HEALTH AND BEAUTY ARCHIVE: 538: Pool party Keep your cool this summer with a visit to one of Tokyo’s many pools. Metropolis shows you where to take the plunge. 536: Don't sweat it With the hot and humid months upon us, Cristy Burne share some tips on staying cool. 534: Swept away Put away your broomsticks—all you really need to soar through the clouds is an armful of nylon and a good gust. Cristy Burne checks out the air up there. 532: Tee time Can’t keep it on the fairway? The ‘yips’ invaded your game? Rob Smaal finds a few experienced golf pros who can work out your kinks on the links. 530: Balancing act An ancient science is helping modern men and women find peace, health and the always elusive “balance.” Tama M. Lung takes a closer look at ayurveda. 528: Kicking on Former K-1 Japan champion Nicholas Pettas shares his love of martial arts at the new Spirit Gym in Nogizaka. Chris Betros goes along to watch. 526: On call A revolutionary daily disease self-management system is making life easier for diabetics. Chris Betros finds out about Lifewatcher. 524: Team spirit From rugby to roller hockey, Tokyo is teeming with sports clubs for the expat athlete. Rob Smaal shows you how to get in the game. 522: Type casting Second-generation blood-type expert Toshitaka Nomi looks at the links between blood classifications and health. Mick Corliss reports. 520: Like a rock Climbing instructor Luke Kearns gets a grip on Tokyo's best indoor climbing gyms. 516: The personal touch Madonna and Matsui aren't the only ones who need help staying fit. Hanna Kite pumps it up with the top personal trainers in Tokyo. 514: From here to maternity Kavitha Rao turns to a handful of Tokyo experts to track down baby basics for nervous expat mothers-to-be. 502: Tour de Morton, part deux Don Morton gets back on two wheels for a leisurely ride out toward Haneda Airport. ISSUES 499- ISSUES 449- ISSUES 399- ISSUES 349- ISSUES 299-

Yogurt yo!

The hottest health food this winter is yogurt—especially Caspian Sea Yogurt. Cathy Frances samples the goods.

Miki Takano, a Tokyo office lady, has eaten yogurt every day for the last six months. “I started eating it for breakfast after my friend told me how healthy it is. And my health really has improved. I haven’t caught a serious cold this winter,” she says. But the yogurt Miki eats isn’t from the dairy shelf of the local supa. Rather, it’s homemade, using a yogurt culture from the former Soviet Union. Caspian Sea Yogurt, or CSY, as it’s known, has really taken off in Japan. According to Gakken Mook, which publishes a magazine about the product, in the last six months of 2002, 49.4 percent of Japanese made their own CSY—compared to 8 percent in the whole of 2001 and 1.2 percent in 1998.

Yogurt has been popular in Japan since the early ’70s when the famous Bulgarian variety was first imported, and medical professionals tout yogurt’s health benefits, especially varieties that are low in fat and sugar. Yogurt is believed to improve gastric health by reducing the bacteria responsible for stomach cancer. “There are many benefits to eating yogurt regularly,” says Bulgarian Dr Angelina Georgieva. “It increases natural intestinal flora, preventing the development of pathogenic germs, including salmonella, E. coli and Candida. Yogurt helps the body digest proteins and glucides, absorb vitamins B and K, and has been proven to suppress cancer cells. It can also prevent allergies like hay fever, age-related disorders and obesity. It is much better to replace slimming pills and nutrient supplements with larger quantities of yogurt, especially for breakfast, tea or as a snack.”

Culture club
So why is Caspian Sea Yogurt getting all the media attention in Japan this winter? First, because of its taste; it’s less acidic, and thus more acceptable to the Japanese palate. It has a viscous, honey-like texture, is rich in minerals and calcium, low in salt and very easy to make. “Traditional recipes involve boiling, skimming, straining and strict temperature control, which is too much trouble for most people,” says Takano.

Dr Kazue Tokuda from RIKEN Molecular Entomology Laboratory adds, “CSY can be grown at room temperature (20–30 C) within a few hours, using any milk product, from fat-free milk to full-fat cream. The standard recipe is to add 100cc of yogurt culture to 500ml of milk and leave it for 10 to 15 hours. You can control the viscosity of the finished product; a longer cultivation time will produce a thicker yogurt. Cover with an airtight lid, refrigerate and eat within one day, three days tops.”

