Dietitian Ellen Roche: Opt for Greek rather than Greek-style options.<\/figcaption><\/picture>\nRoche, who often works with people who have digestive issues, points out that Greek yogurt is also slightly lower in sugar and natural lactose. \u201cYou\u2019re talking one or two grams [of lactose] in the difference per 100 grams of Greek yogurt. It\u2019s not a huge amount, but if someone has lactose intolerance, it can make quite a big difference to whether they can tolerate it. It\u2019s a fine line but it can be the difference between someone being nauseous\u2026and someone having a great day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Twenty years ago, when Roche was studying dietetics, she had a summer job in her home county of Wexford in the Yoplait yogurt factory, working on research and development in the lab there.<\/p>\n
She points out that the difference between Greek yogurt and other plain yogurts is in the way that it is made. Milk is combined with yogurt cultures, and allowed to ferment so that the naturally occurring sugar \u2014 the lactose \u2014 gets converted to lactic acid, thickening the mixture and giving it a distinctive tart flavour. Greek yogurt undergoes another step. It is strained to remove the whey, making it more concentrated \u2014 hence the higher protein levels \u2014 and the end result is very thick and creamy.<\/p>\n
Roche recommends watching out for Greek rather than Greek-style yogurt when shopping. \u201cWith Greek style, they\u2019re mimicking the thicker texture of the Greek yogurt, but they\u2019ve bypassed the straining process. So that\u2019s why it\u2019s not as concentrated in terms of protein content.\u201d<\/p>\n
When it comes to reading the labels in that yogurt aisle, \u201cI\u2019d just be looking for milk and the cultures,\u201d says Roche, adding that some people find the tartness of plain natural Greek yogurt challenging initially.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t want yogurts with added sugar or artificial sweeteners,\u201d Roche adds. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to go natural where possible, so you can add your own fruit, something like vanilla extract or cinnamon, or you can use something like a low-sugar jam for the flavour as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
If you avoid flavoured varieties of Greek yogurt, you also avoid extra added sugar, although this might not be altogether clear from the numbers on the side of the pot.<\/p>\n
Roche says that labels can be a little confusing.<\/p>\n
\u201cNatural Greek yogurt doesn\u2019t have any added sugar but there can still be sugar on the label. It says there will be 3-5g of sugar in there for every 100g [of yogurt], but that is just lactose, naturally occurring milk sugar, and lactose doesn\u2019t damage teeth. It reacts differently in the body than, say, your table sugar.\u201d<\/p>\n
In terms of plain or natural Greek yogurt, Roche recommends Tesco\u2019s own-brand, Milbona from Lidl, the Brooklea from Aldi, Libert\u00e9, and Fage.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe big question I get asked is, \u2018which is healthier? Is it full fat, is it low fat, is it 5% fat?\u2019 That is really head-wrecking for a lot of people because they don\u2019t know what to go for. And there is a big difference in the nutrition content. I would say a lot depends on the goals.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo when people are choosing a Greek yogurt, [watch the] fat content, because it\u2019s going to influence the protein content a bit. Also, for all those watching their cholesterol, a lot of the research in the last number of years has shown that the fat content of milk, cheese and yogurt, whether it\u2019s full fat, low fat, or 0%, doesn\u2019t really influence our cholesterol.\u201d<\/p>\n
When it comes back to those viral recipes, does using Greek yogurt ensure that it counts as a healthy choice, or does the overall recipe matter more? \u201cIf you\u2019re using base ingredients that aren\u2019t healthy, you can\u2019t make a dish that is super-healthy,\u201d says Roche.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut if you\u2019re using Greek yogurt instead of cream or cr\u00e8me fra\u00eeche, it\u2019s a lot lower in calories…saturated fat and it is higher in protein.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Recipes Two-ingredient cheesecake. Turkish-style pasta. Baked yogurt toast. Bagels. These dishes have two things in common: They\u2019ve trended on social media \u2014 and they\u2019re all made using Greek yogurt. So far, so simple. We know that yogurt is a fermented dairy product and we\u2019re all trying to include more fermented food in our diets, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":912850,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1272,25125],"tags":[131512],"class_list":["post-912849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-everything","category-greek","tag-popular-recipes"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=912849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/912850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=912849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=912849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=912849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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