Healthy food >>>> Probiotic starter - what is it?
Probiotic starter - what is it?
Healthy eating requires selectivity in the use of food, and sourdough takes a special place in carefully selected food ingredients. Recently, such a product as "Probiotic starter" has begun to arouse genuine interest among lovers of medical and dietary nutrition. What is starter culture and can it be used in food as an independent product?
In a technological sense, a sourdough is a substance (ingredient) that initiates the fermentation process in various organic media. Several substances are used as a starter culture: natural enzymes (extracted from the digestive tract of animals), fungi (yeast, kefir, tea), vegetable acids. As a rule, the fermentation process takes place in the presence of microorganisms or their enzymes and in environments without oxygen. Fermentation results in acids, alcohols, carbon dioxide and hydrogen.
In cooking, sourdough is used to change the quality characteristics of a product, for example, to add a sour taste to drinks or manufactured products, canning, to add puffiness and airiness and, of course, to obtain completely new products from the group of original products (cheeses, kefir, beer, wine, jelly, tea, kvass, bread, etc.).
As an independent product, the starter culture is used as a probiotic and serves to create an environment in the gastrointestinal tract for the cultivation of a group of acidophilic bacteria (lactobacilli), bifidobacteria, propionic bacteria and other species and to create a normal functional microflora in the intestine. It is this ferment that is used in the treatment of dysbacteriosis, disturbances in the processes of digestion of food and in diets of diseases accompanied by disturbances in the functioning of the intestines.
It is customary to use a starter culture with probiotic cultures to obtain various products (kefir, yogurt, sour cream, yogurt, cottage cheese) from milk. Almost at home, the same lactic acid product is obtained as its store counterpart, but without preservatives.
How are probiotic starters used? In addition to making a lactic acid product, the probiotic starter can be added to plain water, not hot milk, juice or other non-hot drinks, shaken and drunk.
Who benefits from probiotic starter cultures? Anyone who monitors their health, wholesome nutrition or adheres to therapeutic diets, probiotic starter cultures are useful. They stimulate local immunity and support the digestion process at the proper level. But with individual intolerance to the ingredients of the starter culture, it is not used.
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