After the year that has been, it has become even more imperative that we value the priority of our health.  Individually within our gut microbiota, there are billions of bacteria present, helping to maintain balance by keeping our gut healthy and in part also helping to support our overall wellbeing.

Gut inflammation
To support your health, your gut needs to contain a wide variety of good bacteria, and this diversity helps keep it balanced. When there is an imbalance, a reduction of beneficial bacteria to potentially harmful bacteria, the gut can become inflamed.

Inflammation is a defence mechanism that the body uses to fight against foreign matter. This can take place all over the body including our gut. Inflammation that is found in the gut has found to be more prevalent in individuals experiencing anxiety and depression which is highly present today when compared to the overall population.

Factors that can cause a reduction of beneficial bacteria include the natural aging process, stress, medications and a poor diet. While research has yet to identify the ideal gut bacteria combination, the impact of diet on the gut cannot be denied. Ensuring that we keep our gut healthy and happy has seen to make a huge improvement in our overall wellbeing.

What can we do to prevent gut inflammation?

One of the most powerful tools to combat inflammation comes not from a pharmacy, but from the grocery store. Ensuring a balanced diet is consumed will help our gut health thrive.

• Eating a variety of vegetables, fruits, wholegrains and protein sources are the ways to keep your gut happy.
• Avoiding highly processes foods such as processed meats and high sugar snacks
• Including some dairy, fish and using moderate amounts of olive oil
• Despite the small amounts being used in cooking, herbs and spices have a great impact on our gut as well as adding great flavour to our food.

Consuming a probiotic may also help with reducing inflammation in the gut. 70% of the immune system is found in the gut so it is not surprising that there is a strong relationship between digestive and immune health. Probiotics have the ability also to restore the balance in the gut and therefore have a potential role in the support and prevention of illness.

After a year of postponed events and cancelled plans, here at Yakult Australia, we were finally able to film our new upcoming commercial as well as additional informational videos for our consumers!

In our refurbished visitor viewing area, our ambassador Ian Thorpe and some of Yakult’s team members were able to co-star in the filming. Our wonderful staff from the Quality Control, Production, Administration and Public Relations teams all had starring roles alongside Yakult’s very own Yakult Man!

Filming, which took place at our Dandenong site, included shots outside and over the two levels of our production facility, as well as the education room. With a full production crew of camera, lighting, and sound staff; make-up artists; production assistants and directors, the refinement of the updated facility shone through during Ian’s filmed exploration.

Have a look at some behind the scenes shots from the filming:

Yakult’s starring staff include Alex – Quality Control; Arben – Quality Control; Chloe – Public Relations; Cor Nie – Public Relations; Dinah – Public Relations; Hardeep – Production; Jacinta – Administration; Matthew – Production

We also filmed a range of informational videos to cover some of our frequently asked questions, creating a fun and memorable way for everyone to learn about Yakult! Our updated visitor viewing area is also now open to the public again, so we hope that these sneak peek videos will entice everyone to come and visit us to explore Yakult’s inner workings.

Keep an eye out in the coming months for our new TV commercial and educational videos!

YOU ARE INVITED!

Yakult Australia is happy to announce that our factory tours are now running on site again and we want you to come and explore the story of how Yakult started.

Not only are the tours FREE, but you get to experience firsthand the step-by-step process of how the world-famous Yakult fermented milk drink is made. The factory tour includes a variety of features including unique food processing. It showcases the manufacturing and quality assurance areas, looks at the benefit of probiotics, gut health and more. Come discover the newly developed facility and try the deliciously refreshing Yakult made daily at our factory.

Yakult Australia is registered as a COVID safe business. Yakult is committed to contributing to the health and happiness of the community by sharing our knowledge and passion for gut health and probiotics while maintaining COVID safe guidelines.

If there are any questions regarding bookings or what the tours involve, check our tours page or email directly to info@yakult.com.au

Yakult Australia is thrilled to announce the renewal of its partnership with Super Rugby team the Melbourne Rebels. Beginning their joint venture in 2011, the new 2-year extension for the 2021 and 2022 seasons places Yakult as the club’s second longest official partner.

As the Probiotic of Choice of the Rebels, our Yakult logo features on the four goal posts on match day at AAMI park, as well as throughout the digital presence for the Rebels.

Yakult Australia’s Managing Director, Mr. Kenji Ono, remarked that “Yakult is pleased to extend our partnership with the Melbourne Rebels for a further two years. The Rebel’s commitment to grass roots Rugby in Melbourne aligns perfectly with our Corporate philosophy of contributing to the health and happiness of people around the world.”

