Can yogurt actually help with better sleep, weight loss, bone strength and immunity? Read on to find out!
There is an informative chart below with the top health benefits of yogurt and it’s healthy bacteria known as probiotics. Benefits like helping with good sleep, assisting weight loss, improving digestion, reducing risk of diabetes, lowering cholesterol and stimulating a stronger immune system. Here are some of the studies:
Yogurt for Stomach Health
One study from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that consuming yogurt or the beneficial bacteria from it, has promising health benefits for many conditions and increases the body’s immunity and ability to fight off infections. A variety of conditions were shown to improve including constipation, diarrhea, inflammatory bowel disease, candida, stomach bacteria infections and allergies.
Bone Strength from Yogurt
A study on yogurt was published in the journal “Archives of Osteoporosis”. It reviewed the ability of yogurt to strengthen bones and found that milk and yogurt are the best dairy choices for increasing bone mineral density in the hip.
Yogurt and Good Sleep
Yogurt is also a great choice to eat in the evening to help with sleep due to the high amount of calcium it contains. The beneficial bacteria in yogurt has also been studied for its ability to create a deeper, longer-lasting sleep.
A 2017 study from the journal “Beneficial Microbes” tested the effects of yogurt probiotics on the quality of sleep. The researchers concluded: “These findings suggest that daily consumption of the Lactobacillus casei strain may help to maintain sleep quality during a period of increasing stress.” As a note, this particular strain is included in virtually all of the most popular yogurt brands.
Regarding the calcium in dairy products, William Sears, M.D. writes: “Calcium helps the brain use the amino acid tryptophan to manufacture the sleep-inducing substance melatonin. This explains why dairy products, which contain both tryptophan and calcium, are one of the top sleep-inducing foods.”
Plain, unsweetened yogurt is healthiest and Greek yogurt is a great, high-protein choice. Fresh fruit can be added as a natural sweetener.
Yogurt and Weight Loss
Yogurt is a boost to weight loss. A healthy supplement similar to the acidophilus used in yogurt was recently found in a Canadian study to help overweight women lose weight and keep it off. It was discovered that the supplement made the intestinal wall stronger and more able to prevent inflammatory, obesity-causing substances from passing into the intestine and entering the bloodstream.
Immunity Boosting Yogurt
Yogurt is great for strengthening and boosting one’s immunity against infection and illness per studies in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. In particular, yogurt with the Lactobacillus bulgaricus form has been shown to reduce the frequency of colds in older adults after they ate it over a twelve-week period. This is another commonly used form of probiotic that’s widely-available in yogurts.
This news is shared with you by Nutrition Breakthroughs, a provider of natural health articles and effective natural remedies since 2001. Nutrition Breakthroughs makes the original calcium and magnesium based natural sleep aid Sleep Minerals II, as well as Joints and More, the natural solution for joint relief, aches and pains, stronger hair and nails, and more energy.
A healthy bacteria similar to the acidophilus used in yogurt has been found in a Canadian study to help overweight women to lose weight and keep it off. Known as “probiotics”, these healthy bacteria in the intestine are “pro” or beneficial to the health of the body.
They stimulate the immune system to be stronger, keep the stomach and bowels healthy, and help urinary health. In addition, an earlier Stanford University study found that obese people have different gut bacteria than normal-weighted people — a first indication that gut bacteria can play a role in overall weight.
The Stanford University research has now spurred a new study, done by a team of researchers at the University of Laval in Quebec Canada. Headed by Professor Angelo Tremblay, the researchers sought to confirm the premise that consuming probiotics could help reset the balance of intestinal flora in favor of those that promote a healthy weight. It may be that a diet high in fat and low in fiber leads to certain bacteria flourishing at the expense of others. They recruited 125 overweight people to test this theory.
During the first 12-week period of the Canadian study, the subjects underwent a weight-loss diet. This was followed by a 12-week period aimed at maintaining their body weight. Throughout the entire 24 weeks, half of the subjects took two pills daily containing probiotics, while the other half received placebos. After the 12-week dieting period, there was an average weight loss of 8.8 pounds in the women in the probiotics group and 5.7 pounds for women in the placebo group.
The interesting difference is that at the end of the 12-week maintenance period, the weight of the women in the placebo group stayed the same, but the probiotics group continued to lose weight – a total of 11.5 pounds per person. Upon testing, these women demonstrated having a drop in an appetite-regulating hormone, as well as less of the intestinal bacteria related to obesity.
