Up Close and Edible: Yogurt

March 13, 2007 - If milk does a body good, yogurt may do a body better. "It's one of the most perfect foods," says nutritionist Amy Jamieson-Petonic, a spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. "It's a great source of calcium and of protein, and early research is pointing to some incredible health benefits."

Yogurt has a long and storied history—it's been eaten for thousands of years in Greece, where it has a reputation as a healthy staple and an aphrodisiac. But it wasn't until the start of the 20th century that yogurt was studied to determine its biological effects. The first to research yogurt was Nobel-prize-winning biologist Elie Metchnikov, who believed that lactobacilli—a strain of bacteria used in cultured milk—could ease gastrointestinal ills and help with longevity. Since then, numerous studies have suggested that yogurt and its so-called friendly bacteria, also known as probiotics, may actually enhance the immune system, have anticancer properties, help with allergies and yeast infections, lower cholesterol and even help you manage weight.

Probiotics are simply live bacteria that we eat, explains immunologist Gary Huffnagle of the University of Michigan Medical Center and one of the country's leading authorities on the study of these microbes. That's where yogurt comes in. The two microbes used in yogurt are Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus. These live organisms convert pasteurized milk to yogurt during the fermentation process, and they give yogurt its texture and taste.

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