be used to fight rotavirus, which primarily effects children in the developing world.