Professor Tremblay concluded that probiotics may make the intestinal wall stronger and more able to prevent inflammatory substances from passing into the intestine and entering the bloodstream. Those very substances and molecules that can lead to diabetes and obesity. He believes that several types of the probiotics found in yogurts and supplements can have a similar effect. Their study was published in the British Journal of Nutrition.
Yogurt is also a proven natural sleep aid due to the high amount of calcium it contains. William Sears, M.D. says: “Calcium helps the brain use the amino acid tryptophan to manufacture the sleep-inducing substance melatonin.”
Dr. Sears continues and says: “This explains why dairy products, which contain both tryptophan and calcium, are one of the top sleep-inducing foods.”
Calcium is directly related to our cycles of sleep. In one study published in the European Neurology Journal, researchers found that calcium levels in the body are higher during some of the deepest levels of sleep, such as the rapid eye movement (REM) phase.
One calcium-based supplement shown to be effective for insomnia is Sleep Minerals II from Nutrition Breakthroughs. This formula contains highly absorbable forms of calcium and magnesium, which are the best minerals for sleeplessness and insomnia, menopause insomnia, teenage insomnia, heart health, restless legs syndrome and bone strength.
Sleep Minerals II also includes vitamin D and zinc and is delivered in a softgel form with healthy carrier oils, making it more quickly absorbable than hard tablets or capsules and providing a deeper, longer-lasting sleep.
Tammy M. of Meridian, Idaho says: “I was plagued with insomnia for five years and desperate for a breakthrough. Nothing has helped me more than Sleep Minerals II – I’m so sold on them I could go door to door promoting them. I’m 60 years old and have never slept so soundly.”
Richard P. of Parkville, Maryland says: “The Sleep Minerals are making quite a difference. I was regularly waking up at around 3:00 a.m. and after a few days use my sleep improved quite a lot. I wake up once a night to go to the bathroom, but the great thing is, I then fall back asleep and sleep several more hours. This has been a great improvement.”
This news is provided by Nutrition Breakthroughs. Since 2001, Nutrition Breakthroughs has provided natural health articles and effective natural remedies. Their mission is to provide nutritional supplements that work well and help people to avoid drugs and their side effects.
Since 2009, their natural sleep remedy Sleep Minerals II has been keeping that promise — by soothing even the worst insomnia and helping everyone from teenagers to seniors to get a good night’s sleep. For more information, visit the Sleep Minerals II page.
By Dr. Joseph Mercola. He is a physician trained in both traditional and natural medicine who provides up-to-date natural health information
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Shared by Nutrition Breakthroughs,
maker of Joints and More and Sleep Minerals II
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If you’re seeking to lose excess weight, counting calories is usually less than helpful. In fact, focusing on calories could easily divert you from the real answer, which lies in optimizing your nutrition.
In short, if you really want to lose weight and improve your health, then you must replace empty calories and denatured foods with nutrient-rich ones. (Denatured foods are those that have had their natural benefits or properties removed or altered).
Nutritional Value Beats Calorie Count
Fortunately, even conventional health experts are now starting to catch on, and rather than looking at calories, they suggest looking at the nutritional value of the foods you eat.
As reported by Medical Daily:
“An editorial published in Open Heart suggests the outdated practice of counting calories has to go…
‘Shifting the focus away from calories and emphasizing a dietary pattern that focuses on food quality rather than quantity will help to rapidly reduce obesity, related diseases, and cardiovascular risk,’ the research team said in a statement.
‘Primary and secondary care clinicians have a duty to their individual patients and also to their local populations. Our collective failure to act is an option we cannot afford.'”
Why Counting Calories Doesn’t Work
According to the calorie myth, in order to lose weight all you need to do is follow the equation of “eat less, move more.” But this simply isn’t true.
Zoe Harcombe’s book, “The Obesity Epidemic”, is one of the most comprehensive documents I’ve ever seen that exposes the flaws of this myth.
Research by Dr. Robert Lustig has also shredded this dogmatic belief, showing that not even calories from different kinds of sugar are treated identically by your body.
Part of the problem is a fundamental error in the understanding of the law of thermodynamics. Energy is actually used up in making nutrients available in your body.
Your body also self-regulates the amount of activity you engage in, based on the available energy. If your energy stores are low, you’ll feel lethargic and unlikely to exercise, even if you know you “should.”
