Recently, it seems that the yogurt industry has taken off. More than ever before I am seeing advertisements preaching the health benefits of various yogurt products. Messages about probiotics, prebiotics, DHA, and the ability to lose weight by eating yogurt. It all sounds so wonderful, but is all yogurt good for you? Are some better than others? When yogurt is left standing naked for all to see, the answers to these questions become more clear.
With all these dollars being spent on advertising yogurt. I thought it would be helpful to compare some of the leading brands that claim to be so beneficial for our health. This calls for a strip search! Below, I have compared 5 types of yogurt. The four to the right are heavily advertised to convince consumers of their health benefits. Let’s see if they have anything to hide and how they stand up to our “plain” Jane option on the left.
There are a number of other yogurt brands on the shelf that would score much lower on the health scale than the brands above. The trick is to read the ingredients and the nutrition label. If you only look at the fat, or the calories, or the messaging telling you that it has probiotics, you will miss the big picture. It’s this big picture that really tells us what’s in the food we eat. My general rule of thumb for buying yogurt is to stay away from products that have large lists of unknown ingredients and that contain added sugar, sweeteners, and cream. Based on the above comparison my choice would be Astro Original.
Now I know some of you are probably squirming in your seats thinking about having to eat plain yogurt because it doesn’t taste as good. Here is a quick tip to help you make the switch. If you already eat plain yogurt, keep up the good work!
TIP: How to start eating plain yogurt.
When my boyfriend and I started dating, coming home from the grocery store was always an event. You should have seen his face when I unpacked things like quinoa, tofu, spinach, and plain yogurt. In the past he ate yogurt with added sugar and was having trouble making the switch. To help him, I put fresh fruit and a bit of honey or real maple syrup into his yogurt. After a while he would eat it with just the fresh fruit. This tip provides you with a great way to still enjoy the benefits of yogurt without all the added sweeteners and hard-to-pronounce ingredients.
Happy eating and enjoy your yogurt!
4 Responses
June 14th, 2009 at 11:44 pm
Nice post!
I was glad to see that the brand of yogurt I am already eating appeared to be the yogurt of choice here. I eat my yogurt in smoothies, another great way to get dairy into your diet.
I shake my fist every time I’m in the grocery store because I can’t get yogurt without a long list of additives, including high fructose corn syrup. I wonder if you’ve heard of any sources that contain everyone’s favourite “good” bacteria without all the other nonsense?
Looking forward to your next post!
June 15th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
This is a great list, and buying anything with the least amount of ingredients on the label is always a good choice. But I would advise everyone to beware of “milk ingredients” as this could be any number of by-products thrown together from many different dairies all over the country to seem like real milk. The whole is always better than the sum of it’s parts!!
Also, organic dairy products have usually come from cows that have been grass-fed (as opposed to GMO-grains, which is not natural for these big ruminants). If it’s not organic it could contain growth hormones and who know how the cows were treated??
Great website! just a thought!
June 25th, 2009 at 6:07 pm
Hey Briana!
Very interesting read on yogurt, but I have one question. The active bacteria that is known to do all kinds of good for you, can that be found in frozen yogurt also?
Carolyn
February 24th, 2010 at 4:25 pm
Great blog! It is incredible to see how many products out there are marketed in this way - I applaud your effort to disseminate “the naked truth”.
Another tip for your readers: I eat a lot of yogurt, so I only use plain yogurt - my favorite though higher in fat than the 1% Astro, is Hewitt’s 2% (incredible texture and flavour) –For a cup of yogurt, I add a few drops of liquid stevia and a tsp of vanilla. The flavor is amazing, and much better than artificially flavoured yogurts. I have tried both liquid stevia and powdered- liquid organc is by far the best- but you have to add a tiny drop at a time - too much will lend an odd taste to the food.
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