Yogurt is thought of as a healthy food. It provides healthy bacteria, protein and calcium. Unfortunately most yogurt available in the grocery stores is not what I would consider healthy. When my older daughter was young I bought her yogurt tubes. I don’t buy them any more because of the food colouring and sugar in them. I believe that yogurt is no longer a healthy food when you add sugar and colour. Then you might as well be eating candy or cookies.
The bacteria in the yogurt helps keep our system in balance and helps us avoid sinus, ear and candida infections. The bacteria also decreases the amount of lactose in yogurt, which means that yogurt is easier to digest than milk. In my opinion, to buy the best yogurt:
Avoid:
- artificial food colouring (“colour” as the last ingredient, Yellow #5, Red #40, Tartrazine)
- sugar (on the ingredient list, not the nutritional panel that shows “sugars”)
- aspartame, Splenda and other artificial sugars
- additives or extra ingredients like cornstarch
Choose:
- plain yogurt
- yogurt sweetened with fruit juice
- yogurt sweetened with organic sugar
- yogurt without colour, or coloured with beet juice or annatto
I buy plain yogurt and add flavour to it myself. My kids like yogurt that is ready to go, so for them I buy:
- Dairyland’s Nature’s Treat (sweetened with fruit juice)
- Dairyland’s Cool Ones with DHA (sweetened with fruit juice)
- Western Family Classics (sweetened with fruit juice and honey); does have “modified” starches and skim milk powder
More reading on the health benefits of yogurt:
Reasons Why Yogurt is a Top Health Food by Dr. Sears
Sugars in Yogurt
In this blog post I have been writing about dairy yogurt, but the same information applies to goat yogurt, soy yogurt and coconut milk yogurt.
