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Alexandra Murcier (Liberal dietician-nutritionist)
Greek, plain, fruit, vegetable, whole, low-fat… do you often hesitate between several varieties of yogurt? Here is advice from our nutrition expert to finally make the right choice.
How to find your way among the multitude of yogurts sold in supermarkets? How to make the right choice for your health? Alexandra Murcier, dietician-nutritionist, helps you see things more clearly.
Not all yogurts are good for your health
Although natural yogurts are rich in protein and calcium (approximately 150 mg per plain pot), they are not all equal from a nutritional point of view.
Indeed, while some are devoid of calories (and they also promote the good balance of the microbiota), others are real sugar bombs. A fruit yogurt can thus contain several pieces of sugar (3-4 on average) and numerous chemical additives (a “strawberry flavor” does not mean that your yogurt contains fruit, quite the contrary).
The National Consumer Defense Association (CLCV) even states “that a strawberry yogurt can contain a natural flavor from wood shavings, but not a trace of strawberry !“.
The same goes for the mentions “raspberry flavor” or “vanilla flavor”: you have very little chance that the yogurt in question contains real raspberry or real vanilla.
Caution is therefore advised when dealing with product labels.
Yogurt: how much to consume?
L‘Health insurance recommends “eat 2 dairy products a day while moderating your consumption of fatty and salty cheeses“After the age of 55, when bone demineralization accelerates, it is advisable to increase your consumption of dairy products and switch to “3 or 4 per day” because of their richness in calcium and proteins.
Recommended serving sizes are: 150 ml of milk, 125 g of yogurt or 30 g of cheese.
To note : crème fraîche and butter come from milk but are not part of dairy products. This is fat.
Plain, fruity, vegetable… Which yogurt should you prefer?
Ideally, you should avoid fruit yogurts or flavored yogurts, believes Alexandra Murcier, because most of the time they are too sweet.
“I recommend choosing natural yogurt instead. However, it is not necessary to take a 0% yogurt because there is often added starch in it and some low-fat yogurts contain sweeteners.“, she warns.
We can then sweeten the natural yogurt.with honey, jam or maple syrup (which has a lower glycemic index than honey)“, advises the expert.
“In this way we can better understand the quantity of sugar that they put it. Ideally you should stick to a teaspoon. You can also simply sweeten yogurt by putting fruit in it or flavor it with cinnamon (which balances blood sugar) or a few drops of food flavorings natural”, still recommends the specialist.
From a texture point of view, natural Greek yogurts are particularly pleasant: “They are a little higher in calories than classic yogurts but also higher in protein.“, concludes Alexandra Murcier.