Healthy Bytes

Product Spot Light on Yogurt

There are so many yogurts out there to choose from – ‘light’, ‘Activa’, ‘creamy’, ‘custard’, ‘carb control’, ‘light ‘n fit’… and what is ‘whips’? You will find all of these in a dizzying array of flavors in tubs and jugs and tubes – some decorated with cartoon characters and wild colors to appeal to kids.

While yogurt is a healthy food, the best choice is usually not in one of these slick packages with fancy names and descriptions. Check the label – 10, 12, 14 grams or more of sugar? artificial sweeteners? artificial colors? or gasp…bovine growth hormone?

What should one look for in a truly healthy yogurt?

Ideally – the plain Jane - from pasture raised whole milk with no growth hormone, unsweetened, with live cultures – no added non-fat dry milk and from a local company.

That’s the ideal. The main criteria is – plain, no growth hormone and live cultures.

To flavor the yogurt add:

fresh in-season fruit or,
frozen fruit or,
dried fruit or,
apple sauce or,
a dash of vanilla

Still need a bit more sweetness, add:

a small amount of maple syrup or,
honey or,
a small pinch of stevia or,
even cinnamon.

Want some crunchies – how about some:

nuts or,
seeds or,
granola?

Go ahead – try out a few different brands of plain yogurts – they all have different flavor profiles. Here in the Bay Area in order of least tart - I enjoy Strauss, Brown Cow and Pavel’s Russian Style.

Miss the convenience of those little individual servings? Try this - Get a quart of your favorite plain yogurt and divide into smaller (reusable) serving size containers, add the ‘extras’ that you like, cover and store in the frig for the quick grab and go.

Now we’re talking – yogurt as a truly healthy part of a meal or snack!

This entry was posted on Mon, 13.Nov.2006 at 11:02 am and is filed under Nutrition, Lifestyle. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.