Yogurt

Yogurt is one of nature's wonder foods. It has many excellent qualities including stimulating your immune system and maintaining good bowel condition. It is one of my daily recommendations in the HiMoLoCarb diet.


Make your own

Yogurt is easy to make and saves you plenty over the store bought variety.


Recipe

1. Purchase a small container of live culture plain yogurt from the grocery store. 2. Purchase a gallon of whole milk. (Skimmed milk yogurt just doesn't do it for me!) 3. Place the milk bottle in a pot with water so that the water covers at least half the bottle. 4. Heat the water to boiling and maintain a simmer for 10 minutes. 5. Switch off the heat and let the milk cool to room temperature. 6. Add one quart of the milk to a clean dry container with a lid. Store the remaining milk in the refrigerator. 7. Add three tablespoons of the store bought yogurt. (I like the Dannon brand.) 8. Stir the mixture with a clean dry spoon. 9. Put the lid on the bottle or container and leave at room temperature until the yogurt "sets". Depending on the temperature of your kitchen, this may take as long a 48 hours. You will know when its finished. It forms a semisolid mass. The longer you leave it at room temperature, the "Tarter" the flavor. Store your yogurt in the refrigerator. Use this yogurt a a starter for your next batch. To eat - Some like it plain, others like it sweetened. FOr low carbohydrate dieters, count 4 grams carbohydrate per cup. If you use a packet sweetener add a gram more.


Here is the abstract of a paper which suggests that yogurt may protect you from Cancer

TITLE: Antimutagenicity of an acetone extract of yogurt. AUTHOR: Nadathur SR; Gould SJ; Bakalinsky AT AUTHOR AFFILIATION: Department of Food Science and Technology, Oregon State University, Corvallis 97331-6602. SOURCE: Mutat Res 1995 Apr;334(2):213-24 NLM CIT. ID: 95191575 ABSTRACT: Reconstituted non-fat dry milk powder, fermented by a mixture of Streptococcus thermophilus CH3 and Lactobacillus bulgaricus 191R to produce yogurt, was freeze-dried and extracted in acetone. After evaporation of the acetone, the extract was dissolved in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and tested for antimutagenicity. In the Ames test, significant dose-dependent activity was observed against N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG), 4-nitro-quinoline-N-oxide (4NQO), 3,2'-dimethyl-4-aminobiphenyl (DMAB), 9,10-dimethyl-1,2-benz[a]anthracene (DMBA), and 3-amino-1-methyl-5H-pyrido[4,3-b]indole acetate (Trp-P-2). Weak activity was observed against 1,2,7,8-diepoxyoctane (DEO), and no activity was observed against methyl methanesulfonate (MMS), ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS), or aflatoxin B1 (AFB1). In a related assay (Saccharomyces cerevisiae D7), significant antimutagenic activity was detected against MNNG and 4NQO. Activity against the experimental colon carcinogens MNNG and DMAB was examined further, as assayed in the Ames test (Salmonella typhimurium TA100). Compounds responsible for both activities were less soluble in aqueous solutions than in DMSO. Adjustment of yogurt pH to 3, 7.6, or 13 prior to freeze-drying and acetone extraction did not significantly alter the amount of anti-MNNG activity recovered. In contrast, extractability of anti-DMAB activity was significantly greater at acidic pH. Conjugated linoleic acid, a known dairy anticarcinogen, failed to inhibit mutagenesis caused by either mutagen, suggesting that other yogurt-derived compound(s) are responsible. Unfermented milk was treated with lactic acid, yogurt bacteria without subsequent growth, or both, to determine if formation of antimutagenic activity required bacterial growth. Extracts of the milk treatments exhibited the same weak antimutagenicity observed in unfermented milk, approximately 2.5-fold less than in the yogurt extracts, suggesting that antimutagenic activity is associated with bacterial growth.