Yogurt is milk that has been fermented with probiotics – good bacteria.

s it good for you? Maybe.

It has long been thought of as a healthy product. In fact, health workers have routinely recommended yogurt to people who are taking antibiotics. Those drugs are good at killing bacteria, but they’re not smart enough to only kill the bad guys. Good bacteria in the gut are often depleted. Yogurt is inexpensive and contains good bacteria.
Yogurt has a drawback.

Taste. It’s somewhat sour and many people – especially youngsters – won’t eat it unless it’s sweetened. Yogurt manufacturers have been adding fruits and sugars to their products to make them more appealing. That adds sugar so that a standard 6-ounce cup of Yoplait delivers up to 27 grams of sugar (about TWO TABLESPOONFULS). Breyers Yo Crunch Strawberry provides 31 grams of sugar in a single serving. Big deal? Consider that a standard Snickers bar has 30 grams of sugar. Sugar is often added to products advertised as “low fat”. Fat adds flavor. Remove the fat and you need something else. Sugar’s the choice. There’s a chance there’s even more sugar in products advertised as low fat. It is important to note here that some recent advertising is correct – sugar is sugar – regardless of its source. Regular table sugar can be just as harmful to your health as high fructose corn syrup (HFC).So, my question isn’t all that unusual. Both the Snickers bar and the cup of yogurt deliver a lot of sugar. Sure, the yogurt also provides a small amount of living culture. Jennifer Phillips, a naturopathic physician based in Merchantville, NJ says, “Plain white sugar isn’t bad, but it is a dessert. It is not meant to be something you eat for breakfast,” … “If you want a sugary snack, have a sugary snack, just do it in moderation.”

Well, then, you might think you’d be best served by using one of the “lite” or “sugar-free” yogurts. Dr. Phillips has something to say about this alternative. “I think these types of artificial sweeteners are incredibly toxic,” said Phillips. “It is worse to eat the light yogurt with the artificial sweeteners than to eat regular flavored yogurt.”I agree.

There’s more on this topic in an article at APP.com, an e-newsletter from the Jersey shore.

Eat a sugary snack when appropriate – a Snickers bar or a cup of flavored yogurt, your choice. Don’t believe that you are also ingesting enough good bacteria. Take a good quality probiotic every day as well. We recommend Florajen 3.