It is said that the first yogurt and fermented milk were invented accidentally, when some lactic acid bacteria got into milk kept in wooden containers and leather bags.
These fermented dairy foods were developed thousands of years before the start of the Common Era, when humans started cattle-breeding for the first time. Indeed, people around the world apparently prepared and ate various kinds of yogurt unique to their region.
Yogurt gained popularity not only because of its health benefits but also because it is so delicious.
Yogurt was initially made by the nomads of Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Northern Africa, using methods they had learned through experience, from the milk of sheep, goats, cows, and horses. As yogurt could be stored and consumed over longer periods than raw milk, and also because naturally fermented food resembling what we know as yogurt today was rich in animal proteins, vitamins, and minerals, those nomadic people apparently consumed it regularly as a key part of their diet.
It has been 100 years since the health-positive benefits of yogurt were scientifically proven for the first time.
It is believed that the French scientist Pasteur, considered the pioneer of studies on fermentation microorganisms, was the first person in the world to conduct serious research on lactic acid bacteria. When he came across some milk that had turned sour and observed it with a microscope in 1857, Pasteur saw organisms crawling in the milk, and named them lactic acid yeast.
Years later, the Russian-born Nobel laureate in biology, Mechnikov, joined the Pasteur Institute and hypothesized in the early 1900s that the marked longevity of Bulgarians was attributed to their daily consumption of large amounts of yogurt, because the lactic acid bacteria contained would settle in their intestines and suppress the proliferation of putrefactive bacteria and production of toxins, while preventing arteriosclerosis. He apparently started consuming yogurt himself and also recommended that others follow suit.
The Bulgarian physician, Gligorov, later verified Mechnikov’s theory. In 1905, he succeeded in isolating the lactic acid bacteria found in yogurt, and was able to identify two bacterial strains that would ferment and make traditional Bulgarian yogurt, i.e., L. bulgaricus and S. thermophilus. These are the same strains that are used today to make yogurt as we know it.
Thanks to amazing progress made in research on lactic acid bacteria and intestinal bacteria in recent years, we now understand that the lactic acid bacteria ingested in the form of yogurt do not inhabit the intestines. Still, the theory suggested by Mechnikov remains important today, and continues to affect significantly the science of lactic acid bacteria, yogurt, and their health benefits. Indeed, new scientific knowledge is being discovered because of his original visions.
Source quote website ; https://www.meiji.co.jp/yogurtlibrary/en/laboratory/yogurt/01/
