Summer Berry Yogurt Bowl

What do you know, I’m sharing another yogurt bowl recipe with you today! I really love yogurt bowls and have come up with so many different variations that I can’t help but share yet another one with you. If you want to check out my previous yogurt bowl recipes, click the links below:

• Nutrient Packed Morning Yogurt Bowl with Sweet Potatoes, Berries, Nut Butter, and Seeds
• Protein Yogurt Bowl with Tropical Fruit and Granola
• Blueberry Peanut Butter Yogurt Breakfast Bowl

Anyways, lets talk about todays recipe, shall we. This yogurt bowl is topped with strawberries; blackberries; ground hemp, chia, and flax seeds; chopped almonds; almond butter; a dash of cinnamon; and a dash of cardamom. It’s a perfect summer breakfast rich in probiotics, omega 3s, fiber, antioxidants, and many vitamins and minerals. While this breakfast is already very nutritious there are a few things you can do to optimize the nutritional density of this meal.

How to Optimize Nutritional Consumption:

 1) Use Yogurt with Live and Active Cultures-

Live and active cultures are responsible for the probiotics and most of the nutrients in yogurt. These probiotics help with your gut health, digestion, mental health, fighting off infections (including but not limited to yeast infections), absorbing nutrients, and maintain the right balance of helpful bacteria. (1, 2)

Almost all yogurts are pasteurized before the live and active cultures are added, however some are pasteurized a second time after the cultures are added. The purpose of Pasteurization is to remove harmful bacterias from food. The second round of pasteurization is in my opinion completely unnecessary and damaging to your food. Pasteurization can not selectively kill bad bacteria. To get rid of bad bacteria, the good bacteria (AKA probiotics) must go as well. (1, 2)

To get the most out of your yogurt, look for a brand that says  “made with live and active cultures” or something along those lines. Note that it might not be labeled in an obvious place. (1, 2)

2) Use a Whole Milk Plain Yogurt-

Whole Milk yogurts contain healthy fats and more flavor. Nature knew what it was doing when it created milk. I believe that human tampering with fat percentages in milk is strange and unnecessary. Also when you take the fat out of foods they taste more bland. To remedy that, companies often add loads of sugar to their fat free products making them very unhealthy.

This brings me to my recommendation for plain yogurt. Most flavored yogurts (For example vanilla, raspberry, or blueberry yogurt) have a significant amount of added sugar. Plain yogurt on the other hand rarely do (It’s still a good idea to check the ingredients to be sure though). If you are buying a whole milk plain yogurt, the natural fats will provide pleanty of flavor and you can sweeten up your yogurt by adding fresh fruit.

My favorite whole milk plain yogurt with live and active cultures is by Straus.

3) Grind Your Flax Seeds Fresh-

In this recipe I grind all my seeds but flaxseeds are the most important to grind. Flaxseeds are loaded with nutrients but these nutrients are protected by a hard outer shell. Due to the small nature and hard coating of the seeds, they often pass through our bodies undigested and fully intact. When this happens we do not get the nutritional benefits of the seeds. Grinding the seeds, exposes those nutrients and breaks down the seeds, making them far easier to digest and be absorbed by the body.

One more note on this, I recommend grinding your seeds fresh to get the most nutrients. As foods age, it usually lose nutrients. Ground flaxseeds are also more prone to oxidative damage, the older they get. Oxidative damage causes a lot of problems in your body and has been linked to many chronic diseases. (3, 4, 5) If you’re interested in learning more about what oxidative damage is, I highly recommend this article by Kresser Institute.

4) Use Soaked Almonds and Almond Butter-

According to Katie Wells, author of the blog Wellness Mama, raw nuts “…contain moderate levels of phytic acid and enzyme inhibitors… [which] can cause potential problems in humans by binding to nutrients in the body and contributing to nutrient deficiencies and digestive system irritation.” (6) A little phytic acid here and there is really not a big deal, but limiting phytic acid can help to optimize nutrition absorption and digestibility. Especially if you consume lots of foods with high levels of phytic acid like grains, nuts, seeds, legumes, and beans. (6, 7, 8, 9, 10)

You can significantly reduce the phytic acid levels in nuts, by soaking or sprouting them like our ancient ancestors did. You can buy nuts that have been soaked and dehydrated from companies like Radient Health or you can do it yourself. Katie Wells has a great recipe for soaked and dehydrated nuts and nut butter.

