Gracia PablosEditorial team and infographics Madrid

Writing and infographics Madrid

Updated Tuesday,16January2024 - 13:46

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Nutrition is no stranger to fashions and the yogurt market is a good example of this. Among so many options, it is no longer just a matter of choosing the healthiest, but also of differentiating what is yogurt and what is not. The National Institute of Statistics (INE) confirms that in Spain about 17 kg of yogurt are consumed per person per year. If we transfer that to the typical container of about 125 grams, it means that each Spaniard consumes, on average, just under half a yogurt a day. And it is a figure that has remained fairly stable for years, although what these statistics do not reflect is whether that half-yogurt is still the same as usual or if we have switched to an alternative formula (vegetables aside, where a distinction is made between what is dairy and what is not).

Actually, the yogurt itself is not so mysterious. In fact, his most basic recipe only consists of two ingredients: milk and ferments. It's another thing to go into the detail of what that milk should be like and, especially, to know what specific ferments we are talking about. There is a whole Royal Decree that carefully explains what the official recipe is and from what moment what we consume ceases to be called yogurt to acquire the somewhat more technical (and less evocative) name of "fermented milk".

The simplest recipe is also the healthiest, but if we get into the realm of taste, we are likely to find sweetened and/or creamier alternatives more tempting. These additions impoverish the recipe from a nutritional point of view, but do not alter the basic formula (they are still yogurts). The problem comes when, more than taste, we focus on wanting to look for an even healthier version. And the market has not been able to resist that trend.

This is what healthy yogurts look like

What makes a yogurt 'healthy'? On the one hand, yogurt is a dairy product, and dairy products continue to be a food recommended by nutritional societies for regular consumption, due to its contribution of high-quality proteins and calcium. The recommended amount is 2 to 3 servings a day - one glass of milk is equivalent to two yoghurts - depending on age and physiological situation. If we want to replace them, we can look for foods that provide these same benefits, but it will not be easy to find such a convenient and economical alternative.

"For some years now," says Ana Belén Ropero Lara, professor of Nutrition and Food Science at the Miguel Hernández University, "there has been a very intense campaign against dairy, suggesting or saying directly that adults should not drink dairy products." Milk consumption has decreased in the last 20 years (especially whole milk) and it seems that this gap in the market is claimed by plant-based drinks, which in no case represent an equivalent alternative for the nutrition expert. And it's not necessary, either: "There are no proven negative effects of milk," he says.

Another issue is that milk is not an easily digestible food even if we are not lactose intolerant. But in that sense, also for those who are intolerant, yogurt is a more recommended option due to the presence of the bacteria that ferment it. They use lactose for their own fermentation and also have lactase activity, which aids in the digestion of lactose. And in any case, there is a whole range of productsthat those with this problem can opt for. Be careful, we are not talking about milk allergy, in that case they should eliminate the consumption of dairy products.

This last benefit of yogurt compared to other dairy products is precisely due to its probiotic nature, another word that is very fashionable. "According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO), probiotics are live microorganisms that, when administered in sufficient quantities, have a beneficial effect on health," explains Beatriz Robles, a food technologist and professor at the Isabel I University.

The 'official' ferments of yoghurts (according to Royal Decree 271/2014 of 11 April) are two: Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. Bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus. And, to comply with the standard, they must be present in the dairy part of the finished product in a ratio of 108 colony-forming units per gram or milliliter. By complying with these minimum requirements, we can affirm, with the permission of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), that "they improve the digestion of lactose in the product in people with problems digesting lactose". Without changing a single comma.

So what happens to those other ferments (bifidus, L Casei) that are usually accompanied by similar messages? According to European Commission Regulation 1924/2006, any health claim must be authorised by EFSA, and EFSA considers that this alleged beneficial effect is not proven. So they are not yoghurts and the healthy properties of yoghurt cannot be attributed, much less other extraordinary properties.

A Trick Claim

And here comes another trompe l'oeil, and that is that these products (which we all have in mind) do not want to give up so easily a reputation already consolidated in the collective imagination. "In order to continue using similar claims," explains Ana Belén Ropero Lara, "what they do is add vitamins, minerals... or give a twist to that claim so that it still looks like it's due to that strain itself when in fact it's due to those other components, although even this way it's not always well done."

