Yogurt

i know it has some sugar... but i really like.....

FROZEN YOGURT

better than ice cream for my j-pouch.

Plus it still has beneficial bacteria that becomes 'activated' when the yogurt melts in your mouth!

yummmm!

if you don't like it... have you tried:

KEFIR drink? or Yakult? it is like a probiotic yogurt drink. Yoplait makes YOP and I think Dannon has some yogurt type drink too.

You can also add yogurt to smoothies for a different taste.

Yogurt has been a staple in my diet long before I was even diagnosed with UC. I always have a minimum of 4qts of plain yogurt in my refrigerator. I don't like the sweetened yogurts, I prefer the natural taste.

Sue

Wallaby's Lemon yogurt is amazing.

Ray

Ray, I have not tried Wallaby's lemon flavored but I have tried a bunch of others and they are all very very good. Like I said Wallaby's has a different consistency than American yogurts, but I find they also taste a bit better.

DJB,

The best yogurt I've ever had is the Liberté brand. It is Canadian. They have it in Whole Foods and in many of the regular grocery stores now. It's terrible for you (at least 12g fat, 270 Cal) but it tastes delicious. You should put it on your list; you won't be disappointed.

Jon,

I bought the Liberte Mediterranee style strawberry yogurt at Whole Foods Market yesterday, but I have not tried it yet. I will have it for lunch today. I bought about 10 different yogurts there, including the goat milk yogurt previously mentioned.

We make yogurt at home. It's incredibly easy. We usually do goat or coconut, sometimes almond. We used to do it the Indian way, leaving it out for about 12 hours but when we use goat's milk we do the scd 24 hour yogurt. It's delicious and we make a ton at a time, do it about twice a week.

kc,

I would like to hear your home made yogurt recipe.

Jon,

I just had the Liberte strawberry yogurt for lunch. Rich, creamy and delicious. Almost like a dessert yogurt. I try not to have too many high calorie yogurts unless it is the centerpiece to a meal, which was the case with the Liberte yogurt I had.

Glad you enjoyed it. With that much fat, how can it not be good? My favorite one is the plum and fig flavor, although they are all good. I didn't think that plum and fig sounded that appealing at first, but I was pleasantly surprised.

The only problem of making yogurt at home is you won't get the friendly bacteria in it. I've used Dannan light & fit since my surgery almost 13 yr's ago and since it contains the live cultures as I'm sure all store yogurt does, I think that's the reason I've never had pouchitis.

Gloria,
You can use a probiotic starter. SCD diet recommends yogurmet but we have also used VSL. The basis of the SCD diet is starving out bad bugs in the gut with the restricted foods (don't feed them) and then repopulate it with the bacteria from the yogurt.

DJP
Here are some instructions. It's very easy to make (and economical too, these things can get expensive and we are on a pretty tight budget).
http://www.scdiet.org/2recipes/scdyogurt.html

You can buy the yogurt maker (about $65 if I remember - well worth it IMHO) or you can make it in a bowl. My mother does this but to be honest, it's a little to hit or miss for me but others swear it's very easy.

About 15 yr's ago I bought a yogurt maker tried it once not sure now why that I didn't like it so I gave it away. I'm sure thv'e come along way since then, I'll check it out.Thanks for the info.

I did try the healthy choice frozen one, very good. Choboni is my favorite greek.

Fago 0%greek yogurt. Various fruit flavors. Great for protein. Got into this about 1.5 years ago when i was dramatically underweight and malnourished with the jpouch. My doc told me i must haveprotein anytime i ate anything.

Stoneyfield farm 0% plain use in my daily fresh fruit smoothie.

Noosa yogurt, made in colorado. Phenemonal taste. A bit pricey but so smooth and delicious. Good enough to be a dessert after dinner. Lucky for me it was just on BOGO at my grocery store last friday. My fridge lookS like a Noosa store right now.

I don't think I have seen the Noosa. I will have to look for it at Whole Foods Market. If they don't have it, I probably cannot get it here.

I bought another one at WFM called "Brown Cow" which is from Brown Cow Farms in Antioch, CA. This one is going to be tomorrow's lunch.

I'm a yogurt freak as well. I have a Danactive every morning, a probiotic yogurt (usually Yoptimal or Activia) with lunch, and then often a 0% fat Greek yogurt as dessert. Chobani is my favourite Greek, though in Canada you can get the PC Greek and all of those are very good (peach passion-fruit is my favourite). Alternatively, if I can't get the above two, then Oikos mango is another one I enjoy.

I should mention that since I don't eat a lot of meat, yogurt is a great alternative for protein.

I also use yogurt often as solid food is an issue for me mostly activia I stir in an envelope of VLS#3 about an hour befor I want to eat it and by then it has melted into the yogurt. I try to keep the fat content low. I don't like to eat the yogurt that uses fake sugar I still don't trust those products.

