If you are looking for next winter’s “super food” to help reduce to cold symptoms, some experts are pointing towards an old friend and not some new fruit or root found deep in a foreign forest.
Yogurt could be a great pick when it comes to foods that help fight the common cold or basic flu.
For one, yogurt contains the well-known immune booster, zinc. Research has demonstrated that zinc can reduce the duration of cold symptoms. You should know though that the benefits of zinc start at about 75mg and the average yogurt contains only about 2 mg of zinc in 8oz of yogurt.
Many of you won’t want to hear this because carbs are the new enemy when it comes to diets and health. However, carbs will help provide the energy your body needs to recover from a cold. A new study funded by the National Dairy Council found that women who ate yogurt everyday for nine weeks reduced inflammatory markers in their blood. So, yogurt could have anti inflammatory properties that could help cold symptoms.
Most doctors would probably agree that we should never rely on just one food item to help fight a cold. However, yogurt seems to be a good choice. It is easy to eat if you have a sore throat. Yogurt is a good choice for its texture and nutritional value like, zinc, vitamin D and calcium but it isn’t a one and done remedy.
To enhance yogurt’s effectiveness choose a lower fat, lower sugar yogurt in w/o flavor or fruit and add berries yourself, which have lots of antioxidants and vitamin C.