It’s inevitable really, just human nature and our love for a silver bullet, a best-seller with all the answers, a pill that can solve complex and otherwise intractable problems that we’re going to be seeing more and more over-enthusiastic entrepreneurs trying to convince the rest of us that their particular probiotic will;

• heal us of pretty much any illness or affliction we’ve got going
• make us thinner & more attractive to others
• especially to other thin and attractive people
• increase our intelligence and/or energy levels
• cause us to become less bald or less hairy
• extend the life of an especially beloved pet
• fix a problem with an internal combustion engine that would normally require the services of a qualified mechanic
• improve our performance in the bedroom

We’re so full of unchanneled faith looking for something to latch onto; remember aloe vera shakes and whatever happened to eating two gotu kola leaves a day? Perhaps there should be an app that gently helps reduce our too-good-to-be true expectations. The buzz around probiotics will eventually fade and there’ll be another new cure-all kid on the block but for those who like a bit of yoghurt, or kim chi or kombucha nothing much will change – they’ll still taste good and they’ll still be good for us – they just won’t be raising the dead or turning water into wine.