Yogurt is a drink made from milk, pasteurized, and then fermented with beneficial bacteria. It tastes sour, sweet, smooth and nutritious. At present, yogurt products on the market are mostly solidified, stirred, and fruity with various fruit juice jams and other accessories. Yogurt not only retains all the advantages of milk, but in some aspects, it has become a nutritional and health care product more suitable for human beings. Next, let’s take a look at the encyclopedia of yogurt with me.
1 What is yogurt
Yogurt is a nutritional product made from milk through fermentation. Compared with fresh milk, yogurt not only has all the signature nutrients of fresh milk, but also can make yogurt Protein forms fine milk blocks, and lactic acid and calcium combine to form calcium lactate, which is easier to digest and absorb.
Yogurt has a history of at least 4,500 years as a food. It was not until the twentieth century that yogurt gradually became a food material in South Asia, Central Asia, West Asia, Southeast Europe and Central Europe. Specifically, it is speculated that the earliest yogurt may have been naturally fermented by the bacteria attached to the bag in the milk of the nomads in the sheepskin bag. The shepherd found that this kind of yogurt was delicious, and in order to continue to get yogurt, he inoculated it into the fresh goat milk that had been boiled and cooled. After a period of culture and fermentation, new yogurt was obtained.
2 Efficacy and function of yogurt
1. Promote digestion
Yogurt contains a variety of enzymes, which can promote the secretion of gastric juice, promote absorption, help digestion and improve appetite. At the same time, yogurt contains a large amount of short-chain fatty acids. Short-chain fatty acids are of great help to improve the growth of the intestinal tract and prevent constipation. And because of the yogurt production process, the lactose and protein in milk can be better decomposed to promote the absorption and utilization of the human body.
2. Anti-cancer and anti-cancer
The lactic acid bacteria in yogurt can reduce the production of certain carcinogens, thereby reducing the carcinogenic factors caused by these bacteria, and playing a role in preventing cancer .
3. Anti-aging
Yogurt can inhibit the growth of saprophytic bacteria in the intestine, which can effectively prevent the liver and large intestine from being affected by toxins and cause aging problems. , it helps a lot to stay young.
4. Maintain intestinal health
Lactic acid bacteria can promote intestinal ecological balance, and at the same time, it can build a barrier for intestinal health and reduce the invasion of harmful bacteria to the intestinal tract , to reduce the toxins produced by putrefaction in the intestines, and play a role in maintaining intestinal health.
5. Enhance human immunity
Lactic acid bacteria are rich in active bacteria, which can produce some substances that enhance immune function, improve human immunity, prevent diseases, and help improve human lactose intolerance , enteritis, diarrhea and other diseases.
6. Beauty and beauty
Regularly drinking yogurt can moisturize skin, improve eyesight, strengthen teeth, and strengthen hair. The original prisoner is that yogurt is rich in calcium, which is easier to digest and absorb. High utilization rate. In daily life, yogurt and some papaya, banana, green tea powder, or some other substances can be made into milkshakes to promote beauty and lose weight.
7. Prevent osteoporosis
Yogurt can provide rich vitamin D, and in the fermentation process, calcium and vitamin D are combined together, making it easier for the body to be absorbed by the body. Absorption has obvious benefits for bones. Yogurt is very suitable for women who are prone to osteoporosis during menopause.
8. Relieve psychological stress
The tyrosine in yogurt is of great help in relieving human fatigue caused by excessive psychological stress, high tension and anxiety. After lactic acid bacteria fermentation, the protein, peptide, amino acid and other particles in yogurt become smaller, the content of free tyrosine is greatly increased, and it is easier to absorb.
3 When is the best time to drink yogurt
1. Drinking yogurt at night is the best calcium supplement
Although milk also contains high calcium, it is more In addition, the lactic acid contained in yogurt is combined with calcium, which can play a more important role in promoting calcium absorption. Generally speaking, drinking yogurt between 30 minutes and 2 hours after a meal works best. However, Chinese medicine suggests that in order to maximize the effect of yogurt calcium supplementation, yogurt should be best drunk at night.
Reasons:
1. From 12 o’clock in the evening to the early morning is the time when the human body’s blood calcium content is the lowest, which is conducive to the absorption of calcium in food.
