Another week, another “study” that shows we’re meant to be eating this instead of that. Yeah, I tire of them. But I found this one on the best and worst foods for healthy weight quite interesting.
It found yoghurt was the best food to eat to lose weight.
Below I’ve outlined the gist of the study, and then shared my favourite ways to eat yoghurt.
via pinterest.com
The study was based on three trials over 20 years. It found
- The quality of food matters more than calorie count!!! So eating organic makes you lose weight.
- The top five most fattening foods were sugar-sweetened beverages, red meat and processed red meat, each associated with half a kilo of weight gain every four years.
- The most fattening food of them all? Potato chips, which led to more weight gain per serving than any other food, the study found.
- The best nosh for your waistline? Surprisingly, yogurt — each extra daily serving prevented half a kilo of weight gain
These studies always involved competing, intertwined factors. But there’s no escaping that eating yoghurt leads to good things.
So, some yoghurt sharing…
What yoghurt do I eat?
I swap between Meredith Farm Sheep’s Milk and the Baramba Organic (full-fat) Cow’s Milk one (this stuff is soooo decadently good). Not to be pious, per se. But because they have the best flavour and consistency. IMO.
Full-fat or low-fat?
I can not say this strongly enough – full-fat only! Three reasons: it tastes better (so you’ll be satiated and eat less of it); when fat is removed from dairy the particular enzymes contained in dairy that help you metabolise milk and milk fats are disrupted (thus you don’t process it as well…meaning, I’ve heard it argued, it winds up more fattening); low-fat dairy is often pumped with sugar. You can read more about that here.
How do I eat it?
I eat yoghurt every day. I mix it up. Feel free to try these ideas…
* A quick dessert snack: Pan-toasted walnuts or pepitas, cinnamon and a teaspoon of Miessence Berry Radical powder (this is a sugar-free chocolate powder) mushed through a big bowl of yoghurt. Just like a chocolate milkshake only crunchy.
* Another quick dessert: I mush frozen berries in a cup of yoghurt. Sometimes I add pure vanilla essence.
* A breakfast smoothie: check my recipes here and here. I often make these when I’m at the end of the container – I stickblend in the container, whack the lid on, put in the freezer for 15 minutes (to get well-chilled) and voila – a portable breakfast. Perfect when I have to head to the airport early, or to a job across town.
* A breakfast idea: I heat left-over polenta and wallop on a dallop of yoghurt with some pesto. And presto! Sometimes I swirl in some flaxseed oil into the yoghurt (I don’t put flaxseed directly onto hot stuff…)
* Another breakfast idea: make grainless pancakes using just eggs and yoghurt and some LSA.
* A Morrocon flavour hit: I blend preserved lemon (mushed up), cumin and yoghurt and add to a lamb dish or to a beetroot and lentil salad.
* Soup savior: I can’t eat soup without a big swirl of yoghurt. It sweetens any flavour.
OK. That’s enough. Over to you… any clever suggestions?
