BATTLE OF THE YOGURTS BROOKE MARU KENMOOR MIDDLE SCHOOL 6TH GRADE MRS.

O NOVEMBER 12, 2013

Yogurt has been around for decades. It is said that yogurt was first produced in Central Asia. However, yogurt has Turkish origins. Yogurt is a savory treat enjoyed by people all over the world, in a variety of ways. Here in America, we commonly eat yogurt from a container while it is thick and creamy. In other parts of the world such as the Middle East, yogurt is put into soup, pastries, and fruit. The top consuming countries of yogurt were the Balkan countries (Southeast Europe). This was beneficial at the time because, yogurt gained more exposure to other parts of Europe. This is when yogurt was split into a variety of groups such as, light yogurt, frozen yogurt, and probiotic yogurt. The focus of my experiment is on probiotic yogurts. Yogurt is made when bacteria is added to milk to ferment. There are two main types of bacteria that have to be in yogurt, which are streptococcus and lactobacillus. Streptococcus and lactobacillus are the starter bacteria of yogurt. When making yogurt you have two options, in how to make it. You can make the yogurt pasteurized or unpasteurized. Pasteurized yogurt is when the milk is heated to a high temperature so bacteria are killed. When yogurt is unpasteurized, the milk is not heated so there are loads of bacteria in it. The advantage of pasteurized yogurt is that it has a long shelf life, meaning that it can stay fresh in the store for a good period of time. However, the disadvantage is that it cant provide the body the bacteria that are beneficial to our body and immune system. When the yogurt is made from unpasteurized milk, it contains more bacteria that are beneficial to us when we ingest them. These bacteria are called probiotics. Fermentation is when bacteria and yeast eat sugar and starch in food, and go through lacto fermentation, and become lactic acid. (Rawlings pg. 6) Even though there are many different types of fermentation, lacto fermentation is the most beneficial, due to the numerous health benefits.(Rawlins pg.6) When milk goes through fermentation, the starter bacteria (streptococcus and lactobacillus) digest the sugar in the milk, which is called lactose. This produces lactic acid which gives yogurt a thick creamy texture, and tart taste ( Huffnagle pg. 210). This also causes the milk to thicken. Since bad bacteria cant grow in an environment that is acidic, the acid prevents the milk from becoming contaminated. (Huffnagle pg.210) In addition, yogurt also contains lactoferrin which is, a prebiotic found in milk. After the process of fermentation, additional flavoring such as fruit or jam may be added or blended into the yogurt. Probiotics are microorganisms that are essential for our body. According to Huffnagle, a professor in immunology and microbiology Probiotics and prebiotics arent optional additions to our diet. They are an essential food group, one that provides nutrients just as important to our health as vitamins and minerals. Probiotics help maintain the health

function of the immune system. Our immune system helps us fight illnesses but sometimes our immune system overreacts to our own body cells, mistaking them for bad microbes, and destroys the needed cells. When this happens you see people developing illnesses such as asthma, cancer, type I diabetes, and arthritis. When taking antibiotics, yogurt is eaten to help with the symptoms such as diarrhea, vomiting, and other gastrointestinal distress. Taking antibiotics kills bad bacteria as well as the good bacteria found in our body. By eating yogurt, probiotics are taken into the body which replenishes the good bacteria. There are a variety of yogurt brands in the United States. Many of the yogurts are commercial brands such as Danon Activia, Yoplait, and Chobani. The question though is, which yogurt will provide the most health benefits? When I was searching for yogurts to test in my experiment, I had to look for a yogurt with a probiotic label and a plain yogurt without the label for probiotic. It is important to mention that all commercially prepared yogurts in the US have to be fermented with those starter bacteria mentioned above to have the approval of the Food and Drug Administration and the National Yogurt Association. For my experiment I am trying to find out if the yogurt with the probiotic label has more bacteria than the yogurt without the label when cultured on agar plates in an anaerobic environment. In this case I used Chobani as the yogurt with the probiotic label on it, and Danon (not the same as Danon Activia) as the yogurt that didnt have the label. I wanted to be prec autious and make the yogurts plain with no sugar added to avoid manipulated variables which can potentially make my results inaccurate. In my experiment I tried to depict what happens in the body when you consume yogurt. I cultured the yogurt in agar plates with nutrient agar on the bottom of each plate. After culturing the agar plates with the yogurt I covered them with a Pyrex dish sealed tightly with Play-Doh. The Pyrex Dish was my anaerobic chamber. Anaerobic means without oxygen. In our intestine there is no oxygen, so bacteria can grow there. I had to make sure that no air would get in the dish, or else my results would not be correct. My prediction for my experiment is that, the agar plates with the probiotic seal (Chobani) will have more bacteria growing than the yogurt without the probiotic seal (Danon).

Bibliography

Fermented Foods For Health Rawlings, Deirdre, Ph.D, N.D Beverly, Massachusetts: Fair Wind Press, 2013

The Probiotics Revolution Huffnagle, Gary.B, Ph.d New York City, New York: Bantam Dell, 2007

Catherine Guthrie, 2011 Good Bacteria Welcome Retrieved from http://experiencelife.com/ October 26, 2013

Peggy Trowbridge Filippone, 2008 What is yogurt? What is yogurt made from? Retrieved from http://homecooking.about.com/ October 12, 2013

Guzin Yalin, 2010 Yogurt: One of the oldest processed foods in mans history Retrieved from http://www.hurriyetdaily.com/ October 26, 2013