Healthy Eating Club Courses 
Know your yoghurts
Look for: low-fat, skim, reduced-fat, light/lite, 'diet'
usually implies that it contains artificial sweetener and it is usually low in fat
One would expect ALL low fat yogurts to have a low energy density but the flavoured low fat yoghurts can have a high energy density due to the large content of sugar added.
Natural yoghurt does not have added sugar but can still be high in fat e.g. Greek style 'Natural' has added cream and 10% fat!
e.g. Vaalia, Yoplus, LC1
Read an on-line HEC article on Probiotics
Audio Transcripts
The intestine contains millions of bacteria -- many of them friendly and essential for good health. They aid digestion, stimulate the immune system and inhibit the growth of food-poisoning and disease-causing bacteria. However, because some bacteria aren't good for us, keeping the different types in balance plays an important role in our general health and wellbeing. Healthy people have a good balance of intestinal bacteria. Several factors (such as poor diet, stress, antibiotics, aging) can tip the scales in the direction of the pathogenic (or disease causing) bacteria and perhaps good bacteria found in fermented foods/drinks can help in this situation.
Three types of lactic acid bacteria are used to ferment foods. Lactobacilli, Bifidobacteria and Streptoccocci. Their use is historically based - they have been used for centuries to preserve milk and other foods. These bacteria are not pathogenic i.e they do not cause disease.
It has been proposed that in the intestine these bacteria may:
1. bind, block or remove compounds that cause cancer (known as carcinogens)
2. inhibit bacteria which directly or indirectly convert compounds to carcinogens by enzyme activity
3. activate the host's immune system to prevent tumors being formed
4. reduce the intestinal pH, thereby altering the activity of bacteria which cause disease
5. they increase the motility of the large intestine helping to flush out carcinogens and prevent constipationMore studies are needed to confirm the potentially protective effects of fermented food products on carcinogenesis in animals and humans. Unfortunately most of the health claims have only a limited scientific foundation, except for several studies which have recently shown that fermented foods can be used to treat diarrhoea (especially in childre), and may help reduce the incidence and severity of respiratory infections in children attending day care centres (Hatakka et al. BMJ 2001; 322:1327). Most of the evidence to date is anecdotal, or comes from studies conducted with only a small number of people or with animals. In addition, you will not get all potential benefits from just one type or strain of organism. As an example of the wide range of strains that are available, the genus Lactobacillus contains up to 60 species (including L. acidophilus and L. casei -- the ones most commonly added to yoghurts and drinks). Within each of these species are separate strains, of which there can be hundreds. Although very closely related, each strain may have different effects on health. To have any effect in the colon, the bacteria need to survive food processing and storage in large numbers, then survive the passage through the acids and digestive enzymes in the stomach and small intestine, and still survive once they reach the colon. The evidence regarding the survival of bacteria through to the colon is limited.
To have the desired effect, scientists believe at least a million of each probiotic bacteria per gram of yoghurt or drink are needed e.g if a yoghurt contains three different types of bacteria, it should contain at least a million of each of them per gram such as Vaalia (3 species), Yoplus (2 species), LC1 & Yakult (1 species).