As noted in the featured article:
“Results of the Action for Health in Diabetes study have shown that type 2 diabetes patients who adopt a lower calorie diet on top of increased physical activity have the same risk for death caused by a heart condition, even if the diet resulted in substantial weight loss.
The research team suggests that simple dietary changes that focus on macronutrients (fat, carbs, and protein) and sugar consumption rather than calorie counting can efficiently improve health outcomes.”
Seven of the Most Nutrient-Dense Foods on the Planet
You can only eat so much in a day, and if you consider your stomach to be “prime real estate,” you’d be wise to consider the nutritional value of the foods you’re putting in it. Some foods pack far more nutrients into a smaller package than others.
For example, while many equate eating salad with optimizing their diet, this is not necessarily true, depending on what’s in your salad. If lettuce and cucumbers make up the majority of that bulk, you’re getting plenty of water, yes, but few valuable nutrients.
A recent article in Valley News also points out that lettuce “occupies precious crop acreage, requires fossil fuels to be shipped, refrigerated… and adds nothing but crunch to the plate.”
Authority Nutrition lists 11 foods densely packed with valuable nutrients. Here are my own top seven picks. For additional suggestions see the original article on Authority Nutrition:
Wild-caught Alaskan salmon
When it comes to fish, two things to take into account are 1) healthy fat content, and 2) contamination levels.
Wild-caught Alaskan salmon is likely one of the best seafood options as it’s high in omega-3 fat (about 2.8 grams per 100 gram serving) and low in contaminants.
About 95 percent of your cells’ membranes are made of fat, and without fats such as omega-3, your cells cannot function properly.
Since wild salmon eat what nature programmed them to eat, they have a more complete nutritional profile, with valuable micronutrients, fats, minerals (including magnesium, potassium, and selenium), vitamins (including all the B-vitamins), and antioxidants like astaxanthin.
Avoid farmed salmon, as they’re fed an artificial diet consisting of grain products like corn and soy, chicken and feather meal, artificial coloring, and synthetic astaxanthin (an orange pigment) — all of which negatively affects the nutritional profile of farmed salmon.
Bone broth
Bone broth is exceptionally healing for your gut, and contains a number of valuable nutrients that many Americans lack, in a form your body can easily absorb and use.
This includes but is not limited to: calcium, phosphorus, and other minerals; silicon and other trace minerals; glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate; components of collagen and cartilage; components of bone and bone marrow; and the “conditionally essential” amino acids proline, glycine, and glutamine (which have anti-inflammatory effects).
Kale
In terms of nutritional density, kale is virtually unparalleled among green leafy vegetables.
Interestingly, it has a 3:1 carbohydrate-to-protein ratio – an exceptionally high amount of protein for any vegetable.
Like beef, it also contains all nine essential amino acids needed to form the proteins within the human body, plus nine other non-essential ones for a total of 18.
In addition, kale contains omega-3s in a beneficial ratio to omega-6, and is exceptionally rich in vitamins A, C, and K1.
It’s also loaded with vision-preserving lutein and zeaxanthin at over 26 mg combined, per serving.
Add to this an impressive list of minerals as well, including more calcium per gram than whole milk, and in a more bioavailable form. Other bioactive compounds such as isothiocyanates and indole-3-carbinol have been shown to have anti-cancer properties.
Raw garlic and aged black garlic
Garlic contains a range of phytocompounds (plant chemicals) that synergistically produce a wide variety of responses in your body, including reducing inflammation and boosting immune function. It’s been shown to successfully combat even antibiotic-resistant infections.
Rich in manganese, calcium, phosphorus, selenium, and vitamins B6 and C, garlic is beneficial for your bones as well as your thyroid.
Beyond that, studies have demonstrated garlic’s positive effects for more than 150 different diseases, including cancer.
Black garlic, produced through a type of aging/fermentation process, has also been shown to have impressive nutritional properties.
One 2009 animal study found it was more effective than fresh garlic in reducing the size of tumors. In another study, black garlic was found to have twice the antioxidant levels as fresh.
Black garlic is also packed with high concentrations of sulfurous compounds, especially one in particular: s-allylcysteine (SAC), which has been shown to have a number of health benefits, including inhibition of cholesterol synthesis.
Sprouts
A wide variety of seeds can be sprouted, which maximizes their nutritional value.
For example, once sunflower seeds are sprouted, their protein, vitamin, and mineral content will typically provide you with 30 times the nutrient content of organic vegetables.
