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Weight Loss: Yo, It's Yogurt!

Dieting & Weight Loss Tips for yogurt & a healthier you.

While yogurt is ultra healthy and an upstanding member of the Dairy Food Group, when consumed in its full-blown state, those full-blown calories can sure assist in blowing the body up to new, unwanted numbers on the bath scale.

Many single serving containers of yogurt contain well over 200 calories. On the other side of the coin, the yogurts containing sugar substitutes can create all sorts of unwanted health issues - from uncomfortable gas to digestive upset to an enhanced reaction to things that we might normally experience an allergic reaction to.

When sugar substitutes are limited to once or twice per day, the effects remain minimal. But in this day and age, many individuals live, breathe and eat sugar substitutes - even individuals who aren't dieting and who are over their recommended weight.

If you suddenly find that you're breaking out when you're interacting with your cat - and you haven't in the past, or if you start developing whelps in the warmer areas of your body - particularly in the crevices of the arm in the elbow area or on the neck or beneath the breast area - or if your lips feel like plastic or like they have been ironed, you may be experiencing a reaction to sugar substitutes as found in yogurt and many other reduced calorie over the counter products. Unfortunately, this is the response by the immune system. To see if sugar substitutes are responsible for the breakouts, omit all sugar substitutes from your daily diet. You should see rapid improvement - within a couple of weeks to a month.

These breakouts are actually hives and can present a life-threatening situation requiring immediate medical attention. Other symptoms of sugar substitute overload based on my personal experience with sugar substitutes include: diarrhea, headache, feeling of tiredness and respiratory irritations - such as a scratchy throat. Again, a signal of an allergic reaction due to sugar substitute overload and a damaged immune system.

Let's get back to the topic of yogurt and how it can assist in your daily diet and weight loss.

Oddly enough, skim varieties of most dairy products contain less fat and fewer calories - and more calcium, including many commercial brands of healthy yogurt. Opting for yogurt that is reduced in caloric content via reduced-fat and skim milk makes a much healthier option than a yogurt containing sugar substitutes. Also look for yogurts containing more fruit and less sugar.

Yogurt makes a versatile food and is perfect alone or paired with the following:

- light whipped cream (15 calories per serving) and yogurt make a healthy fluff

- yogurt makes a dynamite veggie or fruit dip over regular, high calorie salad dressing or sugar laced dips

- yogurt adds tasty goodness to baked goods such as banana bread as well as moistness

Yogurt also contains healthy live bacteria which help stabilize some infections and also aids in digestion. And of course, Calcium is an additional health benefit of yogurt and will help keep bones strong.

Weight Loss Tip for Yogurt: By substituting a 100 calorie serving of yogurt for a regular 270 calorie candy bar and a 150 calorie soda at break time, you can lose a pound or more in less than two weeks, naturally - and based on your current daily diet.

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