4 June: Yogurt

On National Frozen Yogurt Day, 10 things you might not know about yogurt.

1. The word yogurt comes from a Turkish word meaning to knead, coagulate or thicken.
2. The first person to mention yogurt in writing was Pliny the Elder, who noted that certain "barbarous nations" knew how "to thicken the milk into a substance with an agreeable acidity". Yogurt had already been around a while by then, since it is believed to have been invented in Mesopotamia around 5000 BC.
3. Yogurt is made by heating Milk, leaving it to cool, adding some good Bacteria, and leaving it to ferment. Greek yogurt is strained as well, which is why it is thicker and creamier. Most of the yogurt on sale in shops in the west is made from Cow's milk, but it can be produced from the milk of Goats, Camels, yaks, sheep, and water buffalo. It can also be made from soy, Rice, Almond or coconut milk for vegans and people who are lactose intolerant.
4. The bacteria in yogurt are Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus, both believed to be benficial for health.
5. Yogurt was introduced to Western Europe after Suleiman the Magnificent, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, sent a doctor to advise his ally, the French king François I about his recurrent gastrointestinal problems. The doctor prescribed yogurt, which did the trick, and François I spread the word about the miracle cure.
6. Eating yogurt has been associated with longevity. According to Persian tradition, Abraham owed his fecundity and longevity to the regular ingestion of yogurt. More recently, Russian Nobel laureate and biologist Ilya Mechnikov hypothesized in the early 20th century that Bulgarian peasants had unusually long lifespans because they ate yogurt.
7. Mechnikov was one of the people who worked to promote yogurt as a healthy foodstuff. Another was John Harvey Kellogg, who prescribed it at his sanitorium, not only to eat, but also to use as an enema.
8. An 8 ounce serving of yogurt contains about 20 percent of the recommended daily protein intake for the average adult. It is also rich in vitamin B12 and riboflavin, with a moderate content of protein, phosphorus, and selenium.
9. According to Hindus, yogurt is the food of the gods. Panchamrita is a sweet drink made from Honey, sugar, milk, yogurt, and clarified Butter, which is used in Hindu rituals. The word panchamrita comes from the Sanskrit words for "five" (the five ingredients listed above) and “nectar of immortality”.
10. Since today is really about the frozen variety of yogurt, I'll end with that. In the 1970s in the US, technology used to make Ice cream began to be used to make frozen yogurt for people who wanted a sweet, cold food that was healthier than ice cream. The first frozen yogurt store was opened by TCBY in 1981. Other companies jumped on the bandwagon and in the mid 1980s to mid 1990s frozen yogurt accounted for 10% of the frozen dessert market.