Based on 17 nutrients, including potassium, fiber, protein, calcium, iron, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, folate, zinc, and vitamins A, B6, B12, C, D, E, and K, watercress scored a perfect 100 in a recent study titled, “Defining Powerhouse Fruits and Vegetables: A Nutrient Density Approach”.
Sprouts in general also contain valuable enzymes — up to 100 times more enzymes than raw fruits and vegetables — that allow your body to absorb and use the nutrients of other foods you eat.
The essential fatty acid and fiber content also increases dramatically during the sprouting process and, when the seed starts to sprout, minerals such as calcium and magnesium bind to proteins in the seed, which makes both the minerals and the protein more readily available and usable in your body.
Organic pastured egg yolks
Overall, eggs are one of Nature’s most perfect foods, loaded with high quality protein, healthy fats and cholesterol, vitamins, and minerals. Just make sure they come from organic pastured hens.
Egg yolks are a rich source of the antioxidants lutein and zeaxanthin: two powerful prevention elements of age-related macular degeneration; the most common cause of blindness, and the choline in eggs is important for brain health.
Proteins in cooked eggs are also converted by gastrointestinal enzymes,producing peptides (protein particles) that act as ACE inhibitors (common prescription medications for lowering blood pressure).
Liver
Liver from grass-fed animals is a superfood of the animal kingdom, and one of the most nutrient-dense foods you can eat.
For example, liver is nature’s most concentrated source of vitamin A (retinol), and contains an abundant, highly usable form of iron.
It’s also one of the richest sources of copper and folic acid.
Three ounces of beef liver contains almost three times as much choline as one egg, and it also contains a mysterious “anti-fatigue factor,” making it a favorite among athletes.
Shopping Wisely to Maximize Your Food Budget
Most people use standard measures of quantity when comparing prices, but a wiser strategy might be to focus on nutrient content instead. For example, conventional USDA prime beef may be cheaper than organic grass-fed beef pound for pound, but when you take nutritional factors into account, the latter provides far better value for your money.
As noted in the Valley News article:
“The corollary to the nutrition problem is the expense problem. The makings of a green salad — say, a head of lettuce, a cucumber, and a bunch of radishes — cost about $3 at my market. For that, I could buy more than two pounds of broccoli, sweet potatoes, or just about any frozen vegetable, which would make for a much more nutritious side dish…”
Here, I would add that if you really like salad, there are simple and very cost-effective ways to dramatically boost its nutrient content.
For example, adding a handful of sprouts, an organic egg, some raw nuts or seeds, with a drizzling of virgin olive oil on top in lieu of salad dressing would turn your nutritionally lackluster salad into a more nutrient-dense meal without adding much expense. An article in The Nourishing Gourmet lists 12 tips for “squeezing the most nutrient rich food from your dollar.” While a few years old, it’s as relevant today as it ever was. These tips include:
Buy more of the inexpensive varieties of organic vegetables. Less pricey produce include carrots, onions, celery, garlic, kale, chard, zucchini, cabbage, and broccoli — all of which contain valuable nutrients at a reasonable price, even when organic.
Make broth and say yes to liver. The nutrient value of both have already been addressed above, and in terms of cost, broth and liver are among the least expensive foods you’ll find.
Avoid food waste. Buy only what you know you’ll eat before the food goes bad.Alternatively, turn leftover veggies, meats, and other scraps into soup. Chicken carcasses can be boiled down into nourishing broth.
Prepare and cook foods to maximize nutritional value. Knowing how a food is affected by the way it’s prepared or cooked can go a long way toward maximizing your nutrition. For example, valuable nutrients in eggs are destroyed through cooking, so eating your eggs as close to raw or as lightly cooked as possible will optimize their nutritional potential.As mentioned earlier, grains and seeds gain a significant boost in nutrients when sprouted, and vegetables in general get a nutritional boost when fermented, as this makes them a great source of probiotics. If fermented using a specific starter culture, they can also provide ample amounts of vitamin K2.
Buy local pastured eggs. Eggs from truly organic, free-range chickens not only have higher nutrient content than commercially raised eggs, they’re also far less likely to contain dangerous bacteria such as salmonella. When buying local, you’re also getting fresher eggs, as they’ve not been shipped across the country.
Embrace traditional home cooking, and avoid buying prepackaged foods. This means cooking from scratch, using whole unadulterated ingredients, so you know exactly what’s in your meal.
Dr. Joseph Mercola is a physician trained in both traditional and natural medicine who provides up-to-date natural health information.
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