Yogurt

• Strengthens the immune system
• Helps prevent gastrointestinal, yeast, and urinary tract infections
• Helps cure diarrhea
• Helps prevent and heal ulcers
• Helps prevent osteoporosis

Yogurt has a long-standing reputation as a life-enhancing and life-extending food. Though no one's ever proved it can help you live to age 120, there is plenty of evidence that it can help make your years healthy ones.

Infection Protection

The live Lactobaccillus acidophilus cultures in yogurt are largely responsible for the power of yogurt to prevent infection. A traditional cure for vaginal yeast infections, its efficacy has now been scientifically validated: A recent study showed that women who ate 8 ounces of yogurt a day had significantly fewer yeast infections than those who did not. Lactobacillus acidophilus have been shown to help prevent and treat gastrointestinal and urinary tract infections as well.

Immune System Strength

Yogurt's Lactobacillus acidophilus cultures may also help ward off other infections by stimulating body cells that fight bacteria. According to another study, people who ate two 8-ounce servings of live-culture-containing yogurt a day had higher blood levels of gamma-interferon, a substance that helps the body fight disease. The yogurt eaters also had 25 percent fewer colds and fewer symptoms of hay fever and allergy than nonyogurt eaters.

Yogurt also speeds recovery from diarrhea. Its beneficial cultures work to overcome the "bad" bacteria, such as E. coli, which is famous for causing diarrhea in children and travelers alike. Yogurt's antibacterial action restores microbial balance, and thus normal digestive activity.

Yogurt works the same way against ulcers. Yogurt's beneficial bacteria act like antibiotics in the digestive tract, doing battle with the harmful bacteria that cause ulcers, making it difficult for the germs to continue doing harm. Yogurt also contains lactose, a natural sugar that breaks down into lactic acid and helps restore your digestive system to normal.

Osteoporosis Prevention

Plain, low-fat yogurt is a great source of calcium; one cup contains about 40 percent of the RDA. Calcium is essential in helping prevent osteoporosis, the bone-weakening disease that afflicts many older women in particular. Yogurt's a particularly good choice for people who are unable to digest milk.

Tips: Read yogurt labels carefully: Opt for low-fat or nonfat types, and be sure they contain Lactobacillius acidophilus. Try to buy yogurt that's less than a week old; it suffers a precipitous loss of live cultures after it's been sitting on the shelf for a while.

Frozen yogurt doesn't offer remotely as many nutrients as regular yogurt. Low-fat or nonfat frozen yogurt is still better than ice cream, though.