Nutrition
expert advice on what Yoghurt to eat
Yoghurt Demystified
Dairy foods are an excellent source of calcium, magnesium and good quality protein. Getting enough calcium is very important, especially for women and yoghurt is a convenient and tasty way to get one of your daily dairy servings.
But, there are so many yoghurts to choose from – yoghurt with muesli, chocolate, fruit whip layers, caramel... it can be quite overwhelming.
Some yoghurts can be more like desserts when we look at the added sugar, kilojoules and fat. Yoghurt does contain natural sugar from dairy, which is fine – it's the added sugars and fat from some of the flavourings you need to look out for.
Read the label carefully to help you make a good choice.
Go for yoghurts that have less than:
* 500 kilojoules per serving (usually 100g, 125g or 175g)
* 1g of saturated fat
* 20g sugar
* At least 100mg of calcium per 100g
Remember, not all indulgent-looking yoghurts are bad for the waistline. Knowing what to look for will mean you choose tasty and nutritious yoghurt.
Last updated: Wed, 2011-03-02 12:01
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Thanks:-) Great to know as I eat yoghurt everyday.
Thanks so much for this article. It looks like the ones I'm eating are more than okay. I generally stick to the low fat or fat free varieties. I do wonder though, not all of them have the 'live AB cultures' logo on them.....does that mean they don't contain live AB cultures???
Thanks for your question.
If there is no mention on the label, then it’s likely that no ‘live AB cultures’ have been added to the yoghurt. Most yoghurt products contain active cultures anyway, but in some cases more of a specific type of culture has been added.
As you may know, these live cultures are called probiotics. Probiotics are live microorganisms in a food or supplement that survive the passage through the gut and when administered in adequate amounts may have health benefits. Many studies using different strains (types of bacteria species) of probiotics have shown a beneficial effect for conditions like diarrhoea and lactose intolerance.
Important things to know:
- The effect of a probiotic is strain specific and can’t be said to be true even for other strains of the same species. So, we cannot group all probiotics together and attach the same health benefits to all of them.
- The strains and number of live organisms in commercial products may vary greatly. It is often challenging for manufacturers of these products to keep the microorganisms alive under unfriendly conditions.
Bottom line: Different bacterial strains may be effective for different health conditions. Yoghurts containing live culture may, but will not necessarily offer probiotic-related health benefits. However, as I mentioned, yoghurts offer other nutritional benefits and can form part of a healthy varied diet.
Celeste
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