They make such a great snack or dessert, are perfect in smoothies and you can guarantee kids will devour them. The good thing is that they’re healthy with all that lovely calcium for strong bones and teeth, zinc for brain development and immune function, protein for growth and development and those healthy bacteria for good digestion. Are yoghurts too good to be true?

Essentially there are three types of products in this category:
• Live yoghurts are made by fermenting milk or milk products with yoghurt cultures, or friendly probiotic bacteria. Probiotics are ‘good’ bacteria that have a positive effect on bacteria found in your intestine and digestive system.  Probiotics work by creating a balance with ‘bad’ bacteria in the digestive system.  Examples include bifidobacteria and lactobacilli.  It’s believed the consumption of probiotics can improve digestion and immune function and may increase the absorption of nutrients, including vitamins and minerals.  The cultures are still active when you eat them. These products tend to have the words ‘cultured’ or ‘fermented’ on the labels.
• Other yoghurts have friendly bacteria added in the production process, but are not fermented and don’t necessarily contain live probiotic bacteria when consumed.
• Dairy food is usually made from cow’s milk, is thickened and has sugars, fruit and other ingredients added. Thiey aren't fermented and don’t have probiotics added. Vitamins A and D are often added as vitamin A promotes cell renewal (growth) and plays a significant role in vision and development of the immune system. Vitamin D assists in the absorption of calcium so is required for strong healthy bones and teeth.

It’s misleading to promote yoghurt as having the healthy properties of live yoghurts (as in those having live bacteria) unless it contains a minimum amount of 1,000,000 viable probiotic bacteria cells per gram or ml still active at the expiry date. This will be declared on the packaging.

It pays to read the ingredients and nutrition information panels if you’re interested in what’s in the pot.
• The ingredients are listed from the greatest to the smallest by weight. It’s interesting to see whether cultures are towards the start or end of the ingredients list.
• Labels must also declare the percentage of the key or characterising ingredient of a food – this ingredient is often used in the name. As an example, you can compare the percentage of strawberries in different brands of strawberry yoghurt, or honey in honey flavoured yoghurt. 
• To get an idea of how much sugar is in the product look at the quantity per 100g in the nutrition information panel, as high levels of sugar may contribute to dental caries and unnecessary calorie intake. Keep an eye open for 'hidden sugars' like sucrose, glucose, lactose, fructose, sorbitol, corn syrup, invert sugar etc.
• Stabilisers and emulsifiers may be added to yoghurts and dairy foods to ensure mixtures of oil and water-based ingredients stay combined together and don’t become separated.

Children under two years of age should eat full fat dairy products so avoid low fat, diet or 'lite' options at this stage. You may find some of the live yoghurts have quite an adult flavour and children aren’t so keen on them. If this is the case try adding some fresh or stewed fruit or berries, or even a sprinkling of toasted muesli….yummy!

Endorsed by our New World Nutritionist  ||   Proudly Partnering with Parents Centre

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