I love yogurt because I love the calcium and protein in it, but yogurt totally hates me. I can’t eat yogurt without all the lovely side effects of gas, bloating, nausea, and yeah, sometimes the squirts. See Adding Yogurt to Your Diet? Watch Out! to see what I mean. Anyhow, since I love yogurt and my stomach hasn’t quite gotten used to it, I’ve had to use some pretty creative ways to make sure I can get my calcium and protein in healthy ways without having to run to the toilet. Here are ways you can eat yogurt without upsetting your stomach!
If you are sensitive to eating yogurt, then try to avoid yogurts like Activia or plain yogurt, because the live cultures in those types of yogurts are what makes your stomach so upset. You have to ease into yogurt more often than not (particularly if milk makes your stomach hurt, too), so just buy lowfat yogurt, which still has the cultures but won’t freak out your stomach as much. Simply avoiding yogurts designed for digestion can make all the difference in how you can tolerate yogurt- you can ease into those types of yogurt over time.
When you eat yogurt, don’t stir in all that syrup. I find that all that sweet fruity syrup is what makes my stomach hurt even worse- what I do is scoop the yogurt into another bowl, and scoop around the fruity syrup without mixing it into the yogurt. Avoiding the super sweet syrup and just eating the yogurt (it still has that fruit flavor) saves your stomach the upset and your body the unwanted calories and sugar.
If yogurt has too strong a flavor, add water. I love to pour yogurt into a cup, then fill the yogurt container half-full of water, and add that to the yogurt. I stir the yogurt so the water mixes in, then drink the yogurt like a shake. I do this particularly for premixed yogurts that are too sweet or strong in flavor. This gives me the calcium and protein that I want without the bellyache later. The flavor isn’t compromised, either. If you can tolerate it, dilute your yogurt with a dash of milk, or half milk, half water. I just do water though, works out just fine.
When yogurt is just too much to stand, mash up a banana in a bowl and add yogurt to the banana and eat it like you would oatmeal. When I don’t feel well, this is a standby treat for me, and it’s delicious if you mash the banana then cook it in the microwave (60 seconds) and spoon cold yogurt on top. It’s a great way to get your yogurt in you, and have the banana to offset the stomach upset. A banana can make all the difference between eating yogurt and blowing yogurt chunks sometimes.
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ways I eat yogurt even though my stomach hates it