I have noticed that some of the yogurt manufacturers now sell yogurt with fruit or preserves stored in a separate compartment, so that when you open the lid you can then "dump" the fruit into the yogurt. Does anyone know why there seems to be a modern movement towards the separate compartment approach and away from the old "stir the fruit up from the bottom" of one compartment?

By the ways I tried the Brown Cow maple flavored yogurt last night. It was very good. Today for lunch I am having the Wallaby's organic Greek yogurt (cherry flavor) which has fruit in the separate, smaller compartment. Wallaby's Greek has a much thicker consistency than does the regular Wallaby's yogurt.

I think it is just a gimmick to make it seem "special."

Jan

I am also interested in homemade yogurt using alternatives to cows' milk. Will check out the link and see if I have enough interest and energy to try it. We are increasingly concerned about hormones and antibiotics in American dairy products--husband with prostate abnormalities is off them completely. If getting probiotics is the goal, the supplements have many times the quatity contained in any yogurt. I am no longer sure the benefits of yogurt made from cows' milk outweigh the concerns.

Connie,
I don't know but the scd people swear that the yogurt has more good bugs than the supplements. We use it in addition to vsl etc as I believe it's a healthy food, as are other fermented foods. We don't really use cow's milk at all though. My husband and I realized how sensitive we were when we stopped buying it and had it when we weren't home.
As for the ease of making it, trust me, if I can do it, you can. The coconut milk yogurt is especially good. You can also try sheep's or goats if you think that's a good option for your family. We sometimes do almond as well.

I am seeing an increasing number of yogurts made from sources other than cow's milk. As I noted previously, the goat's milk yogurt I had over the weekend was the first time I had tried it. Whole Foods Market has a terrific selection of soy and coconut milk yogurts as well as goat's milk yogurts. They also have a lot of organic yogurts and all natural yogurts. If the concern is hormones and antibiotics, then Whole Foods Market is the place to shop. I personally like WFM for a number of things other than yogurt, including organic eggs (which are cheaper at WFM than Trader Joe's, Big Y or Stop & Shop, believe it or not) and organic peanut butter.

My problem is that when I go to stores like WFM I tend to get a little crazy with my shopping and I run up a $150 bill very quickly. I try to limit my time in the store otherwise I get carried away with shopping addiction and compulsion disorder. I like to try new things and I am always seeing interesting new products at WFM. In fact they have a few ladies set up at stations througout the store giving away samples of new products, and I eat their samples and then buy the product. It's a good thing I am only shopping for me otherwise I would go broke at that place.

DJB,
We do have a whole foods here but considering we eat a very "clean" non processed diet for my daughters' sake (grass fed horomone free beef, free range chicken, organic fruit and veg etc) I find Whole Foods to be a stretch financially. It's good to know they offer alternatives for those who don't or can not have cow's milk products. The reason we make it at home is because it's cheaper and because by fermenting for 24 hours (commercial yogurts are not fermented for this long) you increase the number of good bacteria and also minimize lactose (if you're using cow's or goat's milk).
It would be interesting to know how many jpouchers had a cow's milk intolerance before and after surgery.

KC,

It's true that Whole Foods Market is very expensive, but since you mentioned grass fed beef, a few weeks ago I bought some Verde Farms organic grass fed "Canadian Rub" Ribeye Steak at Whole Foods Market. It was $21.99/pound, but very delicious. No hormones or antibiotics.

With regard to yogurts, like other markets, they do have sales and buy 5 for $5 type deals.
You just have to look a little harder and longer to find "deals" at Whole Foods Market.

I should also mention that I bought a baby artichoke heart salad with capers and garlic that was very delicious, $9.99 per pound at WFM.

Like I said, I can get a little crazy when I go there, so I have to be careful and sort of limit my time in the store so that I don't start looking for things to buy just to sate my always rampant curiosity.

Chobani Greek is my new favorite, at the moment It has different probiotics than in my VSL#3 plus 25% of daily required protein. The one I was eating had 5% of the protein. We are supposed to be getting a Whole Foods here. The health food store is too expensive, I just get a few things there.

I've been focusing on my protein fruit smoothies and throwing in a few yogurts a week.

I really enjoyed reading everyone's suggestion and DBJHusky you appear to be the yogurt expert. Are you that way with wine too?

When I go shopping by myself I read every label and spend too much money too - but nothing goes to waste. My husband does most of the grocery shopping and doesn't like to take me because I'm so slow. I am a bit OCD too, but just normal for an accountant, lol.

quote:

Are you that way with wine too?

Actually my sister is the wine expert in the family. She lives in the California wine country and writes for a wine magazine. She is a classic wine snob. I only drink white wine and my preference is a sweeter Riesling, and I am not close to being a wine expert.

As far as yogurt, I just basically like to try different yogurts. I pretty much like them all, some more than others. The only yogurt I have found I really did not like is Siggis, which is made in Iceland and has a very sour taste. Siggis is also sold at the Whole Foods Market.

