Problems with Activia yogurt?

[Unregistered]

I started eating Activia yogurt once a day for the last month and a half, and initially was very happy with the results. But in the last week I've had a bout of intestinal cramping with very sharp intermittent pains, and fever. Pains are in stomach and lower ab area, with more pain on the right side. I'm wondering if (after reading some of the threads here tonight) that I should be checked for a problem with my appendix. Or is there a possibility that all the Activia yogurt (with the "good bacteria") could have caused a bacterial infection? Any thoughts?

[Unregistered]

I use Activia and get great results from it. I've never heard of any bacterial infections developing from use of it or any product containing "good" bacteria. As far as I know, there is no way good bacteria can "go over to the dark side" so to speak.

[What is this?]

I started eating Activia yogurt once a day for the last month and a half, and initially was very happy with the results. But in the last week I've had a bout of intestinal cramping with very sharp intermittent pains, and fever. Pains are in stomach and lower ab area, with more pain on the right side. I'm wondering if (after reading some of the threads here tonight) that I should be checked for a problem with my appendix. Or is there a possibility that all the Activia yogurt (with the "good bacteria") could have caused a bacterial infection? Any thoughts?

I took Activia 3 days ago, and on the 2nd day my stool was green. I'm wondering if Activia could be the problem. Please let me know if you have heard of anything like this.

[notregistered]

I don't know about the green stools, but I've experienced periodic bouts of intense gas hours after eating it, plus stomach aches and liquid stool. Others swear by this stuff and that's great but it's not for everyone. I posted in hopes that someone else having the same hassles would realize it's the Activia and go back to regular yogurt.

[Woodgee]

I bought a four pack earlier this week, and after the first day, my stomach hurt, but heck I thought it was the Tylenol I took for a headache. Day 2 - bad stomach pains and bloated feeling and a few more trips to the bathroom for a #2. Day 3 - gave it the benefit of the doubt and regret it. I've had stomach pain for like 2 days and too many visits to the bathroom for #2 visits. The pain I had was similar to the pain I got when I was on Bactrim (antibotic) a few months ago for an ear infection. Other than the Activia, there were no changes to my diet. Each day I eat a bowl of Kashi cereal for breakfast with milk, I drink water or selzter water during the morning, lunch consists of a yogurt, granola, apple, and some other fruit. I replace my normal yogurt with the Activia this week to try something new. And literally, within a half hour of eating it, all went down hill. I guess this stuff is supposed to be for women (which I am) but be warned, if eating a 4 ounce will do this do me, just think what it can do you too (or if you ate two to equal a normal yogurt serving). This stuff also only has 1 gram of fiber and I consume between 25 and 30 gram of fiber a day. Trust me, when I decided to eat two servings of fiber 1 before (this would be about 32 grams of fiber in one sitting) I didn't get as bloating, gassy, miserable, for have the horrible bowel movement that went along with eating this stuff.
Consume in small doses until you know what it does to you. If you get weird body signals, stop, don't suffer what the rest of have. It's not pretty, especially if you're at work and are bathroom shy in regards to going a #2.

[Anne20]

I've had trouble with Activia too, but the result was simply bloating - the opposite of what it promised to do. Regular natural yoghurt is fine with me, it's cheaper too!

[punkster8]

Like others on this blog my experience with Activia was miserable. A family member, who is a nurse, suggested I try it. I ate it two days in a row. I got horrible stomach cramps, bloating and had go to the bathroom within the hour. I could have sworn I had food poisoning. The second day was much worse than the first day. Why, oh why, I ask myself did I eat it that second day? I was in intense pain. I don't plan to be too graphic but let's just say I vomited AND I had liquid stool--I spent about an hour in the bathroom. I'm still feeling sick and crampy 48 hours later.

I'm convinced this stuff has a hidden laxative in it that the company isn't telling us about. I've been on mega powerful doses of probiotics before for weeks on end and never had anything like this happen.

[I Smell......Badly]

OMG!!! YMMV's post made me laugh sooooo hard. Mostly because I can relate. I really hated to laugh that hard due to my terrible stomach pain, but darn!!! She hit the nail on the head.

