Fit Fare

Dannon, the popular yogurt company, is in a little bit of legal trouble right now. A class action lawsuit has been filed against them over their marketing tactics for their Activia and DanActive yogurt products. Activia is marketed as being “clinically proven to help regulate the digestive system when eaten daily for two weeks,” and DanActive is being touted as “clinically proven to help strengthen the body’s defense systems.”

Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP, the California law firm that filed the lawsuit, alleged that this marketing campaign is “massively deceptive” since it focuses on the fact that these products are offering “clinically” and “scientifically” health benefits that cannot be found in other competing yogurt products. Dannon, of course, quickly countered that they “vigorously challenge this lawsuit” and “proudly stands by the claims of its products and the clinical studies which support them.”

In a recent WebMD article, Leslie Bonci, MPH, RD, director of sports nutrition at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, weighed in on the growing controversy. “Does this make yogurt a bad thing? No. If people want to eat yogurt, by all means, they should because you’re getting nutrients in yogurt that you’re not going to get in a pill.” The WebMD Director of Nutrition, Kathleen Zelman, MPH, RD, LD, agreed with Bonci, saying that “Yogurt is good for you.” She furthermore suggested that when buying yogurt products, consumers should look for products that have “live and active cultures or are enriched with additional healthy bacteria because there’s sound science to document the healthfulness of those products.”

The ultimate decision in the battle of legal wrangling remains to be seen.

Photo from Dannon.com.