Essentially the same product has been made for millennia from eastern Europe and North Africa across central Asia to India, where it goes by a variety of names and is used for a variety of purposes: it’s eaten on its own, diluted into drinks, mixed into dressings, and used as an ingredient in soups, baked goods, and sweets The Health Benefits of Fermented Milks The bacteria in dairy products may more for us than just predigest lactose and create flavor Recent research findings lend some support to the ancient and widespread belief that yogurt and other cultured milks can actively promote good health Early in the 20th century, the Russian Nobelist Ilya Metchnikov (who discovered that white blood cells fight bacterial infection) gave a scientific rationale to this belief, when he proposed that the lactic acid bacteria in fermented milks eliminate toxic microbes in our digestive system that otherwise shorten our lives Hence Dr James Empringham’s charming title of 1926: Intestinal Gardening for the Prolongation of Youth Metchnikov was prescient Research over the last couple of decades has established that certain lactic acid bacteria, the Bifidobacteria, are fostered by breast milk, colonize the infant intestine, and help keep it healthy by acidifying it and by producing various antibacterial substances Once we’re weaned onto a mixed diet, the Bifidobacterial majority in the intestine recedes in favor of a mixed population of Streptococcus, Staphylococcus, E coli, and yeasts The standard industrial yogurt and buttermilk bacteria are specialized to grow well in milk and can’t survive inside the human body But other bacteria found in traditional, spontaneously fermented milks — Lactobacillus fermentum, L casei, and ... Once we’re weaned onto a mixed diet, the Bifidobacterial majority in the intestine recedes in favor of a mixed population of Streptococcus, Staphylococcus, E coli, and yeasts The standard industrial yogurt and buttermilk bacteria are specialized to grow... digestive system that otherwise shorten our lives Hence Dr James Empringham’s charming title of 1926: Intestinal Gardening for the Prolongation of Youth Metchnikov was prescient Research over the last couple of. .. the Bifidobacteria, are fostered by breast milk, colonize the infant intestine, and help keep it healthy by acidifying it and by producing various antibacterial substances Once we’re weaned onto a mixed diet, the