WHY YOU MUST EAT A POT OF YOGHURT A DAY
GOOD HEALTH
COULD eating a pot of yoghurt before a fry-up mitigate the latter’s harmful effects? that was the suggestion last week from U.s. researchers who found that women who ate yoghurt before a high-fat, high-carb breakfast (two sausage muffins and two hash browns) had lower levels of inflammation in their blood afterwards than those who didn’t.
It’s thought the yoghurt boosts the intestinal lining and prevents toxins entering the bloodstream. there was an added benefit for obese participants, whose blood sugar dropped faster afterwards.
‘Yoghurt before a meal is a feasible strategy to improve post-meal metabolism and may help reduce the risk of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases,’ said the researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
this is the latest in a slew of studies showing how a simple pot of yoghurt can boost health in surprising ways, from easing hayfever, to keeping bones strong and even reducing the risk of heart disease. It may also help with weight loss and prevent infections. And perhaps even more surprising is that it seems the more fat in the yoghurt, the better.
Natural yoghurt is ‘my idea of a superfood’, says Dr Adam Cunliffe, an associate professor in human nutrition at London south Bank University — he has one or two 150g pots of it a day and believes ‘everyone should eat it at least once daily’.
Other experts agree: ‘Yoghurt has more to offer than just nutrition and everyone should be eating it in one form or another daily,’ adds Peter Whorwell, a professor in medicine and gastroenterology at the University Hospital of south Manchester NHs trust.
He has a small pot of natural yoghurt every day because of its beneficial effects on gut bacteria — emerging evidence shows the state of our gut bacteria (or microbiome) can affect our immunity, mood, stress levels and metabolism, says Professor Whorwell.
‘Consuming a natural yoghurt regularly will gradually restore normality to stop a disrupted microbiome affecting our health. You could just give people a probiotic capsule but yoghurt has added protein and calcium, amongst other things — and it comes with the pleasure of eating, which means people are more likely to have it.’
so what is it that makes yoghurt beneficial — and are all yoghurts equal?
IT’S ESPECIALLY GOOD FOR WOMEN
CERTAIN groups at higher risk of osteoporosis — such as post-menopausal women, teenage girls and pregnant women — need yoghurt more regularly as it is one of the richest sources of the nutrients these groups tend to lack, says Ibolya Olah, a dietitian based in London.
In particular, yoghurt contains a significant level of iodine, essential for the production of thyroid hormones; women can lack iodine because they tend to avoid dairy, wrongly thinking it’s unhealthy and fattening.
A 150g serving (roughly a small pot) of plain yoghurt provides around a third of our daily iodine and bone-building calcium, and nearly 15 per cent of our daily protein, similar to a boiled egg.
Yoghurt also provides 30 per cent of our daily phosphorus, needed for healthy bones and teeth and around a fifth of our recommended amount of vitamin B12 (to release energy from food) and potassium (for healthy blood pressure).
YOGHURT’S SECRET WEAPON
It’s thought that yoghurt was discovered by accident in around 5,000BC. With the domestication of milk-producing animals, herdsmen would store the milk in bags made of gut tissue after they found it caused milk to curdle and preserved it for longer. the word yoghurt is thought to come from the turkish yogurmak, which means to thicken or curdle. It’s this curdling that makes yoghurt so useful.
‘Yoghurt is unique because it brings the benefits of dairy in general together with its own,’ says Ditte Hobbs, a post-doctoral research fellow in human nutrition at the University of Reading.
What sets it apart is the fact that it’s been fermented and contains bacteria. Most milks and cheeses are pasteurised by heating to 72c, which kills off a lot of the bacteria, good and bad.
Yoghurts are made by fermenting milk with two bacteria called streptoccus thermophilus and Lactobacillus bulgaricus, which produces an acid that preserves the yoghurt and kills off harmful bacteria such as salmonella.
the fermentation also produces good bacteria called probiotics, which contribute to our gut health, and prebiotics, which feed the good bacteria and help them thrive, says Dr Cunliffe. this community of bugs — which he calls ‘the beast inside us’ — affects all our body systems. the protein in yoghurt has a protective effect on bacteria, helping it pass through the stomach into the colon where it’s needed, explains Alan Mackie, a professor of colloid chemistry at the University of Leeds.
One of the systems the bacteria in yoghurt may help is immunity. ‘there’s evidence that yoghurt will protect us from infections as the gut lining, packed with bacteria from the yoghurt, works like a primer for the immune system and keeps it on its toes ready to fight off infection,’ says Dr Cunliffe.
Probiotics can also fight specific bacterial infections such as C.difficile, salmonella and H. pylori (which can lead to stomach ulcers), adds Professor Whorwell. ‘If you want to lower the risk of infections such as these, have a yoghurt a day and keep your immune system ready to fight them off.’
As well as the bacteria produced by fermentation, some commercial yoghurts have extra bacteria added — these are usually displayed on the label. For example, many contain Bifidobacteria and Lactobacillus acidophilus strains.
‘some of these microbes produce acids that kill undesirable bugs while others produce healthy compounds that help begin digestion and so make nutrients available for the body to use,’ explains Paul Cotter, a molecular microbiologist at APC Microbiome Institute in Ireland (who has one natural yoghurt or kefir — a fermented milk drink — a day).
KEEPS YOUR HEART HEALTHY
SATURATED fat is thought to be a bad thing, contributing to our risk of heart disease.
But in the case of fat in yoghurt, it seems to have the opposite