Something similar happens with kefir, the possible benefits of which are still being studied. "The thing about kefir, as with any other new food," adds Ropero Lara, "is that to enter the market it always has an almost miraculous aura, it seems that we are not able to accept a new food unless we are convinced or told that it is wonderful." The only thing that is certain is that we cannot say that any of these products are probiotics even if they contain live microorganisms, unless they have a proven beneficial effect on health.

However, dairy products in general have a but beyond the digestion of lactose (which will be worse if we stop consuming them for a long time, we have to resume their consumption little by little). We are talking about its fat content, especially saturated fats, the intake of which is negatively linked to health.

The question remains as to whether the fat naturally present in milk is as harmful as saturated fats from other foods, but that is something on which the WHO, at the moment, does not make a difference. When the WHO released a draft of the current regulations in 2018, there was a certain movement in the scientific community, "they asked the Organization that instead of taking into account the nutrient in isolation," explains the professor of Nutrition, "it should take into account where the nutrient is and specifically they were talking about dairy."

In 2022, the WHO finally published the consensus document without taking this distinction into account, and therefore the recommendation remains to reduce the consumption of saturated fats. However, skim options are a good way to avoid those fats without ditching dairy.

If we look at the table of nutritional values of any yogurt we will always see an amount of sugars that is normally around 4-5 grams per 100 grams of yogurt. "This does not mean that sugar has been added," explains Beatriz Robles, "but that it is the lactose of milk, legally sugars are all the monosaccharides and disaccharides present in food, and that of milk is a disaccharide." The variations within this range depend on the calculation of the nutritional values themselves or on additives such as powdered milk which, in addition to contributing to a different texture, increases the proportion of lactose.

"Lactose is a non-free sugar according to the WHO," adds Robles, "which is different from free sugars, such as sugars added by the manufacturer, table sugar that we add ourselves or sugars that are in fruit juices or honey or syrups." For the non-free there are no limits on consumption, as it is not related to negative effects on our health, but free consumption is another matter.

What About Fruit

Here comes another trompe l'oeil, that of sugar that seems less bad. "Fruit yogurts started as an alternative to flavorings, and they were sugary," explains Ropero Lara, "now we are evolving to find yogurts that use fruit to sweeten the product, so that they no longer have added sugars (no syrup, no glucose, not even sweeteners), and here there is a common mistake becausethe problem is not the added sugars but the free sugars." These are the ones that are related to poor health.

Cutting fruit and mixing it with yogurt is not the same as buying a commercial formula that has used fruit purees to sweeten the final result. "Sugars are technically the same, but their relationship with health is not," says Ropero Lara.

As for sweeteners, they obviously do not add sugars to the list of nutritional values, but in reality they do not make any other significant contribution, and the WHO does not recommend their consumption for weight control or to reduce the risk of diseases either.

The Protein Craze

Beyond taste, the latest food craze is protein. Many products are advertised as high protein and those that already contain protein are highlighted in their nutrition claims as a positive differentiating factor. And it is a fad that does not have much justification for the expert, since she considers thatour diet already has an excess of protein and we do not need any supplement. Neither do the children. "In principle, for the healthy general population," he says, "they (these supplements) are not necessary and can actually contribute to extra protein that could have negative effects."

They can make sense in certain circumstances, as is the case with lactose-free products or those aimed at controlling cholesterol, all of which are generally more expensive and are (or should be targeted) at a specific consumer profile.

The case of plant-based versions is different, as they are suitable for everyone. The misunderstanding comes from believing that we can substitute a dairy product for this other product, it is not clear that it is possible to recreate and equate a natural food with another no matter how many similar nutrients are added, if they are added. They provide little fat, but beware of added sugars!

Homemade or store-bought, it's not difficult to figure out which is the best option in general terms: just choose yogurt with fewer ingredients (milk and ferments). But it is also easy to fall into the many 'traps' that we can find on the labels of the shelf neighbors. Because no, in the case of yogurts, not everything is what it seems.