Yogurt: The Miracle Food?
On Monday night, I had a late dinner, preparing it while talking with a friend on the phone. I’m pretty sure I put too much Lawry’s Seasoning Salt into my turkey burger before I slapped it onto the George Foreman Grill. The following day (yesterday), my tummy was feeling a little off (and so was I).
Well, toward the end of the day, during which I had had little appetite, I decided to eat a yogurt with some honey. Not only did I gobble it down, but felt better with each tasty spoonful. When I returned to my desk, I was better able to focus and get things done. So, this morning, I’m logging on to check my e-mail and follow this link on Yahoo! to The 5 foods you should eat every day. Here’s #5:
Making yogurt part of your daily eating routine can improve your digestion — if you’re buying the right stuff. Check that the label lists “active cultures” to make sure you’re getting healthy probiotics, and pick a yogurt rich in vitamin D to prevent osteoporosis.
Wondering now if I had had that earlier if I would have felt more centered during the day.
UPDATE: I’m not the first to call lit a miracle food:
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I’m a big yogurt fan. It gives you beneficial bacteria for your body. So many kinds and flavors to choose from too.
Comment by Jim Michaud — March 3, 2010 @ 12:41 pm - March 3, 2010
Jame Lee Curtis has made a fortune from the healing power of Activia Yogurt. Though in all honest, its also great to have after a weight lifting workout for its protein which is usually a mixture of both whey and casein proteins.
Comment by Darkeyedresolve — March 3, 2010 @ 12:52 pm - March 3, 2010
[...] Yogurt: The Miracle Food? [...]
Pingback by GayPatriot » The Fake Bipartisanship of Changes to Obamacare — March 3, 2010 @ 1:30 pm - March 3, 2010
Hate to burst anyone’s bubble, but the stories of Soviet Georgians’ super-longevity are probably a pile of хуйня (“hoon-YA”), and have more to do with severe gaps in record-keeping caused by the 1917 Revolution and WWII, and very little to do with yogurt. (Of course, the haphazard records would’ve been a factor throughout the USSR, but Stalin may have discouraged skeptical examination of Georgian longevity claims in order to make himself seem more like a superman.)
Not to discourage anyone from eating yogurt, of course!
Comment by Throbert McGee — March 3, 2010 @ 1:39 pm - March 3, 2010
I prefer Greek yogurt. Tastes good, nicer texture, and has an enormous amount of protein for the calories. A bit pricier, but well worth it. Two cups are supper for me usually two nights a week.
Comment by North Dallas Thirty — March 3, 2010 @ 1:45 pm - March 3, 2010
P.S. Avoid saying the useful word “hoon-YA” in front of elderly Russian-speakers no matter what their ethnicity — it sounds much more strongly obscene than “bullshit” does in English.
Comment by Throbert McGee — March 3, 2010 @ 1:49 pm - March 3, 2010
NDT, you can line a colander with 2 pieces of cheese cloth, dump a container of regular yogurt into it and let the moisture weep out overnight in the refridgerator. The result will be greek yogurt.
When we are at our place in Greece every summer, breakfast is always yogurt, honey and walnuts.
Comment by David in N.O. — March 3, 2010 @ 2:15 pm - March 3, 2010
You can convert regular plain yogurt to Greek style yogurt, by straining it through a double layer of cheesecloth overnight in the fridge. The extra watery fluid will drip out and leave you with a much thicker yogurt. I use a yogurt maker, that comes with a strainer to use after the product is made, and it’s much cheaper than buying commercially made yogurt.
Comment by Jenny — March 3, 2010 @ 2:16 pm - March 3, 2010
My method for making first-class yogurt at home:
You will need:
• 1 quart half-and-half
• storebought live-culture yogurt (plain, unsweetened)
• quart-sized glass jar with lid
• candymaking/frying thermometer
• old-skool rubber hot-water bottle, and clean bath towel
(1) In a saucepan with a candy/frying thermometer, bring one quart of half-and-half to 180°F (82°C) over medium heat — stir occasionally and keep a close eye on it the whole time. Have ready a 1-quart Mason jar or clean pickle jar, etc.