5) Use the Freshest Ingredients Possible-

The fresher the food, the richer the nutrients. As soon as a piece of fruit is picked from a tree, or a vegetable pulled from the ground, the nutrients start decreasing. According to Sara Burrows, writer for the blog “Return to Now,” “Vegetables lose between 15 and 77 percent of their vitamin C within a week of harvest…” (11) By getting fresh fruits and veggies, you can help boast your vitamin intake. This is not only true for fruits and veggies, buying fresh nuts, seeds, and really any food will help to increase your nutrient intake.

Conclusion:

Using a whole milk plain yogurt with live and active cultures, grinding flaxseeds fresh, soaking nuts, and using fresh ingredients are all great health tips to increase the nutritional quality of the food you eat. You don’t have to try all these tips right away, however incorporating them into your diet can definitely be beneficial. Anyways I hope you enjoyed this post and I hope this recipe brings health and happiness to you and your family.

With love from my kitchen to yours,

Kayley

Summer Berry Yogurt Bowl

AuthorKayley O'Brien

Nutrition:

(12, 13)

Notes:

*Net Carbs (Carbs – Fiber) = 33.3g – 9.8g = 23.5g

* Nutrition is based on the products I use. I provide a nutrition table so that you can quickly check to see if your food products match or so that you can easily calculate the nutrition for any changes you want to make to the recipe. I think this helps if you have very specific diet goals and/or fitness and/or health goals. I also wanted you to be able to see exactly where I get the numbers for my nutrition facts so that you can see that they are reliable and learn more about macro breakdowns of food.

*For more protein, mix 1/3- 1/2 scoop of protein into the yogurt

Works Cited

1. Butler, Natalie. “Yogurt with Lactobacillus Acidophilus.” Healthline. 15 November 2018. https://www.healthline.com/health/food-nutrition/yogurt-with-lactobacillus-acidophilus#what-to-buy

2. “Live & Active Culture Yogurt.” aboutyogurt.com. Accessed 2 July 2019. http://aboutyogurt.com/live-culture

3. Kresser, Chris. “What Really Causes Oxidative Damage?” 14 June 2018. https://kresserinstitute.com/what-really-causes-oxidative-damage/

4. Spath, Alison. “Welcome Back Flax.” Mama’s Weeds. 5 September 2011. http://mamasweeds.com/2011/09/05/welcome-back-flax/

5. Zeratsky, Katherine. “Does ground flaxseed have more health benefits than whole flaxseed?” Mayo Clinic. Accessed 22 August 2019. https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/expert-answers/flaxseed/faq-20058354

6. Wells, Katie. “The Importance of Soaking Nuts & Seeds.” Wellness Mama. 30 July 2019. https://wellnessmama.com/59139/soaking-nuts-seeds/

7. Arnarson, Atli. “Phytic Acid 101: Everything You Need to Know.” Healthline. 28 June 2018. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/phytic-acid-101

8. Kerns, Michelle. “Foods Containing Phytic Acid.” Livestrong. Accessed 23 August 2019. https://www.livestrong.com/article/281955-foods-containing-phytic-acid/

9. Kresser, Chris. “Another Reason You Shouldn’t Go Nuts on Nuts” 20 February 2019. https://chriskresser.com/another-reason-you-shouldnt-go-nuts-on-nuts/

10. Sisson, Mark. “Nuts and Phytic Acid: Should You Be Concerned?” Mark’s Daily Apple. 16 May 2012. https://www.marksdailyapple.com/nuts-and-phytic-acid/

11. Burrows, Sara. “Vegetables Lose Up to Half Their Nutrients By the Time They’re Shipped to the Store: Another Reason to Grow Your Own.” Return to Now. 23 September 2018. https://returntonow.net/2018/09/23/study-produce-loses-around-half-its-vitamin-content-within-a-week-of-harvest/

12. Nutritionix. Gladson. https://www.nutritionix.com/ Accessed 21 January 2019.

13. “Nutrition Label of yogurt.” Straus, Petaluma, CA, 2019.