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Facts on Yogurt

August 24th, 2010

Yoghurt or yogurt, less commonly yoghourt or yogourt, is a dairy product produced by bacterial fermentationof milk. Fermentation of the milk sugar (lactose) produces lactic acid, which acts on milk protein to give yoghurt its texture and its characteristic tang. Soy yogurt, a dairy yoghurt alternative, is made from soy milk.

Yoghurt, full fat Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)
Energy 60 kcal   260 kJ
Carbohydrates     4.7 g - Sugars  4.7 g (*) Fat 3.3 g - saturated  2.1 g - monounsaturated  0.9 g   Protein 3.5 g Riboflavin (Vit. B2)  0.14 mg   9% Calcium  121 mg 12%
(*) Lactose content diminishes during storage. Percentages are relative to US recommendations for adults. Source: USDA Nutrient database

There is evidence of cultured milk products being produced as food for at least 4,500 years. The earliest yoghurts were probably spontaneously fermented by wild bacteria living on the goat skin bags carried by theBulgars (or Hunno-Bulgars), a nomadic people who began migrating into Europe in the second century AD and eventually settled in the Balkans at the end of the seventh century. Today, many different countries claim yoghurt as their own,^{[citation needed]} yet there is no clear evidence as to where it was first discovered.

The use of yoghurt by mediaeval Turks is recorded in the books Diwan Lughat al-Turk byMahmud Kashgari and Kutadgu Bilig by Yusuf Has Hajib written in the eleventh century. In both texts the word “yoghurt” is mentioned in different sections and its use by nomadic Turks is described. The first account of a European encounter with yoghurt occurs in French clinical history: Francis I suffered from a severediarrhea which no French doctor could cure. His ally Suleiman the Magnificent sent a doctor, who allegedly cured the patient with yoghurt.

Until the 1900s, yoghurt was a staple in diets of the South Asian, Central Asian, Western Asian, South Eastern European and Central European regions. The Russian biologist Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov had an unproven hypothesis that regular consumption of yoghurt was responsible for the unusually long lifespans of Bulgarian peasants. Believing Lactobacillusto be essential for good health, Mechnikov worked to popularise yoghurt as a foodstuff throughout Europe. It fell to a Sephardic Jewish entrepreneur named Isaac Carasso to industrialise the production of yoghurt. In 1919, Carasso, who was from Salonika, started a small yoghurt business in Barcelona and named the business Danone (“little Daniel”) after his son. Carasso emigrated to the United States during World War II and set up a business in New York City under an Americanised version of the name: Dannon. Yoghurt with added fruit jam was invented to protect yoghurt from decay. It was patented in 1933 by the Radlická Mlékárna dairy in Prague, and introduced to the United States in 1947, by Dannon.

Yogurt was first introduced to the United States by Armenian immigrants Sarkis and Rose Colombosian, who started “Colombo and Sons Creamery” in Andover, Massachusetts in 1929^{[citation needed]}. Colombo Yogurt was originally delivered around New England in a horse-drawn wagon inscribed with the Armenian word “madzoon” which was later changed to “yogurt”, the Turkish name of the product, as Turkish was the lingua franca between immigrants of the various Near Eastern ethnicities who were the main consumers at that time. Yogurt’s popularity in the United States was enhanced in the 1950s and 60’s when it was presented as a health food. By the late 20th century yogurt had become a common American food item and Colombo Yogurt was sold to General Mills in 1993.

Benefits

Yoghurt has nutritional benefits beyond those of milk: people who are moderately lactose-intolerant can enjoy yoghurt without ill effects, because the lactose in the milk precursor is converted to lactic acid by the bacterial culture. The reduction of lactose bypasses the affected individuals’ need to process the milk sugar themselves.^[1]

Yoghurt also has medical uses, in particular for a variety of gastrointestinal conditions,^[2]and in preventing antibiotic-associated diarrhea.^[3] One study suggests that eating yoghurt containing L. acidophilus helps prevent vulvovaginal candidiasis, though the evidence is not conclusive.^[4] 

Culture

Yoghurt is made by introducing specific bacteria strains into milk, which is subsequently fermented under controlled temperatures and environmental conditions (inside a bioreactor), especially in industrial production. The bacteria ingest natural milk sugars and release lactic acid as a waste product. The increased acidity causes milk proteins to tangle into a solid mass (curd) in a process called denaturation. The increased acidity (pH=4–5) also prevents the proliferation of potentially pathogenic bacteria. In the U.S., to be named yogurt (the American English dialect form of yoghurt), the product must be made with the bacterial species Streptococcus salivarius subsp. thermophilus and Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus. Often these two are co-cultured with other lactic acid bacteria for taste or health effects (See probiotics). These include L. acidophilus, L. casei and Bifidobacterium species. In most countries, a product may be called yoghurt only if live bacteria are present in the final product. In the U.S., non-pasteurised yoghurt can be marketed as “live” or containing “live active culture”. A small amount of live yoghurt can be used to inoculate a new batch of yoghurt, as the bacteria reproduce and multiply during fermentation. Pasteurised products, which have no living bacteria, are called fermented milk (drink).

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