Eat Greek Yogurt For These 6 Amazing Health Benefits

Eating greek yogurt has many health benefits, both physical and mental.

Greek yogurt contains so many essential nutrients that can help improve your heart health and bone strength.

Some of the health benefits of greek yogurt include:

• Healing more quickly after infections
• Developing stronger bones, and
• Improving gut health and digestion

In this post, we’ll discuss the health benefits of eating greek yogurt in more detail.

Finally, we’ll get a better understanding of how yogurt gets made and how it helps our health.

Let’s dive in!

What are the health benefits of greek yogurt?

1. Helps your body fight diseases

Immunity is important because living organisms are vulnerable to agents that cause diseases.

The human body is a complex organism. And it means that the protection it needs from diseases is also quite complex.

But complex protection against diseases doesn’t mean sophisticated methods.

Yogurts are rich in antioxidants. Adding yogurt to your routine diet significantly enhances your immunity.

A study investigated the immunological effects of yogurt.

The researchers found that culturing of yogurt boost the production of white cell in blood crucial for immunity.

In another study conducted in 2013, researchers looked into the prevention of vaginal Candidiasis.

They found that yogurt may help prevent the development of yeast cultures in the vagina. 

So if you are suffering from any vaginal yeast infection, then having a yogurt bowl daily could ease the problem.

2. Helps your body heal after infections

If you are suffering from intestinal infection or indigestion, then yogurt could be the savior. Here’s why. 

Intestinal infections affect the lactase-forming cells in the intestine. This causes temporary lactose intolerance in the patient. 

The good news is yogurt is rich in lactase.

This helps the healing process and provides the required lactase for lactose absorption. 

Moreover, yogurt also protects the beneficial bacteria present in the intestine from the harsh effects of antibiotics.

3. Helps your body recover after workouts

One of the health benefits of eating greek yogurt is that it’s a quality source of protein.

The proteins present in the yogurt are known as “pre-digested proteins.

Fermentation makes it convenient for the digestive system to digest proteins. 

But here’s something else:

• Eight ounces of yogurt contain 10-14 grams of protein
• Milk only contains 8 grams of proteins. 

This is why the researchers give preference to yogurt over milk for protein intake.

Greek yogurts are also excellent substitutes for protein powders. This means it can help you recover after workouts.

Apart from their gut-friendly probiotic benefits, the quality proteins have much as 17 grams in about three-quarters of a cup.

4. Helps relieve constipated bowels

The colon is in charge of ensuring the smooth passage of bowels.

And so the good bacteria in the colon help to digest fiber. This, in turn, makes it super easy to release your bowels. 

Yogurt can prevent colon cancer. But the question is, how?

Well, it turns out that yogurt contains two extremely beneficial bacteria. They are Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus bulgaricus. 

Both bacteria ensure good colon health.

These bacteria prevent the conversion of bile into carcinogenic bile acid. This, in turn, helps keep your colon healthy and functioning.

5. Helps to lower cholesterol

One of the important health benefits of eating greek yogurt has to do with cholesterol.

Here’s the thing about cholesterol: too much of it is bad.

Our bodies thrive on a healthy amount of cholesterol, a waxy substance in our blood. We need it to develop healthy cells.

But when the body retains high amounts of cholesterol, it skyrockets the risk of heart disease.

This is because fatty deposits begin to develop in the blood vessels.

These deposits clog the blood vessels and make it difficult to have free-flowing blood in our arteries.

A study linked yogurt consumption to healthy cholesterol and blood pressure level. 

Active culture present in yogurt tends to absorb the cholesterol. This helps to decrease the cholesterol level in the body.

So if you are worried about your fat or increased cholesterol level, then try adding yogurt to your routine diet.

6. Helps you develop stronger bones

Calcium helps our bodies to build and sustain strong bones.

Besides improving bone strength, calcium enables our cells, muscles, and heart to function well.

But here’s something you might not know:

Do you know a bowl of yogurt could deliver much more calcium than an equal amount of milk?

Well, due to the presence of active bacterial culture in yogurt, calcium absorption increases many folds.

A study conducted in 2015 on children between the ages of 8 to 18, found a significant calcium absorption due to yogurt.

How to make greek yogurts

Yogurt is the product of heating milk and allowing it to cool to a certain temperature.

Then, well-defined bacteria are added and allowed to further produce lactic acid. 

This acid combines with the milk and then we have standard or ordinary yogurt. In that sense, ordinary yogurt and greek yogurt are mostly the same.

To get the thick texture of Greek yogurt, the mixture is further strained to suck out liquid whey and lactose 

How is Greek Yogurt different from ordinary yogurt? 

The obvious difference as we just discussed is the thick texture.

But that’s not all. 

• Carbohydrates. Regular yogurt contains almost double the calories of Greek yogurt. This makes Greek yogurt an excellent addition to a diet for losing weight.  
  
• Protein. Good news! If you’re looking to add more protein to your diet because Greek yogurt contains twice as much protein as ordinary yogurt
  
• Fat. There’s about a one-to-three ratio of saturated fats in regular yogurt compared to Greek yogurt. 
  
• Sodium. Regular yogurt contains twice as much sodium as Greek yogurt.

Takeaway

Many health lovers consider greek yogurt to be one of their superfoods. And it’s for a good reason. 

These health benefits of greek yogurt are impactful for our health.

Next time you walk into the supermarket, don’t forget to pick up some greek yogurt.

It can be a great meal to snack on in the mid-morning or evening after work at night so you don’t have to resort to some junk food.

It’s also yummy when you add it to a banana smoothie after your workouts.