Yogurt is more delicious than milk, healthier too
I love milk so it's a huge sore point with me that I am lactose intolerant. And that's precisely why I can't resist mentioning it in every (possible) article. It's my way of whining, complaining. But the silver lining here (and there's always a silver lining) is that due to this I turned towards yogurt - which my digestive system can tolerate rather well - to get enough calcium. And fell in love with it.
Good for me, as according to mounting research, yogurt is not just a food accompaniment, an after food dessert or just a diet food… in fact, it is stuffed with microscopic warriors - beneficial bacteria - that we "must" enlist for our health.
Besides being a bona fide nutritional gold mine too. It is actually almost as good a source of potassium as banana and an even better source of calcium and protein as compared to milk. A cup of yogurt (250gm) delivers 8-10gm of protein and a whopping 450mg of calcium (compare that with 300mg in a cup of milk - 250ml); this is 30-40 per cent of most people's daily needs.
Plus yogurt also sets up an efficient little factory in the intestinal tract and manufactures B vitamins for us, delivering thus a stockpile of these essential vitamins. Now I know why the name yogurt was derived from the Turkish term "yogurur" (which means long life).
But like me if you don't want to mess up a good thing by adding sugar, additives etc, try out these combinations that actually max its goodness too.
1. Yogurt with flaxseed
Our gut is home to more than 400 kinds of bacteria, some friendly, others not so much. When the bad bugs outnumber the good ones, things slow down digestively and the bowels become, err, sluggish. Yogurts can help by providing probiotics, good-for-us bacteria that get things moving again. But you shouldn't just eat those buggers alone.
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Probiotics need to feed on probiotics - specialised fibres found in foods like flaxseed - to survive and thrive. When you eat them together, you restore and then maintain the healthy balance in the belly. It doesn't get any easier than this: Sprinkle a tablespoon of ground flaxseed onto your probiotic yogurt, season with black pepper and salt and dig in. Like it a little sweet? Dress it up a bit, and make a fruit and yogurt parfait with flaxseed granola to add some crunch. You can get the prebiotics via onions too. An onion-tomato raita anyone!
2. Yogurt with banana
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Bananas contain inulin, which research indicates fuels the growth of yogurt's healthy bacteria. Plus this combination is cooling, so it is a boon for the coming summer months too. In fact, a chilled banana-yogurt smoothie is a perfect mid evening snack I feel.
3. Roti and raita
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Are you planning to eat wholegrain atta (wheat) rotis tonight? By dunking it into a yogurt-based curry or a raita, you'll ensure that the zinc is absorbed better from the grains. Eating Continental or Mediterranean? Get some whole wheat bread and tzatziki on the side. Or simply opt for rye bread this time round and pair it with a yogurt smoothie.
4. Yogurt with almonds
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You probably don't know that many essential vitamins, specially the fat-soluble ones (A,D, E and K) are activated and absorbed best when eaten with fat. That's why a smart way to max the vitamin D found in yogurt and to make it actually available to us is to pair it with a good fat source. That's why it makes sense to toss some slivered almonds into it.