Years ago, I wondered how yogurt is made and I found out that certain bacteria is made to grow in milk which turns some of the lactose in milk into lactic acid, giving yogurt its density and taste. Now again, as I enjoy my strawberry flavoured yogurt, I wonder if the bacteria in my yogurt is still alive (?). Reading the ingredients tells me that “Active Bacteria Culture” is present. I checked on the net and the numerous sources tell me the same thing - “bacteria is used to make yogurt” - but they don’t say whether or not the bacteria REMAINS active after the yogurt is ready.
Your own mouth teems with living bacteria! Your saliva has billions of living germs in them. Your entire intestinal tract, from your lips to your anus, not only is filled with them, but depends on them to function normally.
I’m trying to get used to them, but I keep getting their little names all mixed up, and the labels I made wouldn’t stick. Slippery buggers, those bacteria!
What a coincidence! I just read about an hour ago that:
“If you are in good health and averagely diligent about hygiene,you will have a herd of about one trillion bacteria grazing on your fleshy plains- about a hundred thousand of them on every square centimetre of skin”
I’m not going to tell you how many are inside your body, it might frighten you, (and I don’t know what a 100 quadrillion is ) but you can’t live without them.
Not to get too TMI here, but there are certain female health conditions that the active cultures in yogurt can help to clear up. Hurrah for live bacteria!
Yep. Why do you think antibiotics give you diarrhea? (Well, they do that to ME anyway. Ewww.) They tend to kill off any susceptible bacteria in their path, including the friendly guys that we want to have around.
I’ve been told that for women, eating yogurt when you’re on antibiotics can help keep TMI things from happening.
Long ago in another life, I had typhoid (bad bacterial infection). It was cleared up by massive doses of antibiotics. One side effect of the cure was the demise of my personal symbiotic bacteria. The last stage of recovery was pills containing dehydrated intestial bacteria. Yum.
That number sounds too big. (Not arguing your numbers, dwc1970, but rather Vetch’s). According to this, there are around 10[sup]14[/sup] bacterial cells, and only 10[sup]13[/sup] human cells in a human body.
Yogurt is a great way to get some beneficial bacteria in your system - even lactose-intolerant people can eat it, since the lactose has already been broken down by the bacteria. After you digest the yogurt, the lactobacilli will remain in your large intestine and help you, well, poop more regularly.
So eat some yogurt every day! It’s a tasty way to get your daily calcium and bacteria requirements.
