Yogurt

I mean, I love the stuff. I really do.

I'll even eat plain, non-fat yogurt by the vat. Although if you sprinkle a hand-full of dried cranberries on it, well, dang, it just can't be beat.

Staring at the blank screen again at 3am, I decided that I was at least going to learn a little something, and then share it with you. So we get yogurt. Well, probably I get yogurt and you get to hit the back button.

One of the creepiest things about yogurt is just how easy it is to make the stuff. I mean, why go down to the store? All you need to ever do is buy one little cup of yogurt and you're set for life. Just take some milk, heat it up to kill off all the bad bacteria (and other germs), and then just add a small amount of starter yogurt. Keep the milk warm and still for half a day and voila, new yogurt. (1)

The bacteria you hear about in yogurt is what's used to transform it from milk into yogurt. Lactobacillus bulgaricus and streptococcus thermophilus actually form a symbiotic relationship in order to make the yogurt. A relationship that's further joined by humans, who nurture vast cultures of the two germs to produce and endless supply of yogurt. Just think, the yogurt you eat today has a little bit of the bacteria that was in that very first batch of yogurt.

If you go a hunting on the web, like I just did, you find that there are thousands of claims to the benefit of yogurt, and all the various different bacteria that companies have been shoving in yogurt (besides the two needed to make the yogurt).

The biggest titan in the yogurt bacteria pantheon is Lactobacillus bulgaricus, which supposedly stops acid reflux, curbs a run-away appetite, produces a powerful antibiotic and even destroys cancer cells.

Other components of yogurt, or perhaps some mystical property inherent in it's pasty white form contribute to claims that it: reduces cholesterol in the blood, aids digestion by producing certain enzymes, detoxifies toxic materials in the diet and hazardous chemicals added to food, reduces high blood pressure, assists in elimination of ailments such as colon irritation, constipation & diarrhea, manufactures and assimilates B complex vitamins, increases calcium assimilation, eliminate bad breath and gas, retards yeast infection, alleviate anxiety and stress and promotes longevity.

Of course, it's still unclear whether any of the yogurt bacteria even remains alive when it reaches the intestines, if it lives long enough to reach there.

Heck, there are even branches of "science" that have popped up around yogurt. "Probiotic bacteriology" is the supposedly "investigating whether living organisms can help colonize the gastrointestinal tract and keep out bad bacteria (2)". It's apparently more than just a passing phase, as there's lots of web site devoted to it and they just want you to buy bacteria in more direct, non-yogurt vehicled forms... such as little pills. Still more web sites go further and push the little germs as an essential part of your skin care regime -- with such wonderful anecdotes such as Russian doctors prescribing yogurt for acne.

Back in the real world, scientists have been performing genetic engineering on specific species of whey so that the cows that eat the whey produce milk that when turned into yogurt, will not produce that annoying watery run-off you find in older yogurt cups. (3)

The current leader in American yogurt is Yoplait -- a company originally formed when over 100,000 French farmers decided to form a large yogurt selling collective. But these guys were just cashing in on the new yogurt craze back in 1964.

If you want to track down why yogurt got to be so popular in America, well, that's mostly because of the work done by a WWII vet named Juan Metzger. Before being employed by the army as an interrogator of enemy soldiers, Metzger had originally tried selling yogurt to the army as a meat substitute. When that didn't pan out he launched a public add campaign that actually featured the lines: "a fortunate byproduct of nature's rot turned to man's nutritional advantage" and "yogurt is a small miracle of decay - and a tasty treat too!" Despite this giant step backwards, his company went on to become the foremost Yogurt pusher in America - Dannon.

i,jasona

1) Where did the first yogurt come from? Sure it was around in Asia and Europe thousands of years ago... but, really, think about it... what god blessed us with the first vat of bacteria to make the yogurt... and who was hungry enough to go and try and eat it... and then realize that if he kept leaving a little of it jars of warm milk he could continue feasting upon his rewards?

2) Dr. Kathryn Boor. Cornell University.

3) This research is also being done at Cornell University, but by a different batch of scientists. What is it with Cornell and Yogurt?