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A glass bowl of thick plain white yogurt on a marble table, its surface smooth and glossy — Plain set yogurt — thick enough to hold a spoon mark, with no watery pooling on top.

Live-culture yogurt supplies probiotics (live helpful bacteria), calcium, high-quality protein, and B12 in a single spoon.

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Sheep or goat yogurt is often better tolerated by adults with dairy sensitivity than cow.

Choose plain, unsweetened yogurt with live active cultures — flavoured yogurts are usually sugared desserts.

Mast is on the table at every Persian lunch and dinner — plain, whipped with cucumber and mint (mast-o khiar), folded through spinach and garlic (borani), or thinned with cold water and salt into doogh. The live cultures support gut and immune health, the calcium and protein support healthy bones as you age, and that classical cooling nature balances warming stews and saffron rice.

Known to botanists as Lactobacillus bulgaricus + Streptococcus thermophilus (starter cultures).