Yogurt has a good reputation — and for a lot of good reasons. It is full of healthy calcium, stomach-friendly probiotics, and can taste as good as a sinful snack!
Here are some tips to help you pick the healthiest yogurt:
- Choose yogurt that has 200 calories or less per serving. Yogurt is mostly milk, and one cup of fat-free milk has less than 90 calories. Don’t let the other ingredients overload you on calories!
- Choose yogurt that has four grams of fat or less. The total fat contact can often indicate what kind of milk was used in making the yogurt — more than four grams means whole milk or cream was involved (and they can be high in saturated fat).
- Choose yogurt that has six grams of protein or more. If your favorite yogurt has less than that, the milk may have been watered down in production.
- Choose yogurt that has 200 milligrams of calcium or more. That’s about a fifth of your daily calcium — a good start for the day!
- Choose yogurt that has thirty grams of sugar or less. Milk naturally provides around twelve grams of sugar per cup (in the form of lactose). The rest of the sugar content in your yogurt comes from fruit and other sweeteners.
What about those “stomach friendly” yogurts out there with “live active cultures”? Live active cultures is another name for probiotics — the “good” bacteria that can help balance your digestive system. Probiotics can help manage constipation, diarrhea, bloating, and gas! You’ll see plenty of yogurts on the shelf proclaiming that they have these happy belly probiotics. Just be sure to check that label. Look for lactobacillus (L. Acidophilus) or bifidobacteria (B. Bifidum) in the ingredients list.
Don’t do well with regular yogurt? You’re not alone. Soy yogurt can usually be found in the dairy case with the regular yogurt and is often dairy-free.