Ingredient Breakdown: Yogurt
It has been said that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It helps us keep our appetite in check, gives us energy, helps improve memory, and can even help improve our skin. Many healthy breakfast foods, such as oatmeal, fresh fruits, and nuts, help to improve our health and our skin. Yogurt is another breakfast food often used to improve the health of the body and the skin. We love the benefits yogurt provides and want to share some of those benefits with you.
What is Yogurt?
First, did you know that yogurt, or yoghurt, is enjoyed in countries all over the globe? Some countries in the Middle East have eaten yogurt for thousands of years, while others, like the United States, have only recently increased consumption over the last hundred years or so.
Yogurt is made from the milk of various animals – cows, goats, and buffaloes being the most common. Most commercial yogurt made within the United States is made from the milk of cows is infused with two types of bacteria: Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus. These bacteria cause the milk to ferment, or ripen, and the bacteria changes lactose, or milk sugar, into lactic acid, which helps to thicken the milk and produce yogurt.
Many people, like us, have come to enjoy yogurt as more than just a breakfast food or mid-day snack. Yogurt contains Omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins B12 and K, potassium, zinc, calcium, phosphorus, and riboflavin, all of which provide many benefits to the body and the skin.
Here are a few of our favorite yogurt benefits:
Acne Relief
Acne prone skin can be hard to deal with. Each day our skin is layered with environmental pollutants and toxins that find their way into the pores and cause irritation and breakouts. Yogurt is a natural acne treatment, rich in zinc and possessing anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties. This helps yogurt kills impurities and heals blemishes.
Anti-Aging
The lactic acid found in yogurt helps to exfoliate the skin and smooth out its texture. It helps to repair dry skin and prevent premature signs of aging like wrinkles, fine lines, dark circles and bags under the eyes, sagging skin, and age spots. Lactic acid also helps reduce the appearance of pores and dissolves dead skin that causes a dull appearance.
Improves Digestive Health
Probiotics is a word you’ve probably heard about on yogurt commercials. Probiotics make a great marketing tool because they help make yogurt an easy way to feed your gut some healthy bacteria. Probiotics are naturally found in the digestive system and help to strengthen the immune system and digestive tract by improving the microflora in the gut. Probiotics, or active cultures, help with constipation, diarrhea, inflammatory bowel disease and lactose intolerance.
Regulates Mood
Did you know that the health of your gut effects your mood? A study from the Gail and Gerald Oppenheimer Family Center for Neurobiology of Stress showed that healthy women who ate probiotics have less anxiety and more emotional control when confronted with emotional experiences.
Reduces Skin Discoloration
When used over time, yogurt has the ability to mildly bleach the skin. Environmental factors, scars, overexposure to UV rays, and aging can all cause blotchy and discolored skin. Age spots and other discoloration can be improved by rubbing a thin layer of plain yogurt into the skin. Try this brightening face mask from TheSimpleCare that also mixes in lemon and honey!
Yogurt can be used internally and topically to provide these, and other, benefits. Whether you eat it from the container, use it in a yogurt face mask, make a do-it-yourself anti-aging cream, or slab on a little yogurt as part of your daily skin care routine, you are sure to find the benefits of using yogurt to improve your health and skin.
Have you had success using yogurt on your skin, or are you perhaps looking for something either stronger or simpler? Let us know in the comments below!
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