How to choose the best yoghurt for your family's health...



Have you ever wondered why so many health gurus tout how wonderful yoghurt is for you?

Yogurt, a living culture made from milk, it's high on protein, calcium, and vitamins. It's an excellent choice when you are watching your weight as the protein makes you feel fuller and stops sugar cravings. Yogurt is also great for building up your immune system, and ensuring you get enough calcium.

There is a lot of yoghurts on the supermarket shelves and a lot of them fall into the 'dairy dessert' category...basically a junk food.  These are mainly made from cow’s milk, thickened and with added sugars, fruit and other ingredients, with little nutritional benefit.  It is common for manufacturers to add bacteria to their products (which doesn't last) – rather than make it from live cultures – to encourage consumers to purchase their product. 

Real yoghurts not only contain probiotics but they are started from them (rather than having them added at the end). 

I am always a little overwhelmed when choosing a yoghurt for the family but if you know what to look for, it can become child's play and you won't even blink an eye at the non conforming brands!

To help with the process when you are faced at the yoghurt section make sure you

+ Choose a cultured yoghurt, you will be able to pick it up on most products. It may say 'pot set' or 'fermented', opt away from the brands with sugar shown in the top three ingredients  

+ Select the plain yoghurts first, these are generally less sweeter, and better for the kids 

+ More the friendly bacteria, the better

 + Low fat is great for adults but keep it full cream for the kids and be aware of added sugar in the form of sucrose, glucose, lactose, fructose, corn syrup, honey etc.

 + I have always shyed away from the kiddy and infant yoghurts and chosen low sugar, full cream adult versions - they are far better for the kids.

To see Choice magazines roadtest of the top premium yoghurts, see here

Generally Greek yogurt is a great choice —served on your breakfast, use it as a dressing or make a yummy dip, like tzatziki. One of my favourite yoghurt recipes is my low fat berry tiramisu, such an indulgent guilt free dessert!

All in all, we know what we'll be adding to the grocery list this week!

What brand of yoghurt do you buy? Do you have any favourite recipes with yoghurt in them?