Yoplait to Launch Lactose-Free Yogurt in Late January

Hey, everybody. We've been noticed!

Kendall J. Powell - isn't that the perfect corporate executive name? - is the CEO of food product behemoth General Mills, the $15 billion giant that owns practically every other brand you see in a supermarket. One of their more than 100 brands is Yoplait, which General Mills bought out last May. And Ken - yes, he's called Ken, just like a normal person - has big plans for the yogurt. Plans that include us.

CEOs have to prime investors of their plans and expected earnings on a regular basis because this affects the predictions of their stock prices. So they do quarterly conferences in which they lure in the suckers with glittery promises of good times ahead. The investment site SeekingAlpha.com put up a transcript of their General Mills Second Quarter F '12 Earnings Results Conference Call.

And here's the part that concerns us:

We've got some good innovation coming on Yoplait in the second half. We'll introduce Greek yogurt and granola parfaits and new flavors of our Greek yogurt in multipack formats. We're also launching a new line of lactose-free Yoplait yogurt. Studies show that around 15% of U.S. consumers are lactose intolerant, and the percentage is higher among the growing multicultural populations. Dairy products that provide a lactose-free benefit are growing at a double-digit rate, so our retail customers recognize the increasing importance of this trend. We think this is a good innovation for the Yoplait brand, and we'll support this new line with couponing, digital advertising and in-store sampling.

More digging found out that the lactose-free yogurt will be in stores at the end of January. You should see four flavors. Cherry is obviously one of them, since that's the picture they sent out, but I haven't found the other three. This is so new that nothing about it is available at the Yoplait website yet. Keep checking there, though. You'll sure to find coupons for these new products as they get rolled out.

Other lactose-free real milk yogurts exist now, of course. Lactaid has a line of them in four flavors, strawberry, vanilla, peach, and blueberry. Green Valley Organics has even more flavors: peach, plain, honey, blueberry, vanilla, and strawberry.

Brands go out of the lactose-free business quickly, though. The Continental lactose-free yogurt I wrote about in 2007 is no longer available. Neither is the company. If you really want lactose-free yogurt, be sure to buy it and keep it in business.

Lactaid Reintroduces Lactose-Free Yogurt

Why aren't there more lactose-free dairy products available in stores? Because you don't buy them.

You can't imagine how much I hate having to write that. But I've been watching store shelves for over 30 years. I've seen dozens of products come into the market - some with huge marketing campaigns - and then quietly disappear. They go away because they don't live up to sales expectations.

Will that ever change? I'm doubtful. For most people taking lactase pills or eating small amounts of dairy is completely sufficient. Those people with real need are the ones with allergies who have to avoid all dairy. Lactose-free won't work for them. Same for vegans. And lactose-free products have another strike against them. Low-selling products are always going to be more expensive than their equivalents. Lactose-free milks are finally available pretty much everywhere but they are always much more expensive than regular milks.

Yet companies keep trying. Why? I honestly don't know. No matter. It's a great thing for those of us who are always looking for more variations.

The biggest name in lactose-free products is Lactaid. Lactaid makes a more complete line of lactose-free true dairy products than anyone else. There's the milk in whole, 2%, 1%, and fat-free varieties, calcium-enriched in all four varieties, Fit & Creamy in low fat and nonfat, and chocolate, not to mention Egg Nog and Half and Half. They also make cottage cheese and five flavors of ice cream.

And now yogurt. They've made it in the past and it went away. But here it is again. Four flavors: vanilla, blueberry, peach, and strawberry. They're marketed in the standard 6 fl. oz. cup and a multipack of four 4 fl. oz. minicups.

Lactaid has a Product Locator so you can search by your zip code to see if it's sold close to you.

Will it survive? That's up to you.

Lactose in Goat Cheese and Yogurt

I received an email from Jo-Ann asking me about the percentage of lactose in goat cheese and yogurt.

That's a question that looks very straightforward, but it contains traps and pitfalls.

