"Worthless" Foods That Are Actually Good For You (Page 5)

4. Whey

If you notice a layer of liquid on top of your yogurt, don’t pour it off. That liquid is whey—a naturally occurring protein in dairy. As Karen Ansel, M.S., R.D., reported in EatingWell Magazine, whey is also the component in dairy that researchers think may help you lose weight and gain calorie-burning lean muscle, according to research published in The Journal of Nutrition. Mice fed a high-fat diet that included whey gained 42% less weight, nearly a third less body fat and packed on 7% more lean body mass than mice that didn’t eat whey, though both groups ate roughly the same number of calories. To get as much whey as the mice did, you’d have to take a supplement. Get some whey naturally from ricotta, milk and yogurt.

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