Admittedly, there is some concern about the safety of homemade CSY, mainly relating to kitchen hygiene. When making yogurt, you are essentially growing bacteria. Under optimum conditions, a single bacteria doubles every 20 minutes, resulting in roughly 16 million bacteria in just eight hours. This is fine if the bacteria are Lactococcus cremoris and Gluconobacter sp., the bacteria responsible for the unique characteristics of CSY. It’s not so good if you’re incubating salmonella or Campylobacter. Remember Snow Brand?

“Making CSY is as easy as one, two, three, but I can’t overemphasize the importance of sterilizing all the equipment and thoroughly washing your hands,” Tokuda advises. “Always cover the pot with a clean cloth during incubation. And of course use fresh milk products. In winter, use one part yogurt culture to four parts milk, but in summer use one part culture to nine parts milk. If the yogurt starts to ‘taste funny,’ discard the culture and get a fresh supply.”

Mix it up
So where can you get CSY culture? Well, you could contaminate fresh milk with ants, just like the nomadic Bulgarian tribes are said to have done 4,000 years ago. But nowadays most people contact Fujicco Co, a Kobe-based food firm and a group of volunteers organized by Dr Yukio Yamori, who produce and distribute a dried culture for ¥1,000.

Yamori, professor emeritus of pathology at Kyoto University, is credited with introducing CSY to Japan. In 1986 he was working in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, studying the longevity of the indigenous people, who have one of the highest life expectancies in the world. He discovered that the common factor between all the households and villages was a yogurt, known as matsoni, made by every household in the region. Ironically, Georgia is actually on the Black Sea, but perhaps Caspian sounds more appetizing. “When I returned to Japan I brought some matsoni back and my wife started giving it to her friends. But I never expected it would become so popular,” says Yamori.

Dispelling the image of yogurt as just a health food, many chefs and recipe books feature it as a key ingredient. “Naked Chef” Jamie Oliver recommends mixing yogurt with cream, ice cubes, banana, honey and peanut butter in a blender. Recipes in the Gakken Mook CSY magazine range from tandoori chicken and quiche to baked cheesecake and panacotta.

CSY fan Takano extols other benefits: “As well as being cheap and healthy, it is easy-to-use and incredibly versatile. Sometimes I simply mix it with fresh fruit—but you have to eat it within an hour. CSY with honey and/or lemon also tastes good. I often make smoothies; my favorite is a mix of CSY, mango, banana and milk. And if you get fed up with eating CSY, then mix some with honey for a refreshing face pack.”

Where to get the culture
Try the Fujicco home page at www.fujicco.co.jp or write to Shokuno Anzen at Kenko Network, Kinkibirudining 6F, 4-2-18 Sakaemachi-dori, Chuo-ku, Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, 650-0023. They will send you a supply of dried CSY culture for ¥1,000.

CSY preparation instructions
The ultimate yogurt website is undoubtedly Yogurt Forever: The Yogurt Encyclopedia edited by Roberto Flora (www.yogurtforever.org) for everything you ever wanted to know about yogurt—and more. The site is in Italian, but click on the “Area Download” link to access an English pdf version of the text (second link on “Area Download” page). Page 25 tells you about CSY and page 16 even tells you how to say “yogurt” in 34 languages.
www.foodsci.uoguelph.ca/dairyedu/
yogurt.html (University of Guelph website)
www.biothinking.com/a/cheski/yog.htm
www.ianr.unl.edu/pubs/dairy/g449.htm (also includes a troubleshooting section)

Yogurt recipes
www.lancewood.co.za/recipes/index.html (yogurt and other milk-product recipes) www.geocities.com/oz_france/kitchenette/
smoothies.html (for more smoothies than you can shake a stick at)
www.thegutsygourmet.net/yogurt.html

Yogurt reads
Tokyo bookstores are stacked with a plethora of cookbooks, mostly with the original title Caspian Sea Yogurt. Although written in Japanese, most are colorfully illustrated.
Try the ones published by Gakken Mook, ¥680 (ISBN4-05-603009-X); ASCII Communications, ¥1,200 (ISBN4-7762-0009-0); and Studio dunk/futabasha ¥950 (ISBN4-575-29457-8 C0076).

Photos by Cathy Frances