Some more benefits of yogurt

1. Yogurt is not fattening. Plain yogurt contains one third of the fat than one piece of apple pie does.

2. It can help your intestine. Doctors prescribe it to patients who suffer from "Intestinal Flora," which can destroy your intestines due to it's having a large amount of antibiotics or sulfa drugs.

3. This one may be of interest to teenagers, it can help your acne. Eat a lot of natural - preferably unsweetened - yogurt. As well as eating yogurt you can wash your face daily with water combined with lemon juice (one lemon to every liter of water). Apply a mask of honey to your face once a week, for approximately one hour, and you'll have a pimple free face!

4. Suffer from bad breath? Well, eat a lot of yogurt and yes, you guessed it, people might actually sit next to you without holding their nose.

5. Does milk give you an intestinal discomfort? Then switch to yogurt. People lose the enzyme lactase through childhood. As a result, many adults can not properly digest milk. However yogurt already has lactase in it, allowing the food to digest in the body three times quicker than milk.

6. Does osteoporosis run in your family? Or maybe you just have brittle bones and/or teeth? Well eating lots of yogurt can help to strengthen bones and teeth because yogurt is high in calcium.

7. So, are you ready to add a little yogurt to your diet? Want to make it at home? It's simple. Take some milk (ordinary or skim milk, it does not matter) and bring it to the boil, and then pour it into a container. If you want the yogurt to have a thicker consistency, then add some powdered skim milk. Let it cool down, then add some yogurt culture, or some store brought yogurt, about half a cup to a quart of milk. Stir well until no lumps remain. Then cover the container in a blanket, or keep it in a warm place, around 55 to 60 degrees celsius overnight. Sometimes there is difficultly keeping the mixture warm, so it is recommended that you buy a "yogurt maker" which keeps the mixture at it's needed temperature. Once it has thickened, you can put it in the refrigerator until you want to eat it.

I will be making homemade yogurt myself very soon! Pictures soon to come!! :)

(information in this post found at hungrymonster.com)

Ways to make yogurt fun

For anyone who goes for the Go-gurts or the Trix yogurt cups because they have the flavors and colors that attract your attention, please note that these yogurts are loaded with sugar artificial colorings. These yogurts are also tiny and expensive. A more economical solution would be to buy the large plastic tubs of yogurt, which typically come in the vanilla flavor, but large grocery stores may offer other basic flavors as well. Just eating a dish of yogurt can be a satisfying meal or snack, but it often lacks something . . .

Yogurt topped with granola is a classic idea to make it more enjoyable. Adding fruit to this mixture is another plus. You get the dairy, the carbs (fiber in the granola too), and the fruit all in one. Chopped strawberries, banana, apple, pear, crushed pineapple, chopped peach and more are all delicious when added to a dish of vanilla yogurt. This is a wonderful breakfast on a hot day. Many commercial granolas are full of sugar in the form of high fructose corn syrup and fat, so try to look for a high quality brand or make your own. There are some wonderful crock-pot granola recipes on the Internet that will leave your kitchen cool and put delicious granola on the table with little work.

Dannon Light & Fit Smoothie

I just drank one of these in the Strawberry Banana flavor. I haven't had one in a while, and I forgot how good they are! It's really a yogurt-on-the-go. Though yogurts are an on-the-go snack already, with this one you don't even need a spoon. I like that one bottle only has 70 calories, Vitamins B6, B12, and Antioxidants E and B2. It also has 20% of your daily value of calcium, 20% DV of Vitamin D, 4 grams of protein, and is fat free! Yum. Finally something light that's not light on nutrients.

How bacteria can balance your digestive health and immune system

Probiotics—also known as beneficial bacteria—naturally live in your digestive tract, but they need regular replenishing. This dynamic community of micro-organisms is disrupted by antibiotics, poor nutrition, surgery, stress, alcohol, smoking, pollution, and aging. But you can replenish and maintain these beneficial bacteria by eating a cup of yogurt containing these probiotics (look on labels!!!) each day. Each serving provides you with more than five billion natural probiotic cultures!

Studies indicate that natural probiotic cultures can help strengthen your immune system, compete with harmful bacteria, and enhance your natural digestive health by improving food digestion and absorption of nutrients.