This stuff is awful! I decided to try vanilla Activia (foolishly) instead of normal yogurt for my fruit smoothies. I did this (foolishly) because of the bobardment of advertising I've been seeing of late. Never one to turn down "a challenge," I thought to myself, "What could it hurt?" I thought it would be better than "normal" yogurt. Why else Dannon spend so much on advertising?

Well, let me tell you. After morning one I could not stand to be in the same room with myself. I do not live in a huge house, but even in a 3 bedroom 2 bathroom house, I was running out of places to evacuate to. And I literally mean running, otherwise the horrible smell would follow me. "Okay," I say to myself, "This must be the beneficial bacteria kicking in. I must really have some bad stuff in my intestines and the bacteria are purging them from my system."

On day two I repeated my morning smoothie ritual (Yogurt, frozen fruit, freeshly squeezzed OJ). Again, it was good I was home alone. I think my family would have disowned me especially after my poor DH had to sleep in the same bed with me the night before. Again, I convinced myself that this was a good thing. Then came the stomch ache/nausea/lack of appetite. I hadn't eaten anything out of the ordinary, but yet I STILL did not make the connection between Activia and my newly aquired stomach issues.

Day three: Repeat day two

Day four: Wow! I don't smell! That's nice, but 4 hours after eating Activia my stomach hurts again. It's a gnawing pain and I'm feeling like I want to throw up, and now I have a headache! So I begin to wonder....."Is this yogurt making me sick?" Well, I feel like ****, can't really do much of anything else, so I will check the internet and see if this is a known issue or if I am just being paranoid about a seeming "coincidence."

Expecting to find absolutely nothing, I was shocked to learn that there are tons of reports of the exact same nature. Thankfully, oh so thankfully, I have not yet experienced the raging yeast infection that others have described. I am hoping that I have stopped eating this poison in time, but I guess I won't know for a few more days.

My advice......stick to normal yogurt.

[Mary in KC]

I've eaten Activa every day for almost 3 weeks. Nothing happened the first week but the 2nd week I started getting pretty awful gas pains and was passing gas. Then I started having the bowel movements. I have NEVER been regular and most of my life have been lucky if I go to the bathroom once or twice a week. For years I had IBS and it was either diarhea or constipation. Then I had surgery last year and they had to remove a piece of tumor from a small portion of my bowel. That part of my bowel would not work for over a month and I was in and out of the hospital with nausea and vomiting until that portion of bowel kicked back in. Since then...no more IBS but a lot of "not going at all", which was why I started trying the Activia.

To make a long story short I thought that after the intense bouts of gas and finally having bowel movements that the Activa was INDEED regulating me! That lasted about 2 or 3 days but during this 3rd week of eating Activia...I've had no gas, no cramps and NO BM's. NOTHING...so it appears that the Activia Challenge has failed for me and I'm going to get my money back.

[FishingGirl]

I've been searching the web for info on this horrible abdominal pain I've had for 2 DAYS now and after reading all these blogs, I too, am CONVINCED it's the darn ACTIVIA ****!!!! I have left lower abdominal pain-(dull and achy and tender to the touch), bloating, a feeling of "fullness", other weird lower abdominal cramping, and experiencing some constipation now. I did go number 2 three times already today, but its feels like there's more **** that's still wanting to come out, but is somehow stuck in there!! oh yeah, and now my stomach's making abnormal digestive noises after all this ****. I never tried Activia before and decided to give it a go yesterday, and now after only 2 days, I feel like I'm in ACTIVIA YOGURT ****!! My brother loves it and swears by it, but he's 38 and I'm 28 and never had a problem pooping before, so maybe my system is telling me: "Shame on you! You had no bowel problem before EVER, so WHY are you doing this to me NOW SUDDENLY?" My advice is the same: Stick to what you know- plain old good yogurt that you can TRUST!! My favorite is Yoplait Strawberry Probiotic yogurt- it tastes wayyyyyy better that ****ty Activia, PLUS it does not wreak utter havoc on my system!! ...... Hopefully these tortuous symptoms will end soon.... any other advice on how to quicken the pace to get this Activia **** out of ourselves faster??