(2) As soon as it hits 180°F, remove from heat and pour into the jar. Stick in the thermometer and set aside until it has cooled to around 110°F (43°C). Remove the thermometer and mix in a tablespoonful of plain yogurt — any storebought brand is fine as long as it’s live-culture. If you like, you can use more than a tablespoon — but it’s a good idea to reserve a little of storebought yogurt in case you accidentally kill the bacteria in the first batch. In this case, you can just reheat the milk and add more fresh yogurt.
(3) Boil enough water to fill your old-skool rubber hot-water bottle. Wrap a towel around the water bottle and then continue wrapping the towel around the jar (the idea is to trap the bottle’s heat while at the same time insulating the glass jar from direct contact with the bottle, so that the milk/yogurt mix doesn’t get so hot that it kills the bacteria).
(4) After five or six hours, open the jar and check the mixture — it will still be liquidy at this point, but if nothing has gone wrong, it should be noticeably thicker than it was before. (If it hasn’t thickened AT ALL, you’ll have to pour the mix back in the saucepan and proceed from step 1.) If it’s thickening, you’re good to go — seal the jar again, fill the rubber bottle with more boiling water, wrap it in the towel, and leave it to sit some more. I typically let it sit as long as 24 hours unrefrigerated, refreshing the boiling water at least 3 times, although in very hot weather, 12 hours may be sufficient. (If it’s thick, creamy, and tastes just-sour-enough, it’s done!)
You can do this with an electric yogurt maker, of course, but I’ve never yet had a failure with the water bottle/towel method. Remember, the Mongols used to make yogurt in a goatskin saddlebag, relying on the horse’s body heat and sunshine to maintain the temperature — so it ain’t rocket science.
Comment by Throbert McGee — March 3, 2010 @ 2:36 pm - March 3, 2010
P.S. If my low-tech method consistently fails for you, it may be that your thermometer is off and the milk was still too hot when you added the yogurt. 110°F is the UPPER limit, so try letting it cool a bit longer until the thermometer reads 100°F (38°C). Or, if you want to be extra sure, calibrate your thermometer with boiling water and make the appropriate adjustments.
Comment by Throbert McGee — March 3, 2010 @ 2:41 pm - March 3, 2010
I like the yogurt with the granola or Grape Nuts crunchies. I hate the fact that yogurt containers are getting smaller and smaller and could care less about Jamie Lee Curtis’ regularity.
Comment by ThatGayConservative — March 3, 2010 @ 3:58 pm - March 3, 2010
Just as long as you don’t go crazy with yogurt, e.g. trying to substitute it for cream in recipes.
As the Two Fat Ladies say, yogurt is good for an ailing tummy, but for cream, there is nothing like cream.
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — March 3, 2010 @ 5:24 pm - March 3, 2010
Can we get Dannon to become a paid sponsor? Jus’ askin’
Comment by Bruce (GayPatriot) — March 3, 2010 @ 5:39 pm - March 3, 2010
Plain fat-free yogurt, 1/4 cup of blueberries and a packet of Splenda is a delicious, SoBe and diabetic-friendly dessert. Just had some tonight! Yum!
Best wishes,
-MFS
Comment by MFS — March 3, 2010 @ 6:45 pm - March 3, 2010
I read somewhere that if you go to France and eat cheese, and the cheese makes you sick, to eat yogurt. Much of their cheese is different but the yogurt is pretty much the same, and the bacteria in the yogurt will help fight off the bacteria or mold you ate that your body is not used to.
Comment by plutosdad — March 4, 2010 @ 11:38 am - March 4, 2010
[...] wonderful piece of “analysis” begins an AP piece which led Yahoo! as I was having my late-night yogurt snack before bed: The initial blush of President Barack Obama’s health care triumph [...]
Pingback by GayPatriot » Obamacare passed, now AP says, Obama Must Sell it, Huh? — March 22, 2010 @ 10:11 am - March 22, 2010