Why does yoghurt need to feed on milk products? Why not plain sugar?
My understanding is that yoghurt is is the biproduct of a yoghurt culture, a bacteria, eating lactose and excreting the yoghurt.
My question is - why does it need to be lactose that the yoghurt culture is eating?
For yeast to produce alcohol, for example, the yeast can eat any sugar, and it's up to the brewer to decide whether that's sucrose, corn, barley, grapes etc to affect the taste.
Why is that that yoghurt cultures need lactose specifically?
Best Answer
Lactobacillus is the genus of the bacteria responsible for making yogurt.
These bacteria consume sugars and excrete lactic acid. The acid denatures the proteins in the milk, causing them to coagulate into a delicious gel.
Lactobacilli can consume sugars other than just lactose.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactobacillus
The reason they eat lactose when making yogurt is because that's what they have. There is more than enough lactose in milk to make yogurt. There's no reason to add other sugars.
Lactobacilli are also responsible for the fermentation of pickles. In that case, even though they still produce lactic acid, they are consuming the sugars available in the vegetables, not lactose.
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Does yogurt bacteria eat sugar?
Lactobacillus is the genus of the bacteria responsible for making yogurt. These bacteria consume sugars and excrete lactic acid. The acid denatures the proteins in the milk, causing them to coagulate into a delicious gel. Lactobacilli can consume sugars other than just lactose.Why is sugar added to the milk used to make yoghurt?
The main (starter) cultures in yogurt are Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus. The function of the starter cultures is to ferment lactose (milk sugar) to produce lactic acid.What happens if you put sugar in yogurt?
Adding sugar to yoghurt does not detract from the health benefits. It can help improve taste, flavour and texture of yoghurt which are all factors that encourage greater intake of yoghurt, leading to better diet quality and increased consumption of the dairy food group.Does sugar affect yogurt fermentation?
A number of sugar and sweetener can be added to the milk before fermentation to increase the viability of Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB). The more amounts of sugar in the milk, the higher acidity of obtaining yogurt drink. However, too much sugar on the milk can inhibit LAB (Tamime, 2006).Yogurt Is More Unhealthy Than You Think
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Answer 2
If you are lactose intolerant or you avoid animal proteins, a thick custard style yogurt culture can be made with yellow pea protein non-dairy "milk". I am not sure if you have access to non-diary milk products made with pea protein, but they are becoming more popular in the U.S.A. and are much higher in protein than other non-dairy milks. A small amount of sugar in the milk is helpful to kick-start the cultures, and the standard (non unsweetened) versions of these milks contain what you need. Just as it is with dairy milk, it is important to heat the non-dairy milk to about 180 F (82 C) and let it cool to 110 F (43 C) before introducing the cultures. The heating helps with the denaturing of the proteins once the cultures start their process, and you will end up with a thicker, more creamy yogurt.
Answer 3
Although LB bacteria can survive on Glucose, they prefer milk because it's a complete package of Sugars, minerals, fats, and proteins. Also, just as plants and animals have an affinity for specific foods, the same goes for microorganisms.
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