Another unclear food label - live cultures in yoghurt.

[awayandaway]

I have just discovered the bit on the yoghurt pot I was eating from that says "live cultures" and it is tiny.

Ok, it IS there, but it is very small, and I am dyslexic. I did check in the shop before picking it up, but I didn't see it.

I now have to contact my cancer nurse arrange a telephone conversation. Not that there is anything she can do now, I have eaten it.

I am going to contact the manufacturer and complain. Particularly on the grounds that a lot of people undergoing chemo are going to have temporary eyesight problems. But obviously, this is dangerous to other people too, not just cancer patients.

I think food with a content that poses a significant danger to a significant proportion of the population should have that warning written in a standard colour, so it is easy to skim the package standing in the super market isle, and find that warning.

There should be a list of ingredients that have to be printed in bright orange, or something, so that if you are scanning for a particular ingredient, and you don't see any bright orange, you know it isn't there.

Of course people who are severely colour blind might have to get someone else to scan for them, but that would solve this issue for most people most of the time, wouldn't it?

Actually, in the interests of impartiality, although I would be the first to be sceptical about the idea that yoghurt is anything but a healthy part of a normal diet, and even more sceptical that it has ever caused sepsis, as a pp noted, Google does reveal such (very rare) cases with immune-compromised patients. So to be fair to the op, I think she may have read/been given a nugget of ‘rare but possible’ info, extrapolated it and run with it to the extreme, as a result of her own perceived vulnerability to any ill effects due to her illness and current treatment.

You are right. Or just avoid yoghurt altogether. Much easier.

I can't believe OP is making such an issue out of this.
Don't consume yoghurt.
Just like you wouldn't consume wine if you don't want to touch alcohol.
If you really want to, then it's up to you to research a standard product in a variety stripped of what is, essentially, the main point of that particular product.

It all started with steak purchase and lack of advice from staff about matching chips in M&S.
Team aiden

Ha yes, I remember posting on that thread too. It was delightfully bonkers - didn't she complain about not getting a job there too even though the manager knew her by name?

Yeah. Aiden git the job and it was M&S absolute recruitment failure. He couldn't even say which chips went with steak.

To be fair, earlier in the thread pp showed empathy for her anxiety and tried to reassure her by linking an NHS website that showed that while yoghurts with probiotic added had to be avoided by people having chemotherapy, yoghurts with live cultures were ok and could be eaten. And the Op quoted one pp who shared the link and argued against it. After that she doubled down and posted increasingly ridiculous false information. It’s a bit hard to give her the benefit of the doubt now.

https://www.buckshealthcare.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Food-safety-for-people-having-chemotherapy.pdf

Most yoghurt contains live cultures. It's what yoghurt is, and what makes it so good for you. Expecting a big flag-up that it contains live cultures is a bit like wanting milk to be flagged in big letters with CONTAINS MILK.

According to my reading, live yoghurt is fine for anyone who isn't lactose intolerant, but if you're undergoing cancer treatment, you should avoid yoghrt with added pre and pro-biotics.

However, I think you're being unreasonable, because most yoghurt is live, and therefore you should expect this. It was on the label. If you're having to be super-careful, read the labels super-carefully, and ask if the text is too small.

I've given my child loads of yoghurt. Panicking now

It’s just that I read with some incredulity, the op’s later update suggesting that sepsis could be caused by bacteria in yoghurt, only to find that studies have been published confirming that it has happened, and people have died as a consequence. Obviously very rarely and in the most particular of circumstances, but if you have read reports like that, and feel you are similarly compromised, I can see how it might become a fixation.

Yeah but OP is posting as if that can happen to anyone. That is absolutely wrong. Plus the patients eat considerable amounts eg. Probiotic yogurt with probiotics added on top etc. It wasn't a portion of live yogurt AND these people were several immunocompromised at that point.

Do you think we should all nod to her? I am allergic to a certain common medicine. Should I freely claim it's dangerous to most popupation, because few people in extreme situations died from reaction to it and anyone eating it is just stupid for listening to adverts/reccomendations for it? No. Because i am not stupid or troll

You really genuinely do not have to worry.

It's fine for most people

I avoid fermented food and probiotics/live cultures etc because I'm severely neutropenic

Technically I should also avoid fresh fruit, salad, raw stuff but given I'm neutropenic for life there's a balance for me and I'm not giving up my strawberries and salad!

Thank you it's so hard to know what to do these days

Many posters here have explained and linked to proofs op was wrong (probs on purpose) while op provided (obviously) no support to her claims. That's how you can know.
If yogurts were actually dangerous to children at the level op claims there would be quite a few few billion of them dead by now and we would be facing extinction at the level yogurt is consumed....

Good point

OP are you mixing up ‘live’ and ‘raw’? I know that unpasteurised products are not recommended for young children and people with compromised immune systems.

You are wrong. Yoghurt is very good for the micro biome in your gut. FWISW, I am immunocompromised and make my own yoghurt and kefir. No problems at all with my gut.

It's like stepping through the fucking looking glass.

I think they could be. You can only buy raw milk directly from the farm or farmers market or similar but I don't know about other products. You couldn't accidentally buy it, it would say raw on the front.

I cant have lactose though

So it's not about the cancer treatment or live yoghurt. It's about you eating dairy?

It's the bio and probiotic ones

And here

Why? Did you give them mouldy yoghurt months out of date? I don’t know why else you would worry.

That's talking about probiotic supplements. Not yoghurt.

@babyelephantwalk two other screenshots attached
Yoghurts often say live cultures instead of probiotics depending on the type
Actimel, activia, kefir are all the types I avoid