What is it about?
This is the umpteenth attempt to standardize a slimming diet, which can take hold of an audience of people who are poorly trained on the subject and probably dissatisfied with their body image.
The objectives of this diet are exclusively aesthetic; those who suggest it describe: an improvement in the skin aspect, a reduction in abdominal swelling, a rapid loss of weight and an increase in bowel regularity.
The nutritional imbalance of the yogurt diet is very evident and will be described with greater accuracy in the last chapter. For the moment, let's try to understand what the true role of yogurt in human nutrition is.
Yogurt in the Diet
It is really a pity that the "reputation" of a rich, tasty and useful food like yogurt is compromised for such futile reasons.
By practicing the yoghurt diet we realize from the very first days of the impracticability and monotony that characterize it. This is to the detriment of the nutritional habits of the bad things that, more often than not, after having swallowed 3 to 7.5kg of yogurt in a week, erase it from their diet even for long periods.
On the contrary, yogurt is an extremely useful food for the human being, young, adult or elderly. For people who are mildly intolerant, yogurt replaces animal milk due to its lower lactose content; obviously, this cannot happen for those who manifest more important and annoying toxic gastro-intestinal symptoms.
Having said that, many readers will ask themselves: What is the nutritional function of yogurt ? The answer is articulated, since the positive aspects of the RIGHT consumption of yogurt are different; let's see them one at a time:
- Yogurt is an excellent source of high biological value proteins (caseins and whey proteins). This parameter measures the content of essential amino acids, so defined because the body is not able to synthesize them independently in sufficient quantities.
- Yogurt is an excellent source of calcium and phosphorus. Like all milk derivatives, it contains excellent concentrations of these salts involved in bone mineralization. This means that the dietetic function of yogurt acquires greater importance in the skeletal development phase (prevention of osteoporosis) and following menopause (possible slowing down of the osteoporotic process)
- Yogurt is an excellent source of vit. B2 or riboflavin. This water-soluble vitamin, also called lactoflavin, is the essential precursor of two coenzymes (FMN and FAD) necessary for various cellular reactions.
There are also good concentrations of retinol or vit. A (liposoluble), involved in cell differentiation and maintenance of visual function and the immune system
- Yogurt, despite being a food that provides good cholesterol doses and has a prevalence of saturated fatty acids, is also produced from semi-skimmed or skimmed milk. This significantly improves its dietary relevance as: it does not affect the overall atherogenic potential and contributes to moderate the total energy intake of the diet (an aspect not to be underestimated in the caloric regimes for the treatment of obesity)
- Yogurt is a "live" food, as it is fermented by bacterial strains commonly called "lactobacilli". These microorganisms, besides reducing the lactose content with lactic acid production, favor a sort of pre-digestion (hydrolysis) of the proteins; both of these characteristics (even more so in skimmed products) significantly favor the coefficient of digestibility. Moreover, it seems that this kind of bacteria is responsible for the compositional improvement of the intestinal bacterial flora. To tell the truth, with the reduction of the gastric pH (necessary for protein digestion), a good part of these "probiotic" microorganisms is destroyed and it is not yet clear how much traditional yogurt can affect "intestinal health".
- Yogurt is rich in water, a decisive aspect in maintaining body hydration. At most, this feature may seem superfluous; in reality, in the context of certain unbalanced diets and characterized by the low presence of fresh plant foods, yogurt contributes to reducing the risk of dehydration
Why is it bad?
After a brief introduction on the lack of suitability of the yogurt diet for human consumption, let's see in more detail how it should be structured and why it is not advisable.
The yoghurt diet lasts 5 days and "should" facilitate the reduction of body weight (they say, up to 3kg in 7 days). In reality, as it is easily deducible, it is not a real weight loss and it is likely that a large part of the weight lost is made up of body fluids; in this case, it is highly discouraged especially for those suffering from low blood pressure!
The yogurt diet includes 2 model days, of which: the first repeated once and the second 4 times. In summary (taken from the text: " Antologia delle Diete "):
Day 1:
- Just wake up: a glass of warm water
- Breakfast: tea without sugar, 300g of low-fat yogurt
- Lunch: vegetable broth, 300g of low-fat yogurt
- Mid-afternoon: 300g of low-fat yogurt, tea without sugar, 1 fruit
- Dinner: vegetable soup, 300g of low-fat yogurt
- Before going to bed: chamomile without sugar, 3 prunes
Day 2:
- Just wake up: a glass of natural water
- Breakfast: bitter tea, 300g of low-fat yogurt with 2 tablespoons of cereals
- Lunch: vegetable broth, 300g of low-fat yogurt, 1 fruit
- Mid-afternoon: 300g of low-fat yogurt, tea without sugar, 1 fruit
- Dinner: 200g of baked fish, green salad with 1 tablespoon of olive oil, juice without sugar, 1 wholemeal sandwich
- Before going to bed: chamomile without sugar, 3 prunes.
It is clear that this is an unbalanced diet. It does not provide sufficient shares of carbohydrates, lipids, many mineral salts (such as iron) and vitamins (such as vitamin E, K etc.). Given the poor energy supply, it can seriously affect the health status of a person who practices sports; moreover, it is even more risky for pregnant women and nurses. The deficiency in iron, folic acid and cobalamin favors (or worsens) the risk of anemia and (if protracted), during pregnancy, the yogurt diet can determine the nervous development of the unborn child.
I conclude by discouraging everyone from practicing the yogurt diet; in parallel, I invite readers to dwell on the nutritional properties of the food which, if consumed naturally and partially (or totally) skimmed, is widely used both in the formulation of breakfast and in choosing the right morning and afternoon snack. The daily ration of yogurt, if not associated with any portion of milk, can reach 250-450g per day (depending on the specific case).
