We always stress the importance of nutrition on Fitness Fahrenheit.
I always say it is at least half the battle.
If not more.
Well today our nutritional focus is yogurt.
Who doesn’t love yogurt?
But did you know you can get picky about yogurt as it pertains to your fitness goals?
That’s what we’ll cover in today’s article.
Lets get right to it…
Skyr: Thick, Rich, And Heavy On The Protein
Skyr is an ultra-thick, silky dairy that hails from the country of Iceland. In the United States, it’s marketed as yogurt. Made by fermenting skim milk with cultures then straining away the liquid, skyr provides largely focused protein without any fat calories.
In fact, skyr can have even more protein than Greek-style yogurt: about 17 grams in a 150-gram container. That makes this healthy import your musculos’ best friend. Because of its protein content skyr is known to keep you feeling nice and full. So it’s a good companion for hunger pang management. The straining process skyr goes through also removes much of the lactose, which might make this sort of yogurt easier for sensitive stomachs to absorb.
To keep your sugar intake in check, select plain skyr, which has 50-75 percent less sugar than fruit variations. But to be fair, most skyr producers, like Siggi’s and Icelandic Provisions, give genuine fruit before sugar in their active ingredient lists, a turnaround of the order normally discovered in fruit-flavored routine and Greek yogurts.
Kefir: Not All Varieties Are Up To Snuff!
Growing interest in the function probiotics may play in digestion and immune health has actually made kefir a rising star of the dairy area. Kefir is made by inoculating milk with a nest of bacteria and yeast called “kefir grains.” Kefir has an even greater number and variety of microbes than does standard yogurt, which is why unflavored kefirs have such a pucker-inducing tartness.
The large numbers and kinds of germs in kefir do a very good job of breaking down lactose, making kefir much easier to absorb even for some people with lactose intolerance. Other dietary benefits are the noteworthy quantities of protein, at approximately 11 grams in a cup serving, in addition to calcium and good ol’ vitamin D.
Kefir is sold both in tubs with a consistency comparable to that of regular yogurt or, more commonly, as a thinner beverage that can be poured into a glass. Try adding it to protein shakes. Makes a great smoothie ingredient. Kefir is offered in both low-fat and full-fat ranges. Choose the one that finest suits your dietary preferences.
However be warned: Much of the so-called kefir sold in the United States has actually ended up being little more than a delivery system for sugar. As with all types of yogurt, it’s better to avoid all the sweetened varieties and pick plain versions. Read labels before you purchase anything!
Labneh: Greek Yogurt’s Tart Cousin
If you’ve ventured into a Middle Eastern supermarket or dining establishment, you might have come across labneh, a thickened, spreadable dairy food made by straining cow’s milk yogurt. It’s similar in idea to Greek yogurt, just it’s as thick as cream cheese. The tasty, velvety reward is without added sugars, making it a great source of protein, vitamins, minerals, and probiotics. Protein-wise, it’s usually right on par with Greek yogurt. Be sure to read the labels just to double check.
Instead of disposing labneh into a bowl and covering it with fruits and berries, spread it on toast in lieu of cream cheese or use it to dress sautéed greens. It also makes a fantastic dip. Mix it with olive oil and middle eastern za’atar spices mix.
Labneh doesn’t seem to be common in large supermarkets, but it’s easy enough to make it yourself using store-bought yogurt as a base. Here’s how:
Line a strainer with a couple layers of cheesecloth. Set the strainer over a bowl deep enough that the bottom of the strainer is a couple of inches above the bottom of the bowl.
Stir 1/4 teaspoon salt into 2 cups of plain full-fat yogurt (not Greek style) and place the yogurt in the lined strainer. Fold completions of the cheesecloth over the yogurt and cool for 12-24 hours. The longer the labneh sits, the thicker it gets.
Drinkable Yogurt: Watch That Sugar!
With a lot of people eating on the run, it was just a matter of time before food companies started producing drinkable yogurts. Pull a bottle of it from the fridge and down your yogurt on the drive to work: No bowl or spoon required.
Also marketed as yogurt shakes, makers employ methods that make the yogurt more like buttermilk in consistency. A peek at labels shows drinkable yogurts can offer up a number of the very same dietary advantages as conventional yogurt; about 10 grams of protein per cup, in addition to bone-building calcium, B vitamins, and stress of gut-friendly probiotic cultures.
However drinkable yogurt might not be so strong in the appetite-suppressing column. You might be searching the kitchen for more food sooner after consuming your yogurt than you would after spooning it up from a bowl.
It’s also an obstacle to discover plain versions of drinkable yogurt and lots of flavored variations have plenty of sugar. If you’re not cautious, you might easily consume up of 40 grams of sugar in one serving.
If you can’t discover plain drinkable yogurt at your local store, select a flavored brand name like Siggi’s. An 8-ounce serving delivers no more than 20 grams of sugar, 10-12 grams of which is naturally taking place dairy sugar. Siggi’s yogurt varieties usually list genuine fruit before sugar.
If you simply can’t bear to eat plain yogurt, eat the flavored varieties post-workout, when sugary carbs are less likely to wind up on your midsection.
Grass-Fed Yogurt: Straight From That Pasture Field To Your Stomach
First it was your steak. Now your bowl of yogurt can hail from monsters fattened up on the pasture! A worthwhile splurge? Maybe. There is some sign that milk from cows that are fed mainly lawn instead of grains and corn includes higher amounts of particular crucial nutrients like vitamin E, iron, conjugated linoleic acid, and the much-heralded omega-3 fatty acids.
Nevertheless, to completely enjoy the nutritional advantages of grass-fed yogurt, you should choose whole-fat or 2-percent versions. The omega-3s and other useful fats are mostly removed when the yogurt is transformed into the fat-free range.
For the time being, there’s no strict government oversight concerning grass-fed labels on yogurt, so you want to try to find brands that clearly state “100% grass-fed” on their labels whenever possible.
Non-Dairy Yogurt: None Of The Animals, But Less Of The Protein
Now that manufacturers have the ability to implant plant-based milks like almond and coconut with cultures, vegans now have a constantly growing list of viable yogurt alternatives. Many of the non-dairy products are strengthened with calcium and vitamin D to much better simulate the nutrition profile of dairy-based yogurt. However the majority of the nutrition in these replacements is contributed to the item, instead of being inherent in it. And in some ways, they’re still sorely lacking.
These animal-milk-free yogurts often lose when it pertains to protein. Yogurt made from soymilk will offer the most protein per spoonful, while coconut-milk yogurt might just have a single gram of protein per serving. But this will differ widely by brand, so keep your label-reading skills honed.
No matter what kind of dairy-free yogurt you choose, you’ll still likely get a whole lot of added sugar when you eat them, even if you choose the plain ranges. If you’re spooning up these synthetic yogurts, just make sure to cut down on sugars elsewhere in your diet.
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