Francis I of France (left) and Suleiman the Magnificent (right), by Titian (c. 1530)
Although the fable of King Francis I of France’s involvement with yogurt turns out to be mythological, the true story of yogurt’s introduction to Europe turns out to be even more captivating.
There are stories so good to tell that we hesitate to check their accuracy. Like the one about Rei Francisco I of France (1494-1547) have been healed your digestive problems when eating yogurt.
Suleiman the Magnificentruler of the Ottoman Empire with whom Francis had forged an alliance, learned of the king’s illness and sent one of his court doctors to help.
At the time, yogurt was already well established in the Ottoman world as being a “healthy food” and the doctor prepared a special batch from sheep’s milk for the royal stomach, which cured Francisco’s gastrointestinal discomfort.
Since then, yogurt has been relieving digestive systems and pleasing the palates of the French, he says. Joe Schwarczprofessor of chemistry and researcher at McGill University, in Canada, in an article in .
Naturally, if we are scientifically minded, we should not hesitate to check the reliability of sources. That’s what Schwarcz did.
Although yogurt did have a reputation as a medicinal preparation in the Islamic world at the time, there is no documented evidence that Suleiman sent a doctor to France. In fact, this seductive story only appeared in 19th centurywhen it appeared in some popular French articles.
Yogurt only became popular in France after 1904, when future Nobel laureate Elie Metchnikoffthen at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, gave a public lecture in which he speculated that certain bacteria, when introduced into the human intestine, generate acids that could stop the “intestinal putrefaction” which causes illness and premature death.
Metchnikoff speculated at the time that the longevity of peasants Bulgarians was due to the consumption of yogurt made through iintroducing bacteria into milk.
In a similar way to what we usually see nowadays, the French media exaggerated Metchnikoff’s speculations.
Just a year later, the Bulgarian microbiologist Stamen Grigorov discovered that the base of yogurt is bacteriawhich was later called Lactobacillus bulgaricusstill today the main strain used in the production of yogurt.
Although the story of King Francis I’s involvement with yogurt turns out to be mythological, the true story of the introduction of yogurt Europe ends up being even more captivating.
In 1917, a huge fire started accidentally by a kitchen stove left unattended consumed the center of Thessalonikia city that had been ceded to Greece by the Ottoman Empire in 1912, following the First Balkan War.
Thessaloniki had at the time a majority Jewish population dating back to 1492, when the Alhambra Decree issued by Spanish monarchs Ferdinand II and Isabella I forced Jews to convert to Christianity or to abandon Spain.
The majority chose to leave and found refuge in Thessalonikiwhere they became traders, ran shipping houses, textile factories, cereal and flour mills and tobacco processing units.
When the Great Fire broke out in 1917, most of Thessaloniki’s Jews lost their homes and businesses. It was then that Isaac Carasso decided to seek his fortune elsewhere and moved the family to Barcelona. Shortly after his arrival, a wave of gastrointestinal illnesses reached the city’s children.
In Salonica, the Jews had adopted some characteristics of balkan diet and learned to make some basic products like yogurt, the fermented milk product that already had an aura of health.
So, Carasso I was prepared for a business opportunity when he learned of the yogurt fad in France and England, sparked by Metchnikoff’s speculations about intestinal well-being.
Perhaps, thought Carasso, the children’s discomfort could be alleviated with yogurt-based treatment. He started by making a batch at home that he packaged in small ceramic pots and convinced pharmacies to sell it as a health tonic.
The product needed a nameand he called it “Danone“, the Catalan nickname of his son Daniel — which turned out to be auspiciousbecause Daniel continued bacteriology studies at the Pasteur Institute and ended up taking over the company, launching a French branch in 1929.
When the Nazis occupied France during World War II, Daniel fled to the United States and He also founded a yogurt company there. Changed the name to “Dannon“, thinking the word sounded more English.
However, the business stagnatedbecause North Americans did not like the sour taste. Then Daniel had what would turn out to be a brilliant idea:added strawberry puree with yogurt — and American taste buds rejoiced.
The company grew by leaps and boundsif, after mergers with a cheese producer and a glass and beverage company, it was renamed as “Danone Group” — and is now a giant international food conglomeratewhich produces various yogurts, plant-based milks, bottled water, infant formulas and medical nutrition products.
Yogurt, in various versions, continues to be the main product of the company, which presents its product as beneficial for health. There is no benefit to Metchnikoff’s anti-aging claims, but gastrointestinal well-being, as suggested by Isaac Carasso, is promoted.
The company highlights the inclusion of bacteria Regular bifidusyes not activeone of its flagship products, although the claim that Activia is “clinically proven” to “regulate the digestive system in two weeks” was abandoned after the US Federal Trade Commission said that that was misleadingbecause there was no such clinical evidence.
After several lawsuits, the manufacturer replaced the expression “clinically proven” with the softer “clinical studies show that…“.
In fact, some trials have shown that this yogurt accelerates modestly colon transit, reduces swelling and increases the frequency of bowel movements in some people with mild constipation. But three doses are required per day to reap these modest benefits.
Currently, allegations are even more moderate and ambiguouswith the label simply stating “supports gut health”.
Metchnikoff’s claims that yogurt prevent aging were far-fetched, but he was right about the possible gastrointestinal benefits that aroused the interest of Isaac Carasso — and that ended up resulting in the founding of the company that is now the largest yogurt producer in the world.
