This salsa yogurt dressing is a simple combination of plain yogurt and salsa. It makes a great salad dressing and can also be used as a dip or marinade.
PLAIN YOGURT + YOUR FAVORITE SALSA = SALSA YOGURT DRESSING
Selected for you this week: 5 important things we need to know about yogurt and its benefits beyond the gut by Phil Lempert, the SupermarketGuru.
Yogurt is an ever-popular breakfast item, snack food, smoothie protein boost, and even a great marinade and accompaniment for some savory dishes. But what exactly characterizes yogurt, and should you be eating it? Find out the 5 things you need to know here.
By law, anything called yogurt must be made from a few common ingredients: milk, plus two species of bacteria: Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus. Other ingredients like fruit and flavors as well as other bacteria are optional.
What makes yogurts different? Mirjana Curic-Bawden the house expert on yogurt-making microbes at Christian Hansen explains that there’s lots of variation within any two bacterial species; for example, some consume lactose faster than others, while some release more of that sour, tangy flavor. In addition, some bacteria have a long and faraway heritage and were originally collected in the homelands of yogurt, i.e. Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, the Balkans and the Caucasus region.
A typical yogurt-making culture contains four to six strains of bacteria. Many yogurt-makers add additional species of bacteria to the mix, such as Lactobacillus acidophilus, Bifidus regularis and Lactobacillus casei. These are the probiotics that are touted to improve intestinal health – but they don’t affect the yogurt’s flavor very much.
Benefits beyond the gut! Research has found that beneficial microorganisms play a critical role in how our bodies function. And it’s become clear that the influence goes beyond the gut. Our personal mix of bacteria influence our immunity against allergies, eczema and asthma, among other things.
Your gut instincts and gut feelings just might be right! “The gut-brain axis is the collective communication pathway between the gastrointestinal tract and the brain,”explains John Cryan, a professor of anatomy and neuroscience at University College Cork in Ireland. Cryan found that when he and his team took a strain of lactobacillus and fed it to one group of mice every day for a month, were a lot less anxious…“they behaved almost as if they were on Valium or Prozac,” according to Cryan. Now, researchers are starting to understand how our gut affects our emotional health!
In addition to dental hygiene, diet has an important role in the development of dental caries. This Danish study reports an inverse relationship between the consumption of dairy products and the development of dental caries among children and adolescents.
The study, led by the University of Southern Denmark, shows that the proportion of children and adolescents with no caries is higher among those with a higher-than-average intake of dairy products, as compared with those who consume less dairy: 72.7% versus 65.8% at age 9 and 41.1% versus 30.7% at age 15. They also found that dairy and milk consumption, as well as the intakes of dairy components such as dairy calcium, whey and casein, are generally inversely associated with childhood and adolescent caries.
The researchers were also interested in the appearance of dental caries over a period of 3 and 6 years. They observed the favourable effect of dairy products: the incidence of caries after 3 years and after 6 years is inversely associated with the consumption of dairy products, even if this association is only statistically significant at 3 years and in unadjusted models of the 6-year incidence.
Which dietary factors are associated with weight loss in a lifestyle change program? This Brazilian study reports that an increase in the consumption of dairy products has the greatest association with weight loss.
During the study, 117 women and men, aged 36 years and over, were enrolled in a lifestyle change program during 20 weeks. This program included in particular dietary advice based on dairy products and physical activity.
The authors reveal that in the group with the greatest weight loss, there was an increase in the consumption of dairy products, fruits and vegetables. A closer analysis shows that an increase of 0.4 portions of a dairy product per day has an impact of 9.6% on the loss of one kg/m2 of BMI.
Greek yogurt is an excellent source of protein, calcium, potassium, zinc, and vitamins B6 and B12.
The data, published in the International Journal of Obesity in 2014, showed people who ate more than three servings of yogurt a week gained less weight over the course of a year than those who ate less than one serving.
Learn more about the possible role of yogurt in weight maintenance here.
For the fritters:
For the Yogurt Sauce:
Research confirms yogurt consumption correlates with a host of health benefits. Yogurt-eaters who consume more than three servings of yogurt per week appear to be better able to manage their weight.
Jacques and Huifen Wang at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA) at Tufts examined data from the Framingham studies to see if there was a connection between yogurt consumption and weight. Their findings suggest yogurt could be helpful, if not for weight loss, then at least for weight maintenance.
The data, published in the International Journal of Obesity in 2014, showed people who ate more than three servings of yogurt a week gained less weight over the course of a year than those who ate less than one serving.
A meta-analysis by Jacques and Wang of existing research on yogurt and weight, published last year in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, also found that yogurt-rich diets were associated with less weight gain over time. The same association was not true for consumption of low-fat or nonfat milk. And comparable consumption of whole milk and cheese was associated with weight gain..
