Adding this ingredient to yogurt will help keep your gut healthy.
Yogurt is full of good bacteria, but not all of it reaches the gut. Researchers have found a way to fix this.
Two separate studies, conducted by professors in the Department of Microbiology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and published in March 2024 and June 2024, showed that adding honey can support the survival of probiotics during the digestive phase in the gut. Since digestive enzymes can sometimes kill beneficial bacteria, this may be a useful strategy to keep them alive.
Adding a little sweetness can be a way to make yogurt taste better, says Amanda Sauceda, a gut health nutritionist and instructor at Long Beach State University in California. While the taste may be off-putting to some, yogurt is a healthy food that is not only packed with probiotics, but also packed with protein, calcium, and other nutrients.
In moderation, honey can also be considered a nutritious food. "Honey is not just a sugar, it is also a source of nutrients. For example, you can find 10 milligrams of potassium in a tablespoon of honey, and it also has phenols, which are also being studied for their effects on the gut microbiome," says Sauceda.
A tablespoon of honey provides about 64 calories, all of which come from sugar. If you decide to add honey to your yogurt, Sauceda recommends limiting other sources of added sugar that day./.
