Natural Health – Discover the 3 Common Myths – Yogurt As a Health Food
The dairy case is loaded with all kinds of yogurt choices. It must be good for me, Right?
Wrong!
There are three main reasons why yogurt is not as good for you as you may have heard. The first thing to recognize is that most advertisements and studies that promote the benefits of yogurt are funded by the American Dairy Council, or some other group, that represents a conflict of interest. They are designed to get you to buy their product.
Here are three myths about yogurt that most people really aren’t made aware of.
Myth 1
Yogurt will help to populate the “friendly bacteria” that are necessary for good digestion.
In reality, the amount of cultured bacteria that are in most yogurt products are not enough to do this effectively. You’d have to eat a gallon of yogurt a day in order to do this. And that’s if you have plenty of other good nutrition and health habits in your favor. If you taken an antibiotic in the last year, you’ve got a negative balance in your “good bacteria” account. It is literally impossible to eat enough yogurt to repopulate your digestive tract properly. In addition to ingesting the good bacteria, they also need a “growth factor”. They need something to help them grow once they get through your stomach. Many of them are killed of by stomach acids long before they hit your intestines. I haven’t seen any yogurts that offer this benefit.
Myth 2
Eating yogurt will help me get rid of Candida in my stomach and will prevent yeast infections.
Many people are told by doctors and nutritionists that eating yogurt, (and even Kefir) is a good thing because it will prevent an overgrowth of the bacteria that causes Candida. This is the furthest thing from the truth. If you look at the nutritional label of yogurt, even the supposed low fat, healthy version…it’s loaded with sugar!
Guess what Candida uses as it’s food source? Yup, it lives off of sugar. So each time you eat yogurt or drink Kefir you are actually feeding the yeast and Candida that you are trying to get rid of.
Myth 3
Yogurt is a good healthy snack choice for my kids.
Well, that depends. If your kids will eat plain, organic, nonfat yogurt with a little fresh fruit than this could be true. But kids tend to like the sugary sweet stuff.
Even the organic kids products like Stoneyfield Farms are loaded with sugar. Sometimes just as much as a candy or granola bar. If you are trying to give the kids a good dose of calcium, better to offer a serving of organic milk or cheese.
Unless the dairy products you offer your kids are organic they are getting an unhealthy dose of hormones, and antibiotics….the same that were injected into the cow. Nothing in the process of homogenizing or delivering dairy to your grocery store eliminates these elements. The process of fermenting yogurt doesn’t get rid of unhealthy hormones and antibiotics either.
Yogurt can be a good source of nutrition if your are willing to buy organic, plain, nonfat products and consume them in small quantities as a condiment or use them in recipes. Consumed in this way they can be a good source of calcium. But don’t be fooled by the other claims of yogurt being a health food.
And now I would like to offer you free access to my report ” 7 Natural Health Tips for Having More Energy”. You can download it by going to http://thenaturalhealthmaven.blogspot.com
From Martha Gesegnet RN – The Natural Health Maven and http://www.MarthaGesegnet.com
