While the extra fat may seem like something to avoid, research shows it will do you good.
Fat comes in many shapes and sizes. The grease dripping from your bacon, the oil sitting in your French fries, that good stuff hiding in your avocado- it all counts.
When you visit the grocery store and check out the yogurt section though, it often seems to be missing. Most of the products are fat free, or made from 1% milk.
Why? Because it seems we have this vision that anything “low-fat” is “healthy” and that we’re doing our body a favor by eating it.
Experts, however, tend to disagree.
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Apparently, you’ll likely be better off eating the creamy, full fat kind.
Studies have shown that eating full fat yogurt can help lower your risk of developing diabetes. Low-fat versions tend to come laden with sugary flavor content, something that’s reduced in higher-fat varieties.
And eating full-fat products can actually help you lose weight. A study done on women going through menopause found that those who ate full-fat dairy products had a lowered risk of gaining weight, compared with those who ate low-fat versions. It’s not certain why this is the case, but it could be that full fat yogurt leaves you feeling more full, and less likely to snack on other, additional foods.
Best of all, scientists aren’t entirely sure why, but full-fat dairy products seem to behave differently in the human body, when compared with animal fats found in meat.
So, grab a spoon and dig in! All those cultured microbes will do you some good.
