Question about yoghurt

mrsberries

I normally take a breakfast into work with me. THis consists of a bowl of Hi-8 museli, some fruit pieces and a yoghurt. Having been brainwashed by WW (I tend to put weight on very easy) I always opt for the lowest fat youghurt - maybe a ww one or vitalinea 0% fat.

As a sufferer of IBS ive become wary of what im putting into my body, as my stomach easily reacts badly to foods. My question is, are diet yoghurts actually good for you? Am I better off with a full fat one without all the nasties of the diet ones? Or am I better going natural with honey???

Any advice greatly recieved.

EileenG

In general, I'd say go natural. It's possible to get natural yogurts that are pretty low fat (made from semi-skimmed milk), but get the proper set yogurts with plenty of live bacteria. I'm always wary of anything with added sugar, even if it's in the form of honey.

Have you tried coconut oil? I've met a few people with IBS who found that adding coconut oil to their diet improved their symptoms.

mrsberries

Thanks Eileen, very helpful. Do you mean ones like the Glenisk range?

Ive never heard that about coconut oil? My symptoms are largely brought on by stress but I have let my diet slip lately. Think I need a completely diet and stress managment plan for the summer!

rubadub

Dessicated coconut is about 60% fat, (coconut oil).

You get it in the baking sections in supermarkets, along with cooking chocolate. Goes really well with muesli, many already have coconut in them.

Coconut will have massive WW points, due to them only being concerned with saturated fats, for UK points anyway. This is one problem of WW, some would go for junk foods over stuff like coconut, simply because they only worry about "points" and not the actually quality of food.

EileenG

Not dried coconut, actual coconut oil. You can get it in some health food shops, I think Nourish and some Holland & Barrets have it, as well as Asian shops. It's a white solid fat which has a faint smell of coocnut. You can actually eat it by the spoon, but it's easier to cook with it (very stable at high temperatures) or add a spoonful to coffee.

Just read the labels on the yogurts. You want one which is just milk and culture, no other additives.

g'em

mrsberries wrote: »

As a sufferer of IBS ive become wary of what im putting into my body, as my stomach easily reacts badly to foods.

I'm in the same boat as you mrsberries and when I started to really look at the labels of all those diet yogurts I got the shock of my life - a 0% fat yogurt may be packed with sugar and additives to increase flavour and virtually devoid of any real nutritional value.

Eileen is bang on the money with the live yoghurt recommendation. There's research now that shows that IBS sufferers may benefit from the addition of probiotic or live cultures in their diet as it helps to reduce gas and bloating. I'll either go with live natural yogurt and eat it with a little bit of honey or fruit in a smoothie (blending the fruit helps to reduce the insoluble fibre which can irritate my tummy) or eat the Glenisk yogurts.

How Strange

mrsberries wrote: »

Having been brainwashed by WW (I tend to put weight on very easy) I always opt for the lowest fat youghurt - maybe a ww one or vitalinea 0% fat.
As a sufferer of IBS ive become wary of what im putting into my body, as my stomach easily reacts badly to foods. My question is, are diet yoghurts actually good for you? Am I better off with a full fat one without all the nasties of the diet ones? Or am I better going natural with honey???
Any advice greatly recieved.

mrsberries, I've had stomach problems for years too. It may or may not be IBS as depending on what doctor you speak to IBS is just a figment of your imagination and you're just a fussy eater. :rolleyes: But that's a totally different post.

I am very sceptical about WW food and I generally regard it as processed rubbish. Harsh but true. I also feel that eating WW food for years because like you I thought it was the 'healthy option' contributed to my IBS and made me extremely wheat sensitive as WW foods are full of wheat or modified starch.

I'd say avoid all diet or low fat foods. Next time you're in the supermarket compare the ingredients of a 0% and a natural yoghurt and you'll see a big difference. The 0% is full of sugars and modified starch.

