yoghurt from raw versus pasteurized milk

[Guest guest]

Dear Healthy Foodie,In regards to your holistic recipe of the week for Red Cabbage Sauerkraut; you mentioned that store-bought sauerkraut is pasteurized. In your recipe, you mention to get whey strained from yogurt. My question is: isn't yogurt pasteurized as well? You can't buy anything pure and natural anymore it seems. So, my conclusion is that the whey isn't going to have any probiotic bacteria left in it either. So is it going to do any good to the cabbage? Are there any alternatives? I would just like your thoughts on this matter.Thank you very much,E.

Hello E.,An excellent question. This is one that stumped me for awhile too, back when I was in nutrition school. If yogurt is pasteurized, how can it provide living probiotic bacteria?The secret to this yogurt mystery is that it is made with pasteurized milk, but is not pasteurized itself. In modern yogurt-making, the lactic bacterial culture is added to pasteurized milk in order to turn it into yogurt. This bacteria culture proliferates and feeds on the milk, turning it into yogurt. These bacteria are still present in the final product and are what give us our dose of probiotic so vital to our health and also what provides the lactic bacteria for our lacto-fermentation in sauerkraut or beet kvass.This modern process is quite different from yogurt-making done by our ancestors where milk was just left to sit and the natural bacteria present would culture it into yogurt.One could bet that the resulting product of modern yogurt making is a lot less nutrient dense than the stuff our ancestors ate also. The naturally occurring vitamin C and other bioactive factors present in raw milk but destroyed by pasteurization would be present and possibly even more biologically active in natural yogurt. The presence of the enzymes in raw yogurt would also be much higher than its modern counterpart and the naturally occurring lactase would help significantly with the yogurt's digestion.None the less, the whey that you strain from your yogurt is still alive and active. It definitely does the job fermenting your sauerkraut and any other lacto-fermented treats you choose make.The Healthy Foodie is Doug DiPasquale, Holistic Nutritionist and trained chef, living in Toronto. You can email him with questions at dugdeep@....

[Guest guest]

Also, I make cream cheese out of my raw milk, and use the whey from that to ferment my veges. Also make my own yogurt from the raw milk....therefore, nothing is pasteurized.

Dear Healthy Foodie,In regards to your holistic recipe of the week for Red Cabbage Sauerkraut; you mentioned that store-bought sauerkraut is pasteurized. In your recipe, you mention to get whey strained from yogurt. My question is: isn't yogurt pasteurized as well? You can't buy anything pure and natural anymore it seems. So, my conclusion is that the whey isn't going to have any probiotic bacteria left in it either. So is it going to do any good to the cabbage? Are there any alternatives? I would just like your thoughts on this matter.

Thank you very much,E.

Hello E.,An excellent question. This is one that stumped me for awhile too, back when I was in nutrition school. If yogurt is pasteurized, how can it provide living probiotic bacteria?

The secret to this yogurt mystery is that it is made with pasteurized milk, but is not pasteurized itself. In modern yogurt-making, the lactic bacterial culture is added to pasteurized milk in order to turn it into yogurt. This bacteria culture proliferates and feeds on the milk, turning it into yogurt. These bacteria are still present in the final product and are what give us our dose of probiotic so vital to our health and also what provides the lactic bacteria for our lacto-fermentation in sauerkraut or beet kvass.

This modern process is quite different from yogurt-making done by our ancestors where milk was just left to sit and the natural bacteria present would culture it into yogurt.One could bet that the resulting product of modern yogurt making is a lot less nutrient dense than the stuff our ancestors ate also. The naturally occurring vitamin C and other bioactive factors present in raw milk but destroyed by pasteurization would be present and possibly even more biologically active in natural yogurt. The presence of the enzymes in raw yogurt would also be much higher than its modern counterpart and the naturally occurring lactase would help significantly with the yogurt's digestion.

None the less, the whey that you strain from your yogurt is still alive and active. It definitely does the job fermenting your sauerkraut and any other lacto-fermented treats you choose make.The Healthy Foodie is Doug DiPasquale, Holistic Nutritionist and trained chef, living in Toronto. You can email him with questions at dugdeep@....

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