My late mother may have been right.  Long before it was fashionable and long before companies started doctoring it with sugar and fruit flavors, mom fed us yogurt. She wasn’t exactly sure why it was good for us but she insisted that it was. I figured she had to be right because – based on my tastes at the time – it tasted horrible.  Now I’ve come to like the taste of plain yogurt. In fact, I often use it instead of milk as a topping for cereal

Mom was a big yogurt proponent because of the active cultures. Yogurt is full of “friendly” bacteria that are associated with all sorts of heath benefits including improving digestion, fighting yeast infections, colon cancer, ulcers and strengthening the immune system. Fortunately, my family members haven’t had to use antibiotics very often but, when we do, my wife Patti (who’s also smart like my mother) makes sure that we get plenty of yogurt to counteract the anti-bacterial carpet bombing effect of the drug.

Yogurt is also high in protein, calcium, riboflavin and vitamin B 12 but unlike most other milk products, it doesn’t necessarily aggravate people who are lactose intolerant. That’s because the live yogurt cultures help brake down the lactose.

Non-fat plain yogurt is relatively low in calories (130 per eight ounce serving) and, of course, virtually devoid of fat. But be careful.  Not all commercial are low in calories.  I love Nancy’s whole milk Yogurt, but a cup has 180 calories and 16 grams of fat. A typical 8 ounce serving of fruit flavored non-fat yogurt has 150 calories. So-called “low fat” fruit flavored yogurt typically has 228 calories along with 3 grams of fat.

Dannon makes all types of yogurts but watch out for its “la crème mousse” variety. The numbers for a a single “serving” don’t sound all that bad: 120 calories, 5 grams of fat, 3.5 grams of saturated fat and 15 grams of carbohydrates.  But they define a serving as 2.6 ounces.  To get the real picture you have to multiply those numbers by 3.08.  Based on a 2000 calorie diet, an 8 ounce serving would have be 18% of your total calories, 24% of your daily fat allowance, 55% of your daily saturated fat, and 15% of your daily carbs. If you’re trying to lose weight on a 1,200 calorie diet, a single serving out take up nearly a third of your day’s calories.

But here’ the good news about weight loss and yogurt.  A recent study conducted found that people who ate a certain type of yogurt “lost significantly more weight compared to others who simply reduced calories.”  That certain type was “Yoplait Light.” There’s nothing in Yoplait’s press release that says they sponsored the study, but I have my suspicions.  Still, the study was conducted by a credible researcher, Michael B. Zemel, Ph.D., professor of medicine and

Director of the Nutrition Institute at the University of Tennessee.

The yogurt eaters, according to the study, “lost 22 percent more weight, 61 percent more body fat and 81 percent more trunkal (stomach) fat during the 12-week study.”

Dr Zemel believes that the calcium in yogurt could be a major factor in the results. The people who consumed yogurt, “consumed about 1,100 milligrams of calcium each day” compared to the control group which consumed 500 milligrams of calcium which is typical of the American diet. Both groups consumed about 500 calories less than they would usually eat.

“Not only did yogurt help the study participants lose more weight–the average weight loss was 13 pounds–they were about twice as effective at maintaining lean muscle mass,” Zemel said. “This is a critical issue when dieting — you want to lose fat, not muscle. Muscle helps burn calories, but it is often compromised during weight loss.”

Zemel’s previous studies have found “as calcium intake goes up, weight and body fat go down.”  He argues that a diet low in calcium “appears to stimulate the production of fat-producing enzymes and decreases the activity of enzymes that break down fat.”

My mother was one pretty smart lady.

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