Thanking Yakult for their continued support and loyalty, Melbourne Rebels CEO, Baden Stephenson, explained that “The Melbourne Rebels are honoured to have Yakult commit to our club for another two seasons.  It is a great show in faith in the Melbourne Rebels and the ongoing progress we are making to have such a well-respected global brand as Yakult continue to back us.   With a shared focus on health and high performance I look forward to partnering with Yakult for many years to come.”

Yakult is looking forward to the Rebel’s upcoming season, with their first home game against the Brumbies on March 6^th.

With the end-of-year festive season behind us, we have all been enjoying some delicious gatherings with friends and family. Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for us to feel a little bloated after a heavy meal.

While bloating and distension are often temporary for most, for some of the population it can be a chronic issue that can affect their everyday life.

Why do I feel bloated?

Some of the reasons why we may become bloated include:

• Gas from air swallowed during chewing, and from consuming carbonated drinks.
  • Often released by burping
• Fermentation by intestinal bacteria as it breaks down food.
  • When non-digestible fiber passes through the large intestine it is broken down and fermented by the bacteria, causing gas.

There is not just one cause for bloating, and it can be hard to narrow down exactly why it might be occurring for you. Potential other causes include bacterial overgrowth, carbohydrate intolerance, dysbiosis (an imbalance in the beneficial and potentially harmful gut bacteria), slow or poor movement through the gut, pelvic floor issues or a highly sensitive gut.

Based on these, there are a variety of ways to prevent and reduce the discomfort of reoccurring bloating:

Diet

Sugar Alcohols: a type of artificial sweetener, often found to cause bloating. They are easy to pick out on the ingredients list of foods as they usually end in ‘-ol’ (e.g. sorbitol, mannitol, xylitol).
Gluten: In Non-Coeliac Gluten Sensitivity sufferers, the restriction/reduction of gluten containing foods has been found to reduce bloating.
Prebiotics: Foods known as prebiotics are usually highly fermentable in the gut, causing gas. Reducing your serves of these may help relieve bloating.
FODMAPS: The low FODMAP diet has shown good results in the reduction in bloating in Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) sufferers. Those without IBS, but commonly suffer from bloating, may benefit from comparing their dietary intake with high FODMAP foods to see if they’re consuming excessive high FODMAP foods. Working with a Dietitian can be extremely useful to help figure out which foods are affecting you.

Probiotics

• Gut dysbiosis is an imbalance of beneficial and potentially harmful bacteria and is a is a possible cause of bloating. By correcting this imbalance, it may help to reduce the symptoms of bloating.
• Certain types of bacteria breakdown food in the gut and produce gas. By reducing these types of bacteria, we may reduce the amount of gas produced, which may help to reduce bloating. While there have not been many well-designed studies to assess probiotics and bloating, there are some promising multi-stain probiotics such as sporogens + Bacillus coagulans or VSL#3.

Medications

• The use of medication is usually started if lifestyle and diet changes do not help.
• Certain medications can be used to reduce bloating by targeting the potential causes, including:
  • Antibiotics (usually for IBS sufferers),
  • Treating muscle spasms if bloating is caused by excess gas (Antispasmodics)
  • Constipation treatments e.g secretagogues (increases fluid in intestines) or prokinetics (helps food move through gut)

Yakult has been awarded the 2020-2021 ‘Brand of the Year’ award in the Dairy Product – Probiotic category of the World Branding Awards to be held in London. This is the fourth consecutive year that Yakult has won this accolade. In the events 12^th time running, Yakult was one of 4,000 brands across 45 countries that were nominated for the ‘Brand of the Year’ award. These awards are tiered into national (top companies in each country), regional (top companies in certain geographical regions) and global (top international companies)– of which Yakult was granted a global award for our achievements.

The awards are run by the non-profit organisation, The World Branding Forum. They evaluate brands through three streams of voting. Thirty percent of the vote covers brand evaluation, where the Forum performs a financial valuation of the companies. The next forty percent is based on consumer market research from around the world, and the final thirty percent is based on public online votes.

The aim of The World Branding Forum is to improve the branding market for both industry and consumers. These annual awards aim to recognise and reward companies for excellence in their work.

As part of the Yakult Group’s corporate philosophy, we as a company will continue to strive for brilliance in research, health, and our social responsibilities to the community. These are derived from our founder’s principle of Shirota-ism, in which he believed that it is crucial to focus on a strong gut as well as affordable, preventative health for all.

Other than giving us a nice bright smile, teeth are also crucial to our overall health. Without healthy teeth, the variety of foods that we can eat may be severely reduced, as well as having an impact on our self esteem if our appearance is changed due to missing teeth. Dental diseases are easily prevented through good and consistent oral cleaning habits, however there is still around 1 in 4 Australians thought to have untreated dental decay!

