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0% or Full Fat Yoghurt?

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M

Moortt

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Type 2
I'm sure this has been asked / answered before but some of the posts I've been reading on a couple of diabetes forums have blown my mind a little bit over the past few days. I've grown up on the education that fat is bad; I've changed some of that understanding recently and now get that the fats in avacados, fish, nuts can actually be positive but the comments I've read regarding full fat yoghurt and cheeses have shattered my 40 odd years of beliefs.

Plain fat free greek yoghurt, flax seed, almonds and berries is a staple breakfast of mine! I've been trying to lose weight and also control my triglyderide levels so the thought of anything other than fat free yoghurt has never crossed my mind. However, I'm now wondering if I should actually be moving up to full fat yoghurt (a portion for me would be around 150g). Have I got the wrong end of the stick or does full fat dairy give similar benefits to the fats in fish, nuts etc.?

Thanks
 
Hi again, yes we are encouraged to have full fat. When first diagnosed I went straight to low fat and then realised it was wrong. I still have semi-skimmed milk as that's been part of my life for over 30 years, but I choose full fat greek style yoghurt, cream and cheese etc. Nuts are good for protein but should be limited in amount. Fish is a different type of fat (oil) and is good for us. We can have the fat on meat too, if so desired. Full fat yoghurt needs to be plain, with added fruit will be a no-no - add our own berries to it, gives us more control.
I don't know about triglyderide levels, I guess that is something you need to look into - if full fat will be a problem, then stick with low fat, the option for full fat is there for those who can tolerate/enjoy it. Full fat cheese - the amount, I believe, should be no larger than a matchbox if using as a snack, but larger amounts are often used in low carb and keto recipes for meals.
Low fat products often have added sugar in them, which defeats the purpose, they become more fattening. We have been blinded over the years by "wrongful suggestions" of what is meant to be good for us - maybe it takes diabetes for us to see things clearly!
 
Thanks for responding to all posts @janw 🙂.
My triglycerides are down to normal ranges but I need to make sure it wasn't the statin's which I've now stopped taking significantly helping that. The online advice around managing those is eating low sugar, low fat, high fibre foods.
 
I just happen to be around right now - tv turned off lol. I don't know much about statins other than that I am not allowed to take them anymore, only had them a week or so and got the dreaded deep cramp, so that was the end of those! It is a tricky situation as you don't want to undo all the good work in getting the levels back to normal, just to risk raising them again. I hope you can find the answer.
 
@Moortt You don't have to eat full fat if you don't want to. However certainly for HDL and triglycerides it is helpful (increasing HDL and reducing Triglycerides) in almost all who try it.
Personally I can't understand why anybody would prefer low fat or zero fat products, since the only thing that tends to make those tasty are the carbs that we T2 Diabetics need to avoid as much as we can. Full fat with protein tends to keep me fuller for longer, so it even works for weight loss.
 
Part of the reasoning for full fat is that they help to fill you up so you feel less hungry and therefore less likely to snack of high carb things as well as the fact that low fat yoghurts tend to be higher carb.
There are also quark based deserts in different flavours which are high protein, low carb and low fat, Kvarg are ones I have. I would find 150g is quite a large portion of a full fat yoghurt.
 
Fats are what isolate our nervous system so that the signals do not get lost, that is the myelin sheath, cholesterol and other lipids make up the majority of our brains. There are important vitamins which are fat, not water soluble, and a lot of our body chemistry is fat dependant.
When I was taking Atorvastatin my memory stopped working - I could not find anything - the car in the supermarket car park, anything I put down at home - I forgot over 300 songs I had carefully collected and sung for my lifetime.
I still can't remember how to play my guitar, which I started to learn in my teens and then played for decades - but at least I can now learn new things, and I never forgot how to keep time on drums.
Fats and proteins are essential.
 
Thanks for the education all; I'm having to think about nutrient very differently and although my tri's and chol were in normal ranges my HDL is a little under 0.9. so I could do with boosting it a little.

@Drummer - I'm a bass player, I certainly don't want to be forgetting any songs, my repertoire isn't that big to start with 😉. I'm glad I'm off the statin's for now.
 
@Moortt I got quite a jolt when I did the Christmas shopping twice - opened the back of the car and there was all the food I'd bought two days before and completely forgotten about - we were eating sprouts till the new year. That was 2016 - and it took some time for things to get better. I was over the diabetes long before I got over the medication.
 
Drummer said:
@Moortt I got quite a jolt when I did the Christmas shopping twice - opened the back of the car and there was all the food I'd bought two days before and completely forgotten about - we were eating sprouts till the new year. That was 2016 - and it took some time for things to get better. I was over the diabetes long before I got over the medication.
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Hopefully you didn't have any pigs in blankets or turkey's in the shop that got left in the car!! It's really great to hear things have improved, that must have been a really worrying time for you and from the your posts and the comments in your signature it seems you're doing very well now! Feel free to rain tips and management strategies down on me!!
 
janw said:
Nuts are good for protein but should be limited in amount.
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Thank you for this, can I ask why they should be limited in amount. Having been on low carb for 3+ months nuts have become my main method of satiating my hunger. Notwithstanding eating quite a lot of wall nuts and almonds my weight continues to drop - was 86kg (am 178cm tall) and is now 75, and still dropping.
 
Choice is yours, prefer full fat yogurt myself wife has 0 fat to maintain weight loss, 0 fat one has roughly same amount of carbs as full fat.
 
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