I like the glenisk yoghurts which are probiotic but not too high in fat. The blueberry ones and the rubharb ones are delicious.

cozmik

How Strange wrote: »

The blueberry ones and the rubharb ones are delicious.

But full of added sugar.

The typical composition per 100 for the low fat blueberry yogurt.

Carbs 19.8g of which sugars 18.8g

http://www.glenisk.com/products/bberry_underground/view


You can see the difference when compared with natural whole milk yogurt.

Carbs 6.1g of which sugars 6.1g

http://www.glenisk.com/products/wholemilk_natural/view

According to government guidelines any food product with a sugar content greater than 10g per 100 is high in sugar.

g'em

cozmik wrote: »

But full of added sugar.

The typical composition per 100 for the low fat blueberry yogurt.

Carbs 19.8g of which sugars 18.8g

http://www.glenisk.com/products/bberry_underground/view

True, but much of that will be fructose from the added fruit and dairy. If you look at the ingredients list there's only one added sugar:

Ingredients:
organic low fat milk, organic skimmed milk powder, organic cane sugar, water, organic blueberries (5.3%), organic blueberry juice from concentrate (1.5%), organic tapioca starch, organic lemon juice from concentrate, stabiliser (organic carob gum), natural vanilla flavouring and natural flavouring, organic vanilla pod extract, yogurt cultures, probiotic cultures

Granted it's the third biggest ingredient by volume, and this is by no means ideal and definitely isn't as good as pure live natural yoghurt, but neither is it something to twist any kickers over. 100g of banana has about 30g of sugars in it, making it too a high sugar food according to the government, but that doesn't make it a bad thing. A diet with dairy is great for weight loss.

Natural live yoghurt > Glenisk > Crappy diet yoghurts

How Strange

cozmik wrote: »

But full of added sugar.
The typical composition per 100 for the low fat blueberry yogurt.
Carbs 19.8g of which sugars 18.8g

:eek:

g'em Quote:
Natural live yoghurt > Glenisk > Crappy diet yoghurts

Thanks g'em. I just love those yoghurts and even though I don't eat them very often they are my favourite. Although some natural yoghurt and mixed berries is rather nice too.

Prefect_1998

what about the .1% fat natural yog from lidl.... does anyone have the info on this as i am convinced it is good for me... i use it with fruit..

Dixie Chick

i love the .1% yoghurt from lidl too, very watery for a yoghurt but i like the sharp taste of unswwetened natural yoghurt

cozmik

g'em wrote: »

A diet with dairy is great for weight loss.

I can't eat yogurt it gives me bad cravings. The only dairy I can eat is full fat cottage and cheddar cheeses.

mrsberries

Thanks guys for the recs. Bought the strawberry Glenisk but am going to buy the full fat natural one next. I tasted a full fat yoghurt last week for the first time in years, and oh my god it was fab. And im talking just a yoplait one, not those fab Tesco Finest/Marks whipped cream masquerading as yoghurt types mmmm.

EileenG

Buy natural yogurt and add your own fillings. If you have homemade jam, add a spoonful of that to your yogurt. Mash some raspberries and mix those in. Stewed rhubarb is lovely, especially with a sprinkle of cinnamon.

I would try to avoid anything that is already sweetened. Apart from anything else, commercially sweetened products are nearly always too sweet. It's a good idea to try to wean yourself off very sweet stuff.

mrsberries

yeah you are right Eileen. Im a real sugar fiend. While on WW I weaned my self of 3 sugars in my coffee but now take 3 sweetners:eek: proba doing more damage to my stomach. Need to seriously wean myself off the siucra!

EileenG

There is stuff you can get called gymnema sylvestre which kills your ability to taste sugar for a couple of hours. I bought some little sucky tablets of it last time I was in Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, but I've seen it as a tinture in Dublin, and it really works. You stop eating sweet stuff because it just doesn't taste of anything. Very handy for weaning off the sweets.

Or you could just go cold turkey.