Turbocharge your yoghurt breakfast with honey

If you want to turbocharge your gut-friendly yoghurt at breakfast, add a dollop of honey.

The honey will sweeten the yoghurt, and it will also boost its probiotic cultures, according to two studies carried out by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Adding honey to the morning yoghurt is traditional in the Mediterranean, and the researchers wanted to find out if the custom actually had health benefits.  In the first study, they tested the effects of four kinds of honey—alfalfa, buckwheat, clover and orange blossom—on the probiotics in yoghurt samples.  The clover honey was especially effective in helping the probiotics flourish.

For the second trial, they tested their laboratory findings on a group of 66 volunteers, who were asked to eat yoghurt with clover honey and also a variety without honey that was heat-treated.  After analysing stool samples, the researchers said the human study confirmed the laboratory findings: the honey supported the survival of the yoghurt’s probiotics in the gut.

But remember, the researchers caution, honey is an added sugar, and Americans already consume far too much of the stuff.

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