Confused with yogurts

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Louise Black

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Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Hi. I'm newly diagnosed. Cried at first as I'd previously had a negative result in july 2015 but now type 2. Been following a healthy eating plan and lost 9lbs since diagnosis 2.5 weeks ago. What I'm finding very confusing are yoghurts. Ive noticed that a lot of low fat ones claim 0.0 or 0.1% fat but when you look at the sugar content it's scary. I've been eating weight watchers yoghurts as they're the lowest yet even they have 7.1g of sugar??? I was told by diabetes nurse to have things less that 10g sugar (as a treat!!) But I'm having one every day after my salady lunch. Is this bad? Help???
Lou
 
Hi Lou, welcome to the group, congratulations on the weight loss so far.

Ah, the "healthy eating" paradox.... Unfortunately the low fat foods tend to have added carbs to make them palatable and therefore not suitable for us!!! The good news is that full fat products are not the daemon they were supposed to be and therefore a better choice, particularly "natural" flavors (the flavoring will also add carbs). Don't fear the fat, it's the carbs that are the daemons, causing weight & cholesterol issues as well as contributing to development of T2.
I have Organic Greek Yoghurt in my refrigerator, I did read this morning that some people like the Turkish Yoghurt.
 
Martin Canty said:
Organic Greek Yoghurt
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I quickly looked it up, for a 225g serving 10g of carbs...... Weight watchers googled to 170g serving with 17g carbs (don't have any of this in the house)
 
Unfortunately this is where you need to know a bit about the composition of food, and biochemistry.

All yogurts will contain some sugar in the form of lactose, which is the sugar that occurs naturally in milk.
If the yogurt has fruit in it, it will also contain some sugar as fructose, which is the sugar that occurs naturally in fruit

Read the label carefully, both the composition and the ingredients list. If there is sugar listed in the composition only then this is naturally occurring sugar and you can't escape it
If it is listed in the ingredients list as well, some of it will be added sugar, usually as sucrose. This sucrose is the sugar that occurs naturally in sugar cane or sugar beet, and it is extracted to produce the table sugar or 'sugar' that we all know. It is added to the yogurt to make it taste nicer, ie sweeter, and as a filler

You should try to avoid yogurts with added sugar,but remember that you don't have to live off the stuff entirely, so perhaps an occasional amount is OK as long as you are aware of it and allow for it

The latest thinking seems to be that naturally occurring sugars and fats aren't too bad, again as long as you are aware of them
According to 'Reverse Your Diabetes' Greek yogurt is probably the best choice, even if it is full fat, as long as it doesn't contain added sugar

Something you could do is to make your own yogurts by getting natural yogurt, either full fat or from skimmed milk, and add your own sliced/chopped fruit. It won't be as sweet, but just as you get used to tea & coffee without sugar when you develop diabetes, so you get used to that kind of yogurt
You can also make savoury yogurts by adding chopped veg; raw or cooked

I see you have a 'salady lunch' Sometimes I just pour natural yogurt over my salad and stir it all up, as a dressing; a bit like cottage cheese, but runnier. then I eat the fruit on its own
 
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zuludog said:
naturally occurring sugars and fats aren't too bad
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I take this to heart, almost all our food is made from scratch using ingredients in their most natural form we can get. Organic wherever possible & grass fed meat wherever possible.... Helps that I enjoy cooking!!!
 
With all foods you need to understand the difference between the proportion or percentage of sugar, fat, etc in the food, and the amount that is actually present. This is usually expressed as grams per 100 grams of product
I've just run out of yogurt but I have in front of me a 380g can of lentil & bacon soup. The fat content is 0.7%, so in the whole can there is 0.7/100 x 380 = 2.66g fat
Carbohydrate content is 7.3%, so total carbohydrate present is 7.3/100 x 380 = 27.74g. And so on
 
Oh poo. I've just bought a load on special offer! What about those ones with the fruit at the bottom. Liberte I think? Bought loads of them too! Think my husband will be eating lots of yoghurt lmao!
 
I've just looked up Liberte yogurts. The maths is made easier as they come in 100g packs, so grams present is the same as %
There are several flavours, but typically they seem to contain about 7 to 8g fruit and 8g added sugar. The total sugar content is about 11 to 14%, which means that the fruit contributes say 3 to 6g sugar and the rest is added
That is fairly high, but keep it in proportion and don't, as the saying goes, beat yourself up about it. Once you know it's there you can allow for it and perhaps have one every other day. Look at the actual weight of sugar you would consume; the level is high for a yogurt, but it's not like you're pigging yourself on eighteen chocolate bars a day!
In future you could look at the labels more carefully and with a bit more understanding, and consider those with artificial sweeteners. Now you realise that natural fat levels are not so bad you could get those made from whole milk so that they have no added sugar, and avoid low fat ones altogether

I notice that these yogurts contain added corn starch, which is a carbohydrate, almost certainly to improve the texture as there is hardly any fat

You can freeze yogurts, and spread their consumption out for almost as long as you wish, if they start to get near the end of their best by date

If your wondering, for many years I was a technician and project leader in the food industry; although I have made yogurt my field was mostly dried milk. Part of my job was to calculate and write the nutritional content, ingredients list, and write the pack copy. If you have any more questions on dairy or any other food, ask away
 
Well anything with milk will have lactose in it - milk sugar!

Any type of sugar is 'just' a carbohydrate - so go by the total carb value of whatever size portion you actually eat of it - not percentages or amounts of 'added this that or the other'.
 
All very confusing. I have cataracts atm so can't see the tiny print on packages but I'm due for my surgery 12 th july just want it over with. I have a tracker on my phone called s.health which is useful but I notice the recommended carbs for a female is 40 to 60 g a day I am 2 meals into my day and have already had 105 grams of carbs. Grrrr!!!
 
I make my own start off with an ordinary one and use lone life milk. Bought my make at Lakeland about £10 I think
 
The other thing to consider is that carbs and sugar are not a problem provided your body processes them safely.

Based on what you've written, I'm guessing that you don't have access to a blood glucose meter at the moment - but this is the very tool that will tell you whether a food is safe for you to eat or not. The way you would do this is to test your blood sugar just before eating the yogurt, eat the yogurt, and test again two hours later. If both readings are similar (or the second one is lower), there isn't a problem and you can continue to eat what you do.
 
Hi Louise,

As DeusXM mentioned, some yogurts may work for others, but spike your blood glucose levels, and vice versa. Personally, I haven't found the weight watchers ones to do anything to my BG levels, so I usually stick with what I know, and probably have one pot a day.
 
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