2. During the period from 12:00 p.m. to early morning, there are few factors affecting calcium absorption in the human body.
Tips: When drinking yogurt at night, you must remember that certain bacteria and acidic substances in yogurt can damage your teeth to a certain extent. You should brush your teeth or rinse your mouth in time after drinking. In addition, if you drink yogurt on an empty stomach, it is easy to stimulate the emptying of the gastrointestinal tract, and the nutrients in the yogurt will be excreted before it can be completely digested and absorbed. Drinking it after meals can reduce irritation and allow the yogurt to be slowly absorbed in the stomach.
2. Office workers drink yogurt in the afternoon to protect against radiation
For those office workers who sit in front of the computer after lunch and stop moving, and are shrouded in electromagnetic radiation all the time , Drinking a cup of yogurt about 2 hours after a meal is very beneficial to health. In addition, drinking yogurt in the afternoon can also relieve tension and work pressure.
Reasons:
1. Some studies have pointed out that vitamin B can improve the body’s ability to resist radiation damage. As a yogurt rich in B vitamins, it just takes advantage of this advantage. Yogurt also has the effect of alleviating radiation damage and inhibiting the decrease in the number of human lymphocytes after radiation.
2. The tyrosine in yogurt is of great help in relieving human fatigue caused by excessive psychological pressure, high tension and anxiety. After lactic acid bacteria fermentation, the protein, peptide, amino acid and other particles in yogurt become smaller, the content of free tyrosine is greatly increased, and it is easier to absorb. Drinking a cup of yogurt at lunch or after lunch can make office workers relax and feel refreshed throughout the afternoon, which is more conducive to improving work efficiency.
Tips: Drinking yogurt in small amounts and many times will not only have better effect, but also avoid gastrointestinal discomfort caused by eating too much. The last thing to note is that you must remember to rinse your mouth after drinking yogurt, otherwise the acidic substances and lactic acid bacteria in yogurt will affect the health of your teeth.
4 Yogurt production process
1. Ingredients
Select the required raw materials according to the material balance table, such as fresh milk, sugar and stabilizers. Modified starch can be added either alone or after being dry mixed with other food glues. Considering that most of the starch and food glues are highly hydrophilic macromolecules, it is best to mix them with an appropriate amount of sugar when adding them, and dissolve them in hot milk (55℃～65℃, depending on the specific temperature) under high-speed stirring. depending on the instructions for use of modified starch) to improve its dispersibility.
2. Preheating
The purpose of preheating is to improve the efficiency of the homogenization process. The choice of preheating temperature should be no higher than the gelatinization temperature of starch. The purpose of this is to avoid the destruction of the granular structure during the homogenization process after starch gelatinization.
3. Homogenization
Homogenization refers to the mechanical treatment of milk fat globules, so that they are uniformly dispersed in milk as smaller fat globules. In the homogenization stage, the material is subjected to three effects of shear, collision and cavitation. Modified starch starch can maintain a complete particle structure due to its strong mechanical shear resistance after cross-linking and modification, which is conducive to maintaining the viscosity and body of yogurt.
4. Sterilization
Pasteurization is generally used. Dairy plants generally use the sterilization process at 95℃ and 300S. The modified starch is fully expanded and gelatinized at this stage to form viscosity.
5. Cooling, Inoculation and Fermentation
Modified starch is a kind of macromolecular substance, which still retains some of the properties of native starch, that is, the properties of polysaccharides, compared with native starch. In the pH environment of yogurt, starch will not be degraded by bacteria, so the stability of the system can be maintained. When the pH value of the fermentation system drops to the isoelectric point of casein, the casein is denatured and solidified to form a three-dimensional network system skeleton in which casein micelles are connected with water to form a curd, and the gelatinized starch can fill the skeleton. Among them, it binds free moisture and maintains the stability of the system.
6. Cooling, stirring and post-cooking
The purpose of stirring yogurt cooling is to quickly inhibit the growth of microorganisms and the activity of enzymes, mainly to prevent excessive acid production during fermentation and when stirring Dehydration. Modified starch has many sources of raw materials and different degrees of modification, and different modified starches have different effects in the production of yogurt. Therefore, corresponding modified starch can be provided according to different demands on the quality of yogurt.
