How to make sure the yogurt you’re buying is actually good for you

Do you take yours Greek, flavoured, fermented, or packed with probiotics? Sucked from a pouch, spooned over compote, frozen into a pot or free from “bits”?

There is a yogurt for every food foible, nutrition trend and health concern. According to market researchers Mintel, it may even be the answer if you’re feeling blue since 25 per cent of Gen Z yogurt consumers in Britain eat it with a view to cheering themselves up. 

Whether it is working for them remains unclear, but yogurt’s other health benefits are evident. “Yogurt generally retains high levels of calcium and is a good source of iodine, vitamins D, B2 (riboflavin) and B12, and zinc,” says the leading nutritional therapist Lucy Miller. It has been linked to lower risk of osteoporosis and higher bone mineral density and to improved immunity, due to its selenium, magnesium and more. Its fermentation leaves it easier to digest than milk, so its nutrients are more easily absorbed. It is cheap, easy (you do not even have to chew), and the world loves it. 

Here’s our complete guide to knowing which pot to pluck from the supermarket shelf and why. 

The best for gut health

You’ve seen the claims plastered over tubs – yogurt is good for your gut, which is turn is the key to almost every minute facet of your health. Is it true? Well, to an extent… “Anything that supports gut health will support immunity as approximately 70 per cent of our immune system is within the gut,” says Dr Emily Leeming, a microbiome scientist and author of forthcoming book Genius Gut. “In my own research, we found yogurt of any kind to be related to a more diverse microbiome and in another study, we found that those who ate lots of yogurt tended to have high amounts of the ‘good’ gut bacteria called Bifidobacterium animalis,” she says. That said, there are differences between brands. 

Why? “Yogurts are made by fermentation of milk, so in principle they should contain a lot of lactic acid bacteria (probiotics),” says Simon Gaisford, a professor of pharmaceutics and probiotics expert at University College London. In practice, however: “One of the main problems with industrial-scale fermentation is the risk of contamination by a species you don’t want in the product. So a lot of times a yogurt will be pasteurised after fermentation – this sterilises the yogurt, so removes any probiotic effect.” If you are after a probiotic punch, you need to seek out naturally fermented, non-pasteurised versions, he says, such as kefir: “A fermented milk, produced using grains containing a mix of micro-organisms (usually bacteria and yeast), [which] should not be pasteurised. I think a kefir is the best for gut health other than a probiotic supplement.”

If you are sold on pasteurised yogurt, you could hunt for one that has had freeze-dried probiotics added to it afterwards. How can you tell? “If you are shopping for a yogurt, make sure that it still contains live bacteria,” advises Dr Leeming. “You can see this by looking at the label on the back of the yogurt pot, it should say ‘live cultures’ or similar.”

The probiotic strains should be listed, agrees Prof Gaisford, but the numbers are usually missing, making it hard to assess the potency of your pot. It may be a mistake to pin your hopes on your breakfast: “In my testing of yogurts, they don’t contain anywhere near the numbers of bacteria as an actual probiotic supplement,” he says. 

But if you’re eating for your gut, be extra wary of artificially flavoured yogurts, says Prof Gaisford: “There’s evidence that artificial colourants are not good for us, and artificial sweeteners are not absorbed, so often cause bloating.” Added sugar can also counter some of the gut-friendly effects of your yogurt. In 2022, a study conducted on mice, and published in the journal Cell, found that high doses of sugar cause damage to the gut lining, triggering inflammation.

So when it comes to your gut, Gaisford recommends the unflavoured ones made by Tims Dairy, Yeo Valley and The Collective. He also rates Marks & Spencer’s new kefir “gut shot” developed with the nutrition company Zoe. 

What to buy: