Yoghurt drinks add some culture to your day

A wide selection of yoghurt drinks are available in Hong Kong. Dietitian Gabrielle Tuscher says probiotic drinks need to be consumed for a long time to be beneficial.

She says Yakult, for example, works well as a complementary supplement, particularly if someone is taking antibiotics or they don't like yoghurt or diary products. 'It could add more healthy cultures to the body,' Tuscher says. 'If you have a history of poor bacteria in the gut, it could be recommended.'

One or two a day would be fine, she says. However, Yakult contains a lot of sugar, 'so I wouldn't overload, especially if you're getting probiotics from yoghurt'.

Tuscher says there's more friendly bacteria in a tub of yoghurt than a Yakult.

The popularity of Yakult here is more to do with traditional Asian foods.

'There's not a lot of dairy products in the Asian diet, so children are given a bottle of Yakult instead of a glass of milk as they would be in western diets.'