6 How to store yogurt
The method of storing yogurt is very simple, because it is necessary to maintain the activity of lactic acid bacteria, so yogurt should be stored in a low temperature environment, generally at 2-8 degrees Celsius about. In a 4°C refrigerator, the number of lactic acid bacteria in yogurt will slowly decrease, and the number of viable bacteria will drop to about 1/10 of the original after 14 days. If you can’t eat it all at once, scoop out a portion with a clean spoon each time, and keep the rest in the refrigerator. It is recommended to keep it for no more than 3 days.
Yogurt is not suitable for long-term storage at room temperature. The active lactic acid bacteria of yogurt will stop growing in the environment of 0 ℃ to 7 ℃, but with the increase of the ambient temperature, the lactic acid bacteria will multiply rapidly and rapidly. After death, the yogurt at this time becomes an acidic dairy product without viable bacteria, and the nutritional value of the yogurt will be greatly reduced. After yogurt is opened, it is best to drink it within 2 hours. After opening the yogurt, bacteria will begin to multiply, which has a certain impact on the stomach, so it is best to keep it refrigerated.
7 How to buy yogurt
1. Look at the type of yogurt
There are many kinds of yogurt drinks on the market, the common ones are room temperature yogurt, refrigerated yogurt, lactic acid bacteria Yogurt etc. In terms of nutritional value, lactic acid bacteria yogurt has the highest nutritional value, refrigerated yogurt has a slightly lower nutritional value, and room temperature yogurt has a very average nutritional value. The shelf life of room temperature yogurt is longer because it is a sterilized yogurt, so there is basically no probiotics in it, and its nutritional value is low.
2. Look at the name of the product
Yogurt is a dairy product and generally has the words fermented milk, yogurt and so on. Now, there are some businesses that mislead consumers to regard lactic acid bacteria drinks as yogurt through different font sizes on product names. Lactic acid bacteria drink is a beverage product with low nutritional value.
3. Look at the ingredient list
The ingredient list indicates all the raw materials used in this yogurt product, except for raw milk, protein powder, cream, white sugar, bacteria that are harmless to us. In addition to the species, there are other additives added to improve the taste and state of the product. Although the national standard allows a small amount of addition (the requirement is not allowed to exceed the standard), from the perspective of food safety and health, the less the better. Now, there are more yogurt products going the high-end route, which are zero-added. Compared with ordinary yogurt, we can mainly choose zero-added yogurt.
4. Look at the species of bacteria
The bacteria added to yogurt products are all beneficial bacteria, which will improve our intestinal environment and promote digestion and absorption. There are two kinds of Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus bulgaricus, but now there are some yogurt products on the market, which will contain other lactic acid bacteria in addition to these two kinds of conventional bacteria. When used together, it is more beneficial to our health, and the taste will also be better. has seen an increase.
5. Look at the storage conditions
Yogurt products contain a large amount of lactic acid bacteria. When the amount of lactic acid bacteria reaches a certain level and the sour and sweet taste of the yogurt is suitable, the yogurt should be cooled down. , to prevent the lactic acid bacteria contained in it from continuing to ferment and produce acid under high temperature conditions, resulting in too sour taste and affecting appetite.
Each manufacturer indicates the storage condition of 2-6℃ on the packaging of its yogurt products to ensure low temperature storage. But in fact, many sellers do not store in the cold storage or refrigerator at low temperature according to the manufacturer’s requirements because of the cost reduction, but store it at room temperature for a long time. Therefore, it is best not to choose yogurt under such storage conditions.
6. Look at the taste
In addition to the appropriate sweet and sour ratio of yogurt, some yogurt is too thin when poured out, so you can eat it with a straw. Some yogurts are thick, evenly thick or tofu blocks, which can be eaten with a spoon. Different states have different feelings on the tongue. In addition, there are also many yogurts that add fruit flavors or pulp to improve the taste of yogurt. Consumers can choose according to their personal preferences.
7. Look at the nutrient composition table
In the national standard, the minimum protein content of yogurt products is 2.3%. If the protein content of the yogurt you choose is less than 2.3%, then , the product is actually a milk-flavored drink, not yogurt.
8. Look at the brand
The quality of yogurt from big manufacturers is often guaranteed. The raw materials and production processes used by big manufacturers are strictly controlled, and the national supervision is also stricter. You can choose with confidence.