Goat cheese is a fad food today. A few years ago you might never have seen goat cheese outside of a few specialized cheese shops or fancy restaurants. Today I went to a chain restaurant that served salads and sandwiches and paninis featuring goat cheese. They might have had goat cheese is their oatmeal, too. They called it Swiss oatmeal but it came with banana slices and goats are far more Swiss than bananas are. The irony is that practically every farm across the world makes its own specialty cheese and thousands of those cheeses with thousands of tiny distinct variations can be purchased even in ordinary supermarkets, but somehow "goat cheese" has entered the vocabulary of fast food as a single thing.

So what is goat cheese? There are two main varieties, the Mediterranean style of brined curd known as feta and the French style known as chevre. Feta is crumblier and chevre is creamier. As Wikipedia handily points out, though, goat cheeses come in many varieties from many nations under many forms. The cheese used in salads is probably feta, because the crumbles are visually attractive and give good mouthfeel.

Cheese is the slipperiest dairy product. Pinning an exact number on a product you can't even identify by name is an exercise in futility. Those thousands of variations mean thousands of variations in the percentage of lactose they contain. I doubt if anybody's ever bothered to do a lactose comparison between Mató and Pantysgawn and Kunik and Rubing, just to pull a few fun-sounding names out of that Wikipedia article. It gets worse when big corporations buy from many sources that produce an individualistic product that varies season to season and probably cow to cow.

Don't give up just yet, because it turns out there are a few things that I can say. Your intestines aren't research scientists and they aren't grading you to three significant figures. Approximations and generalities will do.

We know one big fact about cheese. The more aging that goes into cheese, the lower the lactose percentage. The aging process literally squeezes the liquid out of the cheese and the liquid takes the lactose with it. Broadly speaking, therefore, the harder a cheese is, the lower the lactose percentage. And that also implies that the softer a cheese, the higher the lactose percentage. And feta and chevre both are soft cheeses.

I put together collections of lactose percentages from several sources into a table on my website called The Really BIG List of Lactose Percentages. Yep, feta is there. At 4.1% lactose it's definitely at the high end of lactose in cheese.

Still, it's part of a continuum of percentages, not an outlier. And that brings up an important point that I try to hammer home whenever I can because so many other people avoid saying it. Goat cheese, like goat milk, like every other goat dairy product, has essentially the identical lactose content to the similar product made from cow's milk. I've ranted about this before so I won't go down that road today. When it comes to lactose all the milks that people use to make dairy products from are essentially interchangeable.

Which takes care of the answer to the question about goat yogurt. If it is made in traditional tart style, it's probably low in lactose, just as cow's milk yogurt is. But manufacturers often make yogurt sweeter for the North American market, and that usually means adding in no merely sugar and fruit but also additional dairy products than can drive up the lactose percentage. All I can tell you, as good consumers, is to check the ingredients lists and see if they contain milk products other than the milk at the top of the list. If you see them, assume that lactose will follow.

Yogurt Good for Lactose Intolerance

I know that headline has a bit of "sun rises in the east" obviousness. I've been telling you for 20 years that yogurt is the best tolerated dairy product even for people with lactose intolerance.

The news is who is saying it. The European Food Safety Authority. And they're backing it up with science. Science!

Scientific Opinion on the substantiation of health claims related to live yoghurt cultures and improved lactose digestion (ID 1143, 2976) pursuant to Article 13(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006

Summary
Following a request from the European Commission, the Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies was asked to provide a scientific opinion on a list of health claims pursuant to Article 13 of Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006. This opinion addresses the scientific substantiation of health claims in relation to live yoghurt cultures and improved lactose digestion. The scientific substantiation is based on the information provided by the Member States in the consolidated list of Article 13 health claims and references that EFSA has received from Member States or directly from stakeholders.

The food constituent that is the subject of the health claim is “yoghurt cultures (live)”, which contain the starter micro-organisms “Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus” as specified by Codex Alimentarius Standard No. 243/2003. The Panel considers that live yoghurt cultures which are the subject of the health claim are sufficiently characterised in relation to the claimed effect.

The claimed effect is “lactose digestion”. The target population is individuals with lactose maldigestion. The Panel considers that improved lactose digestion is a beneficial physiological effect for individuals with lactose maldigestion.

In weighing the evidence, the Panel took into consideration that thirteen of fourteen human studies showed enhanced lactose digestion in lactose maldigesters, when live yoghurt starter cultures were ingested in yoghurt, that the one study which did not show such effect reported reduced symptoms and that there was strong evidence for the biological plausibility of the effect.