Tooth decay happens when acids in our mouths eat away at the protective tooth enamel. This acid is made when bacteria living in our mouth breaks down the carbohydrates from the foods we eat. When the carbohydrates and acid are left in our mouths for long periods, for example when we don’t brush our teeth regularly, the acid breaks down the enamel causing small holes (known as cavities) in our teeth.

There are certain types of bacteria found in our mouths that are more likely to cause decay than others. It is important to properly brush our teeth twice a day to make sure acids produced by this bacteria isn’t in our mouths for long enough to cause decay, however, there may also be other ways to help prevent this decay from happening.

Where does Yakult fit into this?

There have been studies done with the unique Lactobacillus casei Shirota (LcS) strain found in Yakult to see what its effect is on the bacteria in our mouths. These studies found that LcS both reduced the amount of potentially harmful bacteria as well as increased bacteria that has been found to potentially protect our teeth against decay.

Another benefit found was that after continued Yakult drinking, people’s mouths became less acidic and were acidic for a shorter time after eating. This means that there is a lower chance for that acid to wear away the protective enamel on our teeth!

To make sure we keep our teeth healthy for as long as possible, we should be brushing and flossing twice a day, and keeping up our daily Yakult!

This year has been a year like no other. On behalf of Yakult we would like to extend our sincerest gratitude and support to the amazing teachers in Australia and New Zealand. You are not just essential workers but exceptional ones!

Yakult Education offers a range of learning resources, online talks, and guided virtual manufacturing tours to help support teachers. In line with our corporate philosophy, Yakult is committed to contributing to the health and happiness of people globally, and we endeavour to support teachers for the amazing work that they do. Teachers have a special gift for knowing what your students need. You teach and inspire every day, even from your own living rooms.

At Yakult, we admire and respect the work of all teachers.

In the month of November, we would like to invite teachers to share with us “What has been the most rewarding teaching experience this year?” by posting on our Facebook post to go into the draw to win a special Yakult giftpack. For more information* check out our Yakult Australia Facebook page.

We look forward to hearing and sharing your stories.

Thank you!

*Last entry accepted 11.59pm on the 30^th November 2020.

T&C below:

[Yakult Teachers Day 2020]: Terms and Conditions of Entry

Entry into the competition will be deemed as acceptance of these terms and conditions.

All prizes are as stated, and no cash or other alternatives will be offered. The prizes are not transferable. Prizes are subject to availability and we reserve the right to substitute any prize with another of equivalent value.

All teachers and educators are eligible to apply, inclusive and not limited to early learning educators, primary, secondary and tertiary.

Only applicants living in Australia and New Zealand are eligible.

Multiple entries accepted but each individual is entitled to only win one prize.

Closing date for entry will be [11.59pm on the 30^th of November 2020]. Entries after this date will not be considered.

Five (5) winners will be drawn at random on the [1^st of December 2020].

Winners will be announced on the original competition post on 1^st December 2020. The winner will also be notified by [direct message, comment etc.] from Yakult Australia’s official Facebook page. If the winner cannot be contacted or does not claim the prize within [14 days of announcement (11.59pm on 14^th December 2020)] of notification, we reserve the right to withdraw the prize from the initial winner and pick a replacement winner.

Yakult Australia will notify the winner how to proceed to receive the prize.

The winner agrees to the use of his/her name and image in any publicity material, as well as their entry.

By entering this competition, an entrant is indicating his/her agreement to be bound by these terms and conditions.

Yakult Australia’s decision in respect of all matters to do with the competition will be final and no correspondence will be entered into.

The information provided will be used in conjunction with the following Privacy Policy found at https://www.yakult.com.au/privacy-policy/

This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook, or any other Social Media Network channels.

Aside from the obvious dangers that come with space travel, astronauts in the International Space Station (ISS) also have their health to worry about. Being in a microgravity environment for long periods of time takes its toll on the residents of the ISS. It has been found that astronauts have reduced immunity, weakened bones and muscles, and changes in the variety of gut bacteria.

To try and combat this, Yakult’s Intestinal Environment Improvement Research Group was developed, which teamed up with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The joint effort was to study whether probiotic bacteria could safely survive in space, and then to see its effect on the astronauts’ immune function and gut microbiota.

In order to survive space travel, the bacteria from Yakult, the Lactobacillus casei Shirota (LcS) strain, was developed into a freeze-dried form. This was taken to the ISS, kept there for a month, and then brought back to earth. Tests found that the bacteria sample taken to space still maintained the same levels to the sample kept on earth, which was a great first step for this study.

Since 2017, freeze-dried LcS has been regularly sent to the ISS, where the astronauts take 5 tablets per day, containing a total of 40 billion CFU of the LcS bacteria – that’s like drinking more than 6 Yakult’s! This study is still continuing today – so every time you drink your Yakult, don’t forget to look to the stars and remember that you’re drinking like an astronaut!