If you need to purchase a special bottle you can just call your sister

I use to like white wine and vodka drinks but don't care for anything since the surgeries. My taste buds really changed. Before I loved spicy foods now everything is too spicy. I loved eggs and they don't sound good, for a few examples.

quote:

I think it is just a gimmick to make it seem "special."

I brought in to my office my Wallaby's organic blueberry Greek yogurt which has the yogurt in one compartment and the blueberry fruit preserves in a separate compartment which can be turned over and "dumped" into the yogurt compartment. I surveyed the 4 women in my office (the other men I work with are not yogurt eaters) on why they thought the yogurt was arranged in this way. The 3 paralegals all agreed with Jan, that there is no functional purpose, and it is merely designed to make the yogurt seem "special."

However my junior associate opined that there was a functional purpose: to enable the person eating the yogurt to "control" the amount of fruit preserves mixed with the yogurt. In other words, you can dump in 25% of the fruit, 50%, 75%, or 100%, as you wish. With fruit on the bottom it is not so easy to separate the fruit from the yogurt.

I think my junior associate's theory has me sold.

I'm so glad this topic was started because I've been curious about it for years, especially after re-reading my copy of the SCD book and contemplating jumping into SCD with both feet.

Kill Colitis, what kind of yogurt maker do you have? I've been doing some research but haven't found a reasonably priced one that maintains the proper temperature needed to foster growth of good bacteria.

Thank you for the SCD recipe. Even though I enjoy cooking, I admit that I find the idea of needing to get milk to a specific, accurate, pivotal temperature a bit daunting. . .

I completely agree with Connie about cow's milk. I enjoy the taste of coconut milk and almond milk, but the problem I run into is that they all add carrageenan and I don't eat/drink that. Do you have any recipes for coconut yogurt that can be started from canned coconut milk? And does yogurt made from almond or coconut milk contain the same type and amount of beneficial bacteria as cow's milk?

Thanks!

LMac
We have the yogurmet electric one. I bought it a few years ago it was about 60 dollars. I think you can get it on Amazon in the US? It came with plastic jars for the yogurt and I just switched those out with some regular glass mason jars from the cornershop as I didn't want to make it in heated plastic. It does not matter if you use almond or coconut milk for the yogurt. It's the starter you use which will produce the bacteria you want. We have used VSL for this as well as the scd yogurmet starters (but these do not have any strains of bifidus since they are scd legal). As for recipes, I just follow the standard recipe but switch out the type of milk I want. It turns out fine and actually tastes very good.

Also, Silk brand almond milk is great. No carageenan or crap. Almond breeze etc are full of junk.

Silk supports the use of GMOS, if that concerns you.

Sue

Sue, Silk is non GMO and it's certified as such:

http://www.silkpurealmond.com/faqs.html

Is that incorrect?

There's always something to worry about.

Killcolitis,

The parent company of Silk has given big money to fight against Proposition 37 in California, which is supporting GMO labeling.

Sue

Sue,
That sucks. Under normal circumstances I would look for alternatives maybe but since we don't do animal milks usually and the other brands are full of junk and Silk it self is certified non GMO (odd that they would advertise this when they are pro GMO as a company but?) and it's ingredients are decent we will stick with it. Thanks for the info though.

Anything with probiotics messes me up. The cultures in any yogurt usually makes me suffer like I have pouchitis. I wish I could eat the stuff. I have a yogurt maker (3 bucks with glass jars off amazon) and planned on trying to make raw vegan yogurts out of soaked nuts or coconut milk with different starters. I am the opposite. I miss yogurt but need it toned down.

Vanessa,
We had that issue to. I started with a half teaspoon in diluted in water and built up very slowly for my daughter. She can drink a little cup of yogurt now (I make lassis with it - an Indian yogurt drink). Might be worth a try?
Start with tiny amounts and go very slowly.

Silk is just another example of large corporations "greenwashing." While the product itself is certified non GMO, it is owned and produced by a company which supports continued use of GMOs. These are things consumers need to be aware of when trying to make informed choices. When you do a little research, you'd really be amazed how few companies there actually are and how few choices you really have (it can be pretty much boiled down to Proctor and Gamble, Unilever, Kellogs, Pepsi, etc, etc). Other brands like Kashi are guilty of the same thing. The truth is, most of the regular grocery store brands people regularly buy, even organic label brands, are owned by these larger corporations while are really pro GMO and even anti organic. So while the product itself may be organic and contain no GMOs, it's like pulling the wool over our eyes. Even if you think you are making a good choice, you have to be aware of where your money is really going. These corporations often buy or produce "natural" and "organic" label brands to deflect from their larger motives.

It's funny how many people don't tolerate yogurt. It's always been one of the go to foods for me, and an important source of protein since I don't eat very much meat, but that is yet another example of why there really can be no universal diet for the pouch.