Evidence is growing about the health benefits of probiotics. Now, new research has found that adding a tablespoon of honey to your yogurt helps the probiotics it contains survive in your gut. It’s a win-win combination that’s both healthy and delicious.
People love to ferment foods and drinks — think kimchi, kombucha, and beer — and have been doing so for tens of thousands of years. Yogurt is a fermented favorite. Traditional yogurts are made by fermenting milk using a standard 'starter culture' Lactobacillus And Streptococcus bacterial strains; probiotic yoghurts supplement the yeast culture with probiotic strains, such as: Bifidobacteria animal.
There is increasing evidence that consuming probiotics may positively impact mood and gut health. Given that honey is often added to yogurt, a source of probiotics, researchers from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign examined the effects of adding honey to yogurt on the gut microbiome in two studies.
“We were interested in the culinary pairing of yogurt and honey, which is common in the Mediterranean diet, and how this affects the gastrointestinal microbiome,” said Hannah Holscher, an associate professor in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, part of the University of Illinois' College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES), and corresponding author of both studies.
In the first study, researchers found that adding alfalfa, buckwheat, clover, and orange blossom honey to a commercial yogurt (Activia) increased B. animal They added 42g (two tablespoons) of honey to 170g (two-thirds of a cup) of yogurt and exposed the mixture to solutions in the lab that mimicked digestion in the mouth, stomach, and intestines.
“Enzymes in our mouth, stomach, and intestines aid in digestion and facilitate nutrient absorption, but they also reduce the viability of microbes,” Holscher said. “That’s great when it comes to pathogens, but not necessarily when it comes to beneficial bacteria. We wanted to see if honey could help probiotic bacteria survive in the gut.”
For oral and gastric solutions, researchers observed no difference B. animal survival between different types of honey and control versions (yogurt mixed with sugar or water). However, yogurt with honey—especially clover honey—helped probiotic survival during the intestinal phase of digestion.
The researchers then tested the findings from the first study in a clinical trial. Sixty-six healthy adults were randomly divided into two groups: the control group ate 170 grams of commercial pasteurized yogurt B. animal twice daily for two weeks, and the treatment group ate the same amount of the same yogurt and 21 g of clover honey for the same period. After two weeks and after a four-week washout period, the treatment and control groups were switched. Participants were asked not to consume supplements or dietary probiotics, fermented dairy products, or fermented foods. They provided information about their stool samples and bowel movements, and filled out questionnaires to assess their mood, cognition, and general well-being.
“Our findings showed that combining honey with yogurt supports the survival of probiotic bacteria in the gut, so the results of the laboratory study have real-world application in humans,” Holscher said.
But the researchers found that adding clover honey to yogurt did not affect the time it took for food to pass through the gut, the frequency of bowel movements, mood, or cognition. Holscher attributes this to the participants being healthy to begin with.
A small follow-up study was conducted in which 36 participants consumed yogurt with sugar. By comparing the results of the three study conditions, the researchers found that combining yogurt and honey preserved the most probiotics, but there was no effect on other health factors measured.
“We found that a tablespoon of honey in a serving of yogurt helped support probiotic survival,” Holscher said. “However, we must keep in mind that honey is an added sugar and most Americans need to be conscious of the amount of sugar in their diets to maintain a healthy body weight. But adding a little honey to unsweetened yogurt is a nice culinary pairing to include in your menu rotation.”
Both the first and second studies have been published Nutrition JournalThe research was supported by the National Honey Board.
Source: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign