The best yoghurts: What you should choose.

Humans have been eating yoghurt for centuries, but it’s never been as hard to choose as it is at the moment. With a million different options, which do you put in your trolley?

Like milk, yoghurt is a rich source of calcium and protein. It also contains other nutrients like iodine, vitamins D, B2 and B12, and zinc. But yoghurt is actually more nutritious than milk because the fermentation process makes it easier to digest and the nutrients more easily absorbed. For all of these reasons, yoghurt is a great addition to your diet after a sleeve.

For this one, I trawled through the supermarket and compared all the different yoghurts I could find. I’ve compared them like for like as best I could, so to do this I’ve looked at plain yoghurts as well as vanilla yoghurts.

To compare them I’ve looked for the most important things for a sleeve: the highest protein and calcium contents and the lowest sugar content. There are also some with some special features like lactose free if you can’t tolerate dairy or probiotics to help with gut health. I didn’t compare based on whether it was full fat or low fat as it’s not a deal breaker (here’s why if you’re interested).  I will put a caveat on that though… Often light yoghurts will have more protein (take out the fat and you have more room for the protein bit of the milk) so light yoghurts can still be the best choice.

After comparing them all, these are some of the best I could find.

 

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Plain Yoghurts

 

Vaalia Natural. This Vaalia yoghurt has one of the highest calcium contents (200mg per 100g) and a reasonably high protein content (6g per 100g). This one also has added probiotics for gut health too.

 

 

 

 

Tamar Valley Natural. With 199mg calcium per 100g, this is one of the highest out there. It’s also got 6.6g of protein so is very similar to the Vaalia above.

 

 

 

 

Danone YoPro Plain. This is the highest protein yoghurt I could find. The plain one has 10.6g protein per 100g but sadly it’s not as high in calcium as some of the    others with 130mg per 100g.

 

 

 

Chobani Plain Low Fat Greek Yoghurt. One of the highest protein plain yoghurts with 9.7g per 100g. It also has 120mg calcium and is low in saturated fat and kilojoules as it’s a low fat version. Very similar nutritionally to the YoPro above.

 

 

 

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Flavoured Yoghurts

To keep it apples with apples, I compared vanilla flavours. If you’re choosing another flavour, just check the sugar and try to find one with less than 10g per 100g.

 

Chobani FIT Vanilla. This one is new to the market and is really high in protein and low in sugar ( 9.1g protein and 2.9g sugar per 100g). However… it’s not quite as high in calcium (104mg per 100g) as some of the others and has artificial flavours which could upset some stomachs.

 

 

Danone YoPro Vanilla. This is the highest protein yoghurt of all the flavoured ones I could find. It has 11.3g protein per 100g, but as with the plain version, it’s a little lower in calcium than some of the others with 117mg calcium.

 

 

 

 

Chobani Vanilla Greek Yoghurt. This vanilla yoghurt is also really high in protein with 8.6g per 100g and it just sneaks under the 10g per 100g sugar rule with 9.8g. However, it’s lower in calcium than some of the others with 107mg per 100g.

 

 

 

 

Jalna Premium Vanilla. The opposite of the Chobani here. This yoghurt has a whopping 180mg calcium per 100g which is excellent. However, it’s a little lower in protein (5.3g per 100g). The Jalna has a very similar sugar content with 10g per 100g.

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Lactose Free Yoghurts

Lactose intolerance is really common after a sleeve gastrectomy, so many people will prefer to choose a yoghurt that it low in lactose or dairy free. If you think this might be you, you can read this post about lactose intolerance after a sleeve and what you can do. There are fewer options on the market for those who want a lactose free yoghurt option, but things are looking up. I compared both lactose free and dairy free and these were the best options out there.

 

 

Jalna Lactose Free. This is the highest in protein (5.6g per 100g) and calcium (187mg per 100g) out of the lactose free options. It’s a little higher in sugar than the 10g rule (11.4g per 100g) because it’s a vanilla flavour, but it’s still a great option if you need lactose free.

 

 

 

 

Liddells Lactose Free Plain. The Liddels yoghurt has been around for a long time. Whilst it’s a bit lower in protein and calcium than the Jalna, but it’s lower in sugar as it’s a plain flavour. They also have various flavours that are worth a try.

 

 

 

 

Soy Life Vanilla. This is the best dairy free option on the market in terms of nutrition. Although it’s only got 3.3g protein per 100g which is lower than the cows milk options, it still has a respectable 144mg calcium and isn’t too high in sugar (10.1g per 100g).

 

 

 

Please note! There are also a myriad of coconut and almond yoghurts popping up on the market. I haven’t ignored them… However, when I compared them, most of them are comparatively high in kilojoules and saturated fat, low in protein (all had less than 2g per 100g) and without calcium. In fact, there were none I could find with calcium on the label so if you need to go dairy free, I would recommend you choose the Soy Life yoghurt.

 

 

 

To make it easier for you to compare, I put the nutrition content of the yoghurts I’ve recommended above in the following table, but if you want to download a spread sheet with all the yoghurts I looked at, click here.

 

		per 100g
	Brand	Kilojoules	Protein	Fat	Saturated Fat	Carbohydrate	Sugar	Sodium	Calcium
Plain	Vaalia Natural	348	6	1.9	1.2	9.6	7.4	89	200
	Chobani Plain Greek 0.5% fat	240	9.7	0.2	0.1	4.2	3.3	32	120
	Tamar Valley Natural	231	6.6	0.15	0.15	6.7	6.7	71	199
	Danone YoPro Plain	266	10.6	0.3	0.2	4.4	4.4	40	130
Vanilla	Chobani FIT Vanilla	236	9.1	0.2	0.1	4.3	2.9	37	104
	Danone YoPro Vanilla	256	9.5	0.3	0.2	4.9	4	41	117
	Danone YoPro+	481	11.3	5.4	0.8	4.5	3.8	34	108
	Chobani  Greek Yoghurt	337	8.6	0.2	0.1	10.9	9.8	32	107
	Jalna Premium	470	5.3	4.7	3.5	11.9	10	65	180
Lactose Free	Liddells Lactose Free Plain	354	4.5	2.9	2	10	9	50	140
	Jalna Lactose Free Vanilla	479	5.6	4.3	2.8	13	11.4	58	187
	Soy Life Vanilla (Diary Free)	330	3.3	0.7	0.1	14.1	10.1	92	144