Word: unistraw
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...Breakfasting on bacteria - call it the billion-bug diet, because that's how many the company says will be in each straw - might seem like a disgusting idea. But Baron's Sydney-based company, Unistraw, says there's a lucrative and growing global market for probiotic bacteria (the name comes from the Greek words "for" and "life"). These so-called "good" bugs live in the human gut; the claimed benefits of boosting their numbers include better digestion and a stronger immune system, the easing of allergies, stronger nails and shinier hair...
...Unistraw's interest is spurred by a different set of numbers. "What's exciting," says managing director Tim York, "is that today it's a $7 billion market, and it's projected to be worth $20 billion by 2010." The big players include companies like Japan's Yakult and France's Danone (Dannon in the U.S.), which sell probiotic bacteria in yogurt. Dannon's Activia yogurt was launched in America in 2006 and passed $100 million in sales in its first year...
...same technology that can impart the taste of cola, cookies or curry can also deliver medicines. Unistraw has an agreement with a South African pharmaceutical company to add nutrients to straws for HIV/AIDS sufferers, who can have difficulty swallowing pills...
...that the company sees immediate potential. According to Unistraw consultant microbiologist Patricia Conway, a professor in the School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences at the University of New South Wales, there's no doubt about the health benefits of good gut microbes. Harmful microbes will flourish, she says, unless enough beneficial ones are there to keep them under control. "It's like kids in the schoolyard: once the bullies are allowed to get stronger, the good kids go hide in the corners...
...Unistraw's Tim York says partner Danisco has the results of extensive studies showing the health benefits of its strains. He believes people will buy the bug-laden straws because they work. "You will feel a benefit," he says, "or you'll stop...
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