Plain yogurt, fresh blueberries: healthy and heavenly. Photo by Robyn Mackenzie | IST.

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February 2005
Updated August 2008

Product Reviews / Main Nibbles / Cheese-Butter-Yogurt

Yogurt Glossary

Yogurt Or Yoghurt, Speak The Language Of These Cultures

Master these yogurt terms and definitions and you’ll be part of the language of fine “culture.” Let us know if you’d like to suggest additional yogurt terms or definitions. Also see our Probiotics Glossary and Glossary Of Organic Terms.

Part I: Terms A To K

Click on the letter of the alphabet in this bar to get to a term
without having to scroll manually or to go to terms on other pages:

a  b  c  d  e  f  g  h  i  j  k  l  m  n  o  p  q  r  s  t  u  v  w  x  y  z

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ACIDOPHILIS

See L. acidophilus.

ACTIVE YOGURT CULTURES or LIVING YOGURT CULTURES

In some techniques of yogurt-making the bacteria survive processing, so packages will be thusly labeled. In other techniques, the milk is pasteurized again after the cultures are added, so the bacteria are destroyed. These packages are labeled “heat-treated after culturing.”

BACTERIA

Yogurt is made by curdling milk with purified cultures of two special bacteria, Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus. The other commonly-used strains are Bifidus, L. Acidophilus and S. Thermophilis. In an attempt to make their products sound more exclusive, some large manufacturers are creating strains with proprietary names, such as Danon’s L. casei Immunitas™ and Bifidus Regularis™. These strains have no greater functional powers than the publicly-available bacteria. As you may deduce from the names “Immunitas” and “Regularis,” this is product marketing razzelis dazzelis.

BIFIDUS

A strain of beneficial bacteria often included in probiotic cultures. See also Probiotic.

BUTTERMILK

Buttermilk is related to yogurt in that it is a fermented (cultured) dairy product. Originally, buttermilk was the liquid left over from churning butter from cream, now, called traditional buttermilk. Cultured buttermilk is made by adding lactic acid bacteria to cow’s milk. Either method produces a tart-flavored milk, due to the presence of the lactic acid in the milk; buttermilk is also thicker than plain milk, although traditional buttermilk is thinner than cultured buttermilk. Rich buttermilk is enjoyed as a beverage and used in batters (breading, cake and pancake, for example). See also kefir.

CULTURED

Made with live bacteria cultures. All yogurt is cultured, and thus is more digestible than milk for some people with lactose intolerance. The live cultures create lactase, an enzyme in which lactose-intolerant people are deficient; and aid in the digestion of casein, a milk protein.

CUSTARD-STYLE YOGURT

Yogurt with a custard-like consistency in which the fruit is already mixed in and distributed evenly throughout. Also called French Style and Swiss Style. Many products called Custard- French- and Swiss-style are marketing inventions, “laboratory products,” whether they are artificially flavored and colored or naturally colored, thickened, stabilized and preserved to a pudding-like hardness. Real yogurt is silky and velvety (except for Greek style, which is deliberately thicker). While the ancient Greeks (and the original inventors of yogurt, no doubt) ate fruit with yogurt, the yogurt they ate was a supple product, not stiffened to hold its form. Even though ingredients such as agar, carrageenan, gelatin, guar gum, locust bean gum and other additives are “natural” and enable products to be called 100% natural, look for products that have none of these.
Photo courtesy of Midwest Dairy Association.

FRENCH YOGURT or FRENCH-STYLE YOGURT The same as custard-style yogurt. FROZEN YOGURT Yogurt that has been prepared in the style of hard or soft-serve ice cream. Generally not a healthy alternative to other treats, it is parallel to ice cream in sugar and fat content. Some brands also have added whole milk or cream for richness. Freezing destroys most of the beneficial, live bacteria. While the FDA has standards for bacterial cultures required to make refrigerated yogurt, no standard of identity exists for frozen yogurt products. They may or may not contain live and active cultures: Read the label.

Chocolate Fudge Brownie Frozen Yogurt is absolutely delicious—but at 200 calories and 30 grams of sugar per ½ cup, not exactly health food. Photo courtesy of Häagen-Dazs.

GREEK YOGURT

Greek yogurt is triple-strained to remove the moisture, resulting in a thick, creamy product with the consistency of sour cream. Greek yogurts can also be sweeter, less tangier than European- and American-style yogurts. See Strained Yogurt.

KEFIR

A beverage similar thin yogurt, which originated in the Caucasus mountains. Kefir is made from cow’s or goat’s milk with a combination of bacteria and yeasts; Lactobacillus acidophilus and Saccharomyces kefir are widely used, though the exact combination of bacteria and yeasts varies from nation to nation. In authentic kefir, the lactose is fermented, resulting a sour, carbonated, slightly alcoholic drink. Most commercially-available American kefir is neither carbonated nor alcoholic, but essentially liquid yogurt. It can be drunk, or used in place of milk with cereal. Kefir is also known as búlgaros, kephir, kewra, milkkefir, mudu kekiya, talai and waterkefir.
Kefir from HeliosNutrition.com.