5 Incredible Health Benefits of Greek Yogurt
Greek yogurt is often seen as a superfood. You see it advertised so often as a healthy snack boasting about the many health benefits of greek yogurt, hailing from the land of philosophers. However, despite what you’ve been led to believe, Greek yogurt isn’t Greek. We don’t know where it comes from.
We know that the word yogurt is derived from a Turkish word, and one of the largest Greek yogurt companies in the US is Turkish, not Greek. In Greece, the product is called ‘strained yogurt.’
The current belief is that several cultures may have developed Greek yogurt independently of each other.
Regardless of where it comes from, there are still many health benefits of Greek yogurt, and we’ll discuss some of them in this article.
1. Protein
Vegetarians can rejoice because there are other ways to get protein in your diet than just eating meat. There’s also plenty of it in Greek yogurt. Greek yogurt has been found to have almost as much protein as meat.
You’ve probably heard that protein helps build muscle, but it does so much more than that. Protein also contributes to healthy bones, skin, and blood, among other things.
Muscle also contributes to weight loss, because muscle takes energy to maintain. This energy comes in the form of calories, so the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn throughout the day.
The health benefits of Greek yogurt are limited, though. Greek yogurt is still very healthy and should be consumed, but you’ll need to exercise as well to see results.
2. Appetite and Digestion
In addition to protein, Greek yogurt also contains many probiotics. These two nutrients together keep our digestive system working efficiently.
It all starts with protein. It’s been shown that foods containing higher amounts of protein are often more filling, which helps curb our appetites.
Greek yogurt is a great source of probiotics. Probiotics are substances that contain live bacteria that live in our intestines and help us digest food. Having too few of these bacteria may cause issues like indigestion, constipation, and diarrhea.
Some say that probiotics can lessen the side effects of antibiotics, which makes sense. Most of these side effects are caused by having less good bacteria in our gut because antibiotics kill all kinds of bacteria.
Some believe that probiotics don’t have as many health benefits as we claim, but the true effectiveness of probiotics hasn’t been proven. At the moment, there’s only circumstantial evidence to go on. That being said, the circumstances thus far suggest that probiotics do benefit our health.
3. Low Sodium
We’ve been hearing for a long time that we should limit our salt intake. We’ve been told that it’s bad for our heart and blood pressure, but most of us have never been told why.
It’s no mystery that salty food often makes people thirsty. This is because sodium absorbs water. Once sodium gets into our body, this becomes a problem.
Because it absorbs liquid, sodium keeps unnecessary liquids in our blood that would have otherwise been sent to the kidneys to be turned into urine. More sodium in our blood means the blood is thicker, so our heart has to do more work to pump.
Greek yogurt is low on sodium, so it doesn’t contribute as much to the body’s salt content. This helps keep our blood pressure low and our hearts beating.
A healthy cup of Greek yogurt is a great idea for breakfast. It’s definitely healthier than bacon or hash browns.
4. Happiness
It has been suggested that probiotics may also improve mood, but this hasn’t been proven. We know that the gut can create Dopamine and Seratonin, so these claims are based in reality. Whether this is what’s taking place has not been confirmed.
There are other explanations, as well. It may be a bit of a stretch, but perhaps the probiotics were influencing emotion less directly. Maybe the participants in some of the studies were suffering from stomach pain, indigestion, or similar issues. If the probiotics treated these issues, it would make sense that they’d feel a little more upbeat afterward.
Even if we don’t know for sure, adding Greek yogurt to your diet might be worth it if there’s a chance it’ll make you happier.
5. Calcium and Vitamin D
Greek yogurt isn’t just high in protein; it’s packed with calcium as well. Calcium is just as beneficial as protein.
Calcium is one of the main ingredients of bone, along with collagen. Calcium also plays a role in our nerve functions, circulation, muscle health, and hormone regulation.
Be careful not to take too much calcium, though. Excess calcium can cause digestive problems and increase your risk of getting kidney stones.
However, calcium doesn’t function in our bodies without Vitamin D, which is also in many types of yogurt. If you’re not getting enough Vitamin D in your diet, even with yogurt, you can try going outside more. Our bodies naturally start producing Vitamin D when it’s exposed to sunlight.
The Many Health Benefits of Greek Yogurt
There’s no shortage of things to discuss when talking about the health benefits of Greek yogurt. We’ve talked about what we could hear, but there were a few we missed. It’s amazing the way the human body responds to various nutrients, and we encourage you to look more into it.
If you’re more interested in Greek yogurt specifically, you can find information on our website. We can give you a great recipe for homemade Greek yogurt.