L. rhamnosus Boosts the Immune System
Clinically proven to help support your body’s natural resistance;
Scientifically shown to enhance natural killer cell activity, a critical component of the natural immune system known to decrease as we grow older;
Helps compete with pathogens (harmful bacteria).

L. rhamnosus Promotes Digestive Health
Helps promote gut health;
Clinically shown to help increase beneficial probiotic levels in the gut with regular consumption.

My Flavors of Choice

Here are the flavors of yogurt I currently have in my dorm fridge. As you can see, I am running short of supply. But if you can't already tell, I like plain or fruity flavors of yogurt. I LOVE anything banana flavored (by the way, has anyone tried the new Banana Nut Cheerios? THEY ARE SO GOOD!) Back to yogurt, I am not really a huge fan of the "dessert" flavored yogurts (Boston Cream Pie, Key Lime Pie, etc). I like to stick to the fruit flavors. I think they are the best.

Frozen yogurt is a different story! I do enjoy the dessert-y flavors of frozen yogurt (chocolate, vanilla, coffee). There is this place in the Providence Place Mall called TCBY, noted as "The Country's Best Yogurt," (http://www.tcby.com/pages/page/soft_serve_yogurt_sorbet) that has 97% fat-free frozen yogurt with a ton of different flavors. It is so rich and creamy, you'd think it was regular ice cream. My favorite flavor to get there is the coffee. It is sooo good. I recommend it to anyone who goes to the Providence Place Mall to get some of this frozen yogurt before you leave!!

Random/good facts about yogurt

As I've mentioned before, yogurt is so healthy for us. It's a great source of calcium, protein, vitamin D, and live cultures that help with digestion. It's also good for your mouth, has been shown to lower BMI, and can help with bad breath. Not only that, but yogurt contains tyrosine, an amino acid that converts into the feel-good chemicals dopamine and adrenalin, which clear your mind when you're stressed, and can give you an energy boost.

Homemade Yogurt

My boyfriend's mom loves to keep a food storage of a variety of food she buys, as well as food she makes herself (grape jelly, applesauce, apple butter, canned fruit). She recently told me she wanted to maybe try making her own yogurt. She said it may not thicken as much as store-bought yogurt, but it ends up costing about 1/5th of the store-bought price. If any of you are bargain shoppers like me, this could be perfect. It does take time, but convenience should not be a factor in getting the quality and quantity of your food!

Here's the link with the directions she sent me:
http://www.allfreecrafts.com/giftinajar/homemade-yogurt.shtml

I love Yoplait Yogurt =)

Yoplait Yogurt is probably my favorite brand of yogurt. I usually go for the "light" ones, and I like how it comes in SO many flavors. I'm someone who like to go beyond strawberry.

Flavors:
Apple Turnover

Apricot Mango

Banana Cream Pie
Berries 'N Cream

Blackberry

Blueberry Patch

Boston Cream Pie

Harvest Peach

Key Lime Pie

Lemon Cream Pie

Orange Crème

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Raspberry Cheesecake

Red Raspberry

Strawberries 'N Bananas

Strawberry

Strawberry Orange Sunrise

Strawberry Shortcake

Very Cherry

Very Vanilla

White Chocolate Strawberry

But if others prefer to have the Original instead of Light, there's a whole separate list of different flavors for that as well! Just google Yoplait and you'll find the website.

So anyways, my journal is called "The Wild Life of Yogurt." Some might ask, "WHAT? What's living in my yogurt?" Don't worry, it's good for you! The live and active cultures Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus are the two cultures added to milk to create yogurt. Some brands also add Lactobacillus acidophilus to their yogurts and Bifidobacterium is added to Yoplait's 'Yo-Plus' yogurt. These live and active cultures may naturally support healthy digestion.

Yogurt is initially made with live and active cultures, but some yogurts are treated with heat after they are made. The heat processing destroys the cultures. Heat-treated yogurt doesn't taste any different, nor does it contain less calcium, protein or other nutrients, but it may not offer some of the health benefits that yogurt containing active cultures does.

What to look for:
Look for the National Yogurt Association Live and Active culture seal or the words "contains live and active cultures." All Yoplait products provide the benefit of live and active cultures! =)