Yogurt, one of nature's best medicines

Because of yogurt's health-giving properties and its many uses in preparing foods, it has an important place in the Vedic diet. The Ayur-veda speaks in detail of the curative properties of yogurt.

Outside India, yogurt is most popular with the people of Russia and the Balkan countries, who are known for their longevity. The link between a yogurt-rich diet and increased longevity was revealed a hundred years ago by the Russian gerontologist Elie Metchnikoff. His major contribution to science was his auto-intoxication theory, which stated that it is possible for the contents of the colon to enter the bloodstream and thereby poison the entire body. Metchnikoff examined and interviewed many centenarians in Asia and Russia and noted that their diets contained large amounts of yogurt and fermented milk. He concluded that their longevity was due to the bacilli in these products, which replaced the bacteria of putrefaction in the bowel. In the wake of his theory came the first wave of interest in yogurt as a health food. As the consumption of yogurt in the West increases, modern science is discovering more of its remarkable qualities.

A few examples:

Yogurt produces lactic acid, which destroys the bacteria responsible for the putrefaction of food in the large intestine, one of the main causes of disease and premature aging.

• Because it is pre-digested by its lactobacillus bulgaris bacteria, yogurt is assimilated by the body faster than milk.

• Yogurt is rich in proteins, minerals, enzymes, and most known vitamins, including hard-to-get ones like D and B12.

• Yogurt gives the intestinal bacteria their favorite food: lactose. People whose intestinal bacteria have been destroyed by antibiotics are often advised by their doctors to eat yogurt to replenish the bacteria.

• Yogurt has natural antibiotic properties strong enough to kill certain amoebas and such virulent bacteria as staphylococcus, streptococcus, and typhus.