April 11, 2002

Prairie Fare: Add Some Culture to Your Menu

By Julie Garden-Robinson, Food and Nutrition Specialist
NDSU Extension Service

My family has always enjoyed some fairly unusual foods. As a kid, I’d eat just about anything, with a few exceptions. Liver sausage and lutefisk only briefly touched my plate before being stealthily transferred to a distracted parent’s plate. And I usually left the kitchen when the tightly covered jar of the highly aromatic Limburger cheese came out of the refrigerator. I usually went looking for the air freshener.

When I went off to college, I took a liking to yogurt. I even bought a yogurt maker, and I brought it home to treat my parents to home-made yogurt. They wrinkled their noses and said, "I just can’t eat that." Oh, they might have eaten a teaspoon of it to be polite. That’s more lutefisk than I tried.

Yogurt has been around for thousands of years. It’s made by mixing milk, or in some cases, cream, with active bacterial cultures that ferment the milk and change its consistency. In recent years, research studies have shown some health benefits associated with eating yogurt because of the "friendly bacteria" it contains.

Most dairy foods contain the milk sugar, lactose. People with lactose intolerance often suffer intestinal distress when they drink milk, because they are deficient in an enzyme, lactase, which breaks down milk sugar. Most people with lactose intolerance, however, can enjoy calcium-rich yogurt without the consequences, because the bacterial cultures break down lactose into a digestible form.

Yogurt and other fermented foods contain live bacteria and are termed "probiotics," meaning "for life." While bacteria may be inactivated in the acidic environment of the stomach, some probiotics can survive and compete with disease-causing microorganisms in the small and large intestines.

The small and large intestines contain an estimated 100 trillion bacteria of 400 different types. Some are neutral, some are probiotics and some have the potential to cause disease. Researchers are studying the role that probiotics may play in boosting the immune system to fight disease. Probiotics may also compete with disease-causing organisms for nutrients in the gut.

In the United States, two different bacterial strains are used to produce yogurt: Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus. To be sure you are getting live cultures in your yogurt, look for these phrases on the yogurt container: "with active yogurt cultures," "with living yogurt cultures" or "contains active cultures." Eat yogurt within a week of the "sell by" date on the container to take advantage of the live cultures, which can decrease over time.

Yogurt is available in many forms and flavors. You can buy whipped yogurt, custard yogurt, fruit-on-the bottom yogurt, drinkable yogurt and yogurt in kid-friendly squeezable plastic tubes. Here’s a recipe from the Dannon Company for a tasty dip that’s low in calories and high in nutrients.

Creamy Spinach and Yogurt Dip

1 10-oz. box frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and squeezed
2 c. plain yogurt, drained for 20 minutes1/2 c. low-fat ricotta cheese
1/2 c. grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 c. minced scallions
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh dill (optional)
salt and black pepper, to taste

Combine all ingredients in bowl. Mix well, cover and refrigerate. Serve with crackers or fresh vegetables.

Makes 30 servings, 2 tablespoons per serving. Each serving contains 25 calories, 1 gram fat, 2 grams carbohydrates and 60 mg calcium.

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Source: Julie Garden-Robinson, (701) 231-7187, jgardenr@ndsuext.nodak.edu
Editor: Tom Jirik, (701) 231-9629, tjirik@ndsuext.nodak.edu