New Delhi: Yakult Danone India Pvt. Ltd., a 50:50 joint venture between Yakult Honsha, Japan and Groupe Danone, France, both global leaders in probiotics announced Bollywood celebrity Shilpa Shetty Kundra as their new Brand Ambassador. This comes in wake of the company’s concerted plans to spread the health benefits of Probiotics and Yakult among Indian consumers which was the main highlight of the press conference today. Present on the occasion were Mr. Minoru Shimada, Managing Director, Yakult Danone India Pvt. Ltd., Bollywood Celebrity Shilpa Shetty Kundra and Dr. Neerja Hajela, General Manager – Science and Regulatory Affairs, Yakult Danone India Pvt. Ltd.
In light of the fact that India is grappling with lifestyle disorders and health issues due to factors like unbalanced diet, stress, lack of sleep, inadequate physical activity, irregular working hours and improper nutrition, there is an urgent need to find solutions that can counter the growing threat. Fascinating insight shave shown that the largest immune organ of our body or the intestine is vital in determining our state of health because it contains more than 70% of the immune cells of the human body which improve our overall immunity and keep us protected.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Minoru Shimada, Managing Director, Yakult Danone India Pvt. Ltd. remarked, “India with a population of more than 1.2 billion ranks very high in our list of priorities”. With growing consumer interest in holistic health, the concept of Functional Foods that provide a health benefit besides basic nutrition is becoming increasingly important. Interestingly the concept was introduced in Japan in the early 1900’s, when Japan was an economically weak county, people were dying due to disease and heath care costs were very high. The Functional Food concept focuses on prevention of disease through foods rather than treatment with medicine. Our Founder, Dr. Minoru Shirota, a Microbiologist from the Kyoto University in Japan, firmly believed that a healthy intestine was key to a long disease free life. Intrigued by the fact that 100 trillion bacteria are present in the intestine which play a very important role in determining health, he successfully isolated a probiotic bacteria Lactobacillus casei strain Shirota (LcS) that significantly improved intestinal health and immunity. He introduced it in a fermented milk drink called Yakult which was launched in Japan in 1935. The introduction of Yakult was very useful in improving the health of people in Japan who were suffering from diarrhoea, dysentery and other infectious diseases. Yakult is being consumed by more than 35 million people in 33 countries and regions across the world.
Comments are closed.