I have a recipe for Greek
cucumber yogurt sauce that calls for Greek yogurt. Can I use my favorite
brand of regular nonfat yogurt?
Yes, you can, but you need to drain it first.
Ellie Krieger in her cookbook The Food You Crave recommends
spooning the yogurt into a strainer lined with paper towels and let sit
for 30 minutes. I tried it with 1 cup of yogurt and it worked beautifully.
Remember the liquid that drains off is full of nutrients so you may want
to add that to your favorite juice or milk and drink it down.
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About 2 days after opening
my 32 oz carton of plain yogurt, I find there is a watery layer on the top.
If I pour it off would I be discarding anything of value?
The short answer is yes, you would be discarding a nutrient
filled liquid.
I contacted Springfield Creamery in Eugene Oregon who helped
me identify the liquid as acid whey. It contains valuable nutrients, whey
protein and carbohydrate as well as minerals calcium, phosphorus and potassium.
It probably also contains some of the active cultures.
I suggest you just stir it back into the yogurt, however,
if you like the thicker yogurt that results when you pour off the liquid
then rather than discarding it mix it with a little juice and drink it
down. That way you receive all the natural nutrients of the yogurt.
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The flu is expected to hit
us hard this fall and winter. Pregnant women, children, and young adults
are particularly at risk. Research supports that probiotics can optimize
your immunity, which is just what you and your family need for protection.
An interesting study was just
published in Pediatrics (Probiotics Effects on Cold and Influenza–Like
Symptom Incidence and Duration in Children. Leyer GJ, Li S, Mubasher ME,
Reifer C, Ouwehand AC. Pediatrics 2009, Volume 124: e172-e179) which reported
that probiotic consumption over the course of 6 months reduced fever, cough,
and runny nose symptoms in children. They also found a trend towards more
positive results with a combination of strains. I think an important finding of their study results is that, if we can use probiotics to reduce symptoms,
we can decrease antibiotic use in early life. This is a win-win for you
and your family. Check out Gut
Insight for a listing of products, all natural food sources, that
you can incorporate into your family’s daily diet.
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I recently saw sheep’s
milk yogurt in my supermarket. Would you please educate me about this yogurt?
Sheep’s milk yogurt is available in some supermarkets — we
have it in the San Francisco Bay Area produced by Bellwether Farms in Sonoma
County. I tried it recently and it is delicious with a rich, creamy taste.
Because it has a higher solids content, its nutrient profile has
an advantage over cow’s milk, particularly in minerals such as calcium.
The yogurt at Bellwether is made from pasteurized sheep’s
milk and the live active cultures L. bulgaricus, S. thermophilus, L. acidophilus,
and Bifidus are added after pasteurization. Fruit is on the bottom. Bellwether
Farms web site is www.bellwetherfarms.com/sheeps-milk-yogurt.
If you live in the Eastern US, you can find sheep’s
milk yogurt in the Hudson Valley made by Old Chatham Sheepherding Company,
on the Web at www.blacksheepcheese.com/yogurt_facts.html.
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What about kombucha?
Kombucha is a traditional fermentation of sweetened
tea made with a microbial mixture of yeast and bacteria. The mixture
varies from product to product and may contain Brettanomyces bruxellensis, Candida stellata, Schizosaccharomyces pombe, Toru.htmlora
delbrueckii, Saccharomycodes ludwigii, Bacterium xylinum, Bacterium gluconicum, Bacterium xylinoides, Bacterium katogenum, Pichia
fermentans, Zygosaccharomyces
bailii, or Torula species.
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Frequently Asked Questions
are answered by Jo Ann Hattner, MPH RD unless otherwise noted.