The Panel concludes that a cause and effect relationship has been established between the consumption of live yoghurt cultures in yoghurt and improved lactose digestion in individuals with lactose maldigestion.

In order to bear the claim, the yoghurt should contain at least 108 CFU per serving live starter microorganisms (i.e. Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus). The target population is individuals with lactose maldigestion.

Before you lift that spoon to your mouth, remember one small caveat. Many American yogurts aren't really yogurt, but sweet candy concoctions that have lots of extra milk powder added. They're about as healthy as french fries. Real yogurt is slightly sour, and doesn't have much added to it. A bit of flavoring or fruit, maybe. Food companies love to take healthy products and "adapt" them to American tastes by bypassing or even wiping out all the stuff that makes them healthy. A bit of candy is okay, but don't think that candied yogurt is a health food. It's just candy.

Report From the LI Conference, part 22

First prebiotics and then, logically, probiotics. It's like scientists were methodical or something.

Strategies for Managing Individuals With Diagnosed Lactose Intolerance: Probiotics
Mary Ellen Sanders, Ph.D.
Consultant
Dairy and Food Culture Technologies
Executive Director
International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics
Centennial, Colorado

As I also reported yesterday, probiotics are bacteria or other organisms that produce beneficial effects. More specifically, getting bacteria that can digest lactose (by making their own lactase) into the large intestine means that they can reduced or eliminate symptoms by digesting the lactose that reaches them before it can ferment and give off gas.

The evidence, as usual, is small and mixed. You need to read the presentation summary carefully to realize that what it means to you isn't the same as what it means to scientists. Researchers may get excited by knowing that certain bacteria give better results in breath hydrogen tests, because that may point the way to better delivery mechanisms or knowledge of when and how to take them.

What's of far more importance to you here and now is that any of the probiotics will give symptom relief. Streptococcus thermophilus (ST) and Lactobacillus bulgaricus (LB) are the types found in yogurt, but you have to ensure that you get yogurt with the National Yogurt Association LAC seal that indicates that "live and active" cultures will be in the finished product. Other types are used in probiotic capsules, including Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus acidophilus. Those should work, but the evidence is sketchier.

Yogurt Named Food of Decade

Good old Harry Balzer. He's certainly consistent. How many people can you say that about in a positive sense in this day and age.

Balzer was the subject of one of the first posts I ever did on this blog, Yogurt Changed the Way We Eat. I wrote:

Harry Balzer knows more about the way you eat than anyone in America. His title is nothing special, vice president at the NPD Group. His job is. He studies Americans and food. Every day. ...

Every day, someone from the NPD Group is calling 3500 Americans, asking them whether they're gone to a restaurant, and if so, what they ate. The number one food ordered by women? French fries. Burgers are number two, pizza, number three. Salad comes in seventh. Men eat burgers, French fries, pizza in that order.

And NPD hands out notebooks to 3000 families at a time so that the can record everything they eat and drink for 14 days.

Then NPD combines the info and sells it for big bucks in their unique study, Eating Patterns in America, now in its 20th year. ...

And yogurt? Well, in Balzer's 28 years in the business, he's only named a "food of the day" that's changed America's eating patterns twice. The first was pizza, and now the second is yogurt.

Almost four years later, Balzer is still on the food patrol. And he's still touting yogurt. In an interview with NPR, Balzer named yogurt the food of the decade.

MICHELLE NORRIS: So was there one specific thing that defined the American diet over the last decade?

Dr. BALZER: Well, if there is one that defines this decade it would have to be yogurt.

NORRIS: Yogurt?

Dr. BALZER: Yogurt would be the category or the food that has increased in our dietary habits more than any other food during the past 10 years.

NORRIS: Color me surprised.

Dr. BALZER: And it probably, if you think about your own behavior, I'll bet you start your day off a lot with yogurt or have it during lunchtime, or maybe have it as a dessert or a side dish or as a snack, more than you did probably 10 years ago.

NORRIS: That's true.

Dr. BALZER: It's one of those things that kind of sneaks up on you, but yet I think defines what Americans are really looking for from its food supply.

