How to Boost Your Mood with Homemade Yoghurt?

Science Based & Expert Insights

It may sound like a ridiculous idea that eating yoghurt could actually improve your mood but if you’ve ever heard of the gut-brain axis, it’s not that surprising anymore.

But it’s not about just any yoghurt. Obviously, if you’re healthy, eating good-quality yoghurt can be a part of a well-balanced diet, but if you need extra support for your mood, plain, commercial yoghurts probably won’t do much for you.

Probiotic Strains for Mood Support

For mood support, you need strains that have been specifically studied for their effects on the gut-brain axis. The ones with the strongest evidence behind them include Lactobacillus helveticus Rosell®-52 and Bifidobacterium longum Rosell®-175. That's why you'll find them in many mood and stress probiotic supplements.

Lactobacillus helveticus Rosell®-52 and Bifidobacterium longum Rosell®-175

This study looked at whether a probiotic supplement with Lactobacillus helveticus Rosell®-52 and Bifidobacterium longum Rosell®-175 could help with stress and mood. Healthy volunteers took it for 30 days and reported lower levels of overall psychological distress compared to those taking a placebo.

Does Greek yoghurt improve mood?

As you can see these are completely different strains from those listed on a typical everyday yoghurt label, which usually include Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus.

Again, it doesn’t mean that Greek yoghurt has no benefits for mood, but if you’re here reading this, you’re probably looking for something “stronger”.

Mood-Boosting Food: Homemade Yoghurt

The thing is, commercially available yoghurts are not fermented with Lactobacillus helveticus Rosell®-52 and Bifidobacterium longum Rosell®-175, and even if they were, the bacterial count would not be high enough to make a real difference.

That’s why Dr. William Davis came up with a recipe for a homemade “yoghurt” that helps you get the most out of each capsule you buy.

Strictly speaking, this is not yoghurt, but rather a fermented food. But it is easier to call it a yoghurt, because it looks and tastes like one, just with different probiotic strains.

Yoghurt Recipe for Mood Support

This recipe comes from Super Gut: A Four-Week Plan to Reprogram Your Microbiome, Restore Health and Lose Weight by Dr. William Davis.

Lactobacillus helveticus and Bifidobacterium longum Yoghurt

Dr William Davis says:

This combination of species has been shown to reduce anxiety and lift mood, contributing to a reversal of depression. Once again, we put our microbes to work with prolonged fermentation and prebiotic fibers to obtain greater bacterial numbers for bigger and faster effects. This combination may propagate a little more slowly than other species, so we ferment at 38°C for 36–40 hours. Not everyone experiences the lift in mood, but those who do can experience marked effects.

The Recipe

1 probiotic capsule containing Lactobacillus helveticus R0052 and Bifidobacterium longum R0175
2 tablespoons sugar or raw potato starch
950 ml single cream or other liquid

1. Mix the contents of 1 capsule with sugar (or raw potato starch) and 2 tablespoons of single cream until smooth.
2. Add the remaining cream and stir well.
3. Ferment at 38 °C (100.4 °F) for 36-40 hours. (So you need a yoghurt maker or another device that allows you to set the fermentation time and temperature.)
4. For the next batch, use 2 tablespoons of curds or whey from the previous batch as a starter.

Rosell®-52 or R0052?

You can find the strains I mentioned in this article in many mood and stress probiotic supplements. Companies may label them either as Lactobacillus helveticus Rosell®-52 and Bifidobacterium longum Rosell®-175 (Rosell® is the branded name used for these strains) or simply as Lactobacillus helveticus R0052 and Bifidobacterium longum R0175. Either way, they are the same bacteria you need for a mood-supporting homemade yoghurt.

My Final Thoughts on Mood-Supporting Homemade Yoghurt

Targeted probiotic supplements can be expensive, and most capsules provide only 1-10 billion CFU. I think Dr William Davis came up with an interesting idea: fermenting specific strains at home to achieve much higher bacterial counts.