NORRIS: Well, now, is it because yogurt is something that's healthy or because it's convenient or because it now comes in all kinds of forms?

Dr. BALZER: Yes.

NORRIS: It's not just in tubs. It's in tubes.

(Soundbite of laughter)

NORRIS: It's frozen. It's...

Dr. BALZER: Say yes to all of those. It's very convenient. It's very individualized. You don't get a bunch of yogurt like you get a pizza pie and celebrate with everybody else. This is just for you. It's your own flavor. It has a health halo certainly surrounding it. It really does define what I think America wants from its food supply.

And if you really want to know what the top food will be in 2020, Balzer can tell you. And you'll be more surprised than by the yogurt.

DR. BALZER: I will tell you the number one food that we will eat in the year 2020 will be a ham sandwich. And I know that because I've been doing this for 30 years and I was hard pressed in 1980 to be asked what we'll be eating in 1990. When I discovered that the ham sandwich was the number one thing we ate in 1980, and I made a prediction that we'd be eating it in 1990. And guess what we ate in 1990 - a ham sandwich. What do you think it was in 2000 - a ham sandwich. 2010? A ham sandwich.

So do I have to go out on a limb to tell you that the number one food we'll be eating in this country in the year 2020 will be a ham sandwich? What I don't know is what will be the bread. There will be something new about the ingredients or the condiments that go on this. But when I ask you, what did you have? You'll say, oh, I had a ham sandwich.

Let's hope it's on dairy-free bread.

Yogurt and Probiotics - Part 2

Yesterday I told you that Dannon settled a class action suit over health and medical claims it made about its yogurts.

We've all seen the ads in which a glowing Jamie Leigh Curtis, the picture of 50-year-old health, smilingly spoons Activia while an off-screen announcer states that Activia is "clinically proven to regulate your digestive system in two weeks." Regulate is a code word here that means promotes a bowel movement in those with constipation. The collective twelve-year-old mentality of our humor community being what it is, more of the younger generation have probably seen the parodies of the ads on programs like Saturday Night Live than the original ads aimed at their parents and run during the national news programs along with ten thousand commercials for bladder fitness and erectile dysfunction.

Adweek reported that the ad campaign wrought the kind of health benefits on Dannon's bottom line that they could wish for in their yogurt:

In its first year, Activia sales soared to over $130 million, more than three times Dannon's original forecasts. The launch not only created a new powerhouse franchise for the world's largest yogurt company in the U.S., it helped drive one of the hottest new functional food categories: those containing probiotic ingredients.

Once we're past the cheap laughs, we get to the very adult issues of false and deceptive advertising. The lawsuit filed against Dannon claimed that:

Dannon’s own studies disproved the company’s boasts and that a study conducted by leading microbiologist and funded by Dannon determined in 2006 that there was "no conclusive evidence" of probiotics providing health benefits. The report, entitled "Probiotic Microbes: The Scientific Basis," was prepared by the American Academy of Microbiology, a leadership group of the American Society of Microbiology, the suit claims.

As another SNL bit asks, Really?

Really.

Under the settlement terms, Dannon will also change some language on Activia products, stating that the yogurt will help regulate the digestive system, IF eaten for two weeks and as part of a healthy lifestyle. The DanActive products will be changed from stating they have a positive effect on the immune system to "interact" with the digestive system's immune system.

DanActive had the word IMMUNITY in big capital letters on its bottles and was making health claims right and left. You can see it still on the DanActive site, although I don't know how long that will last.

If you were a DanActive or Activia user, you can sign up to get a cash refund at this settlement web page.

And maybe you should start saving those receipts if you eat Yo-Plus. The same Adweek article cited above also reported that on March 17, 2009, the same law firm

CSGR&R filed a class action suit in a Southern Florida District Court citing Yo-Plus' claims that its trademarked "exclusive" Optibalance bacteria cultures regulate digestive health in a way other yogurts do not.

Similar to language in the suit against Dannon, the complaint against Yo-Plus alleges, "General Mills has no support for these claims, even though it states that it does, going so far as to claim it has clinical proof. General Mills' representations are false, misleading and reasonably likely to deceive the public."

The suit further asserts, "General Mills' own studies fail to support this advertising message, and a number of them flatly contradict General Mills' claims. In fact, General Mills has never tested Yo-Plus for its ability to deliver the unique health benefits claimed in its advertising campaign."

Functional foods, foods with special nutrients or cultures added to promote health, are probably good for you in some ways, if you take care to watch that you're not just having a sugary treat disguised as medicine. The kicker is in the line that must be added. "IF eaten for two weeks and as part of a healthy lifestyle." The healthy lifestyle must come first. Functional foods aren't magic potions that substitute for doing right, exercising right, and eating right in the first place.

Do you really even need functional foods if you do all that? That's the $64 million question.

Yogurt and Probiotics - Part 1

Probiotics are the name under which companies try to sell bacteria to you. I've deliberately put that in the worst sounding way, of course. Bacteria are not simply germs that make you ill. Hundreds of varieties of bacteria naturally live in our bodies, especially in our colons. They tackle the job of digesting some of the foods that don't get digested by the rest of the intestines. Whether this is a good thing or not depends both on the type of bacteria and the food they eat. If the food is undigested lactose, then some bacteria may cause the fermentation that leads to the gas of lactose intolerance. Others digest the lactose and free us of this problem. Adding these "good" bacteria to our systems suddenly sounds a whole lot better. And people pay big money for products like Lactagen, DairyEase, and Digestive Advantage, which claim to do exactly that.

The food industry has known for many years that it doesn't work well to make offering you bacteria a selling point. When dressed up as "live and active cultures," bacteria suddenly sound much better. Cultures are merely bacteria, usually Lactobacillus bacteria. They naturally make yogurt and other fermented and cultured dairy products.

Selling just plain yogurt is no longer enough in the ultra-competitive world of supermarket sales. Even touting the general health benefits of yogurt isn't enough. Remember one marketing campaign of years past in which a group of yogurt eaters often lived to be over 100 years old? We're way past that. Yogurt now has to be an actual cure for actual diseases.

As I warned you many times in the past, though, yogurt isn't necessary yogurt. At least, the sugared, sweetened, fortified, fruit-laden, whipped, frothed, chocolately, milk solids-added concoction that is found in American supermarket dairy cases bears little resemblance to the thin, sour product that yogurt originally was. That product was good for lactose intolerants because it was auto-digesting. In other words, the cultures were sufficient to digest all or most of the lactose in the milk, making it a suitable product for anyway with mild LI. Today's products, with all those extra milk solids to make them creamier or smoother or milder or better-tasting are a crap shoot for the LI consumer.

And it's the same thing for consumer who want the health benefits of Lactobacillus bacteria. As Tara Parker Pope reported in her New York Times column:

But while there are thousands of different probiotics, only a handful have been proved effective in clinical trials. Which strain of bacteria a given product includes is often difficult to figure out.

There is no standard labeling requirement to help buyers make sense of probiotic products. The word “probiotic” on the label is not enough information to tell whether a given product will be effective for a particular health concern. Just as a doctor would prescribe different antibiotics for strep throat or tuberculosis, different probiotic species and strains confer different health benefits. ...

"Lactobacillus is just the bacterium," said Gregor Reid, director of the Canadian Research and Development Center for Probiotics. "To say a product contains Lactobacillus is like saying you’re bringing George Clooney to a party. It may be the actor, or it may be an 85-year-old guy from Atlanta who just happens to be named George Clooney. With probiotics, there are strain-to-strain differences."

Pope mentions a panel that looked at the medical literature and listed those problems for which clinical studies showed that probiotics could be helpful. That seems to be Recommendations for Probiotic Use-2008, by Martin H. Floch et al., Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology: July 2008 - Volume 42 - Issue - pp S104-S108 doi: 10.1097/MCG.0b013e31816b903f. (The full article is not available online.)

Their highest recommendations went to four uses:
• acute childhood diarrhea
• prevention of antibiotic-associated diarrhea
• preventing and maintaining remission in pouchitis
• immune response for the treatment and prevention of atopic eczema associated with cow's milk allergy

Those are rather specialized, although the last is good news for some people with milk allergies.

So what about all those ubiquitous yogurt commercials that make so many more claims? Oops.

Dannon, one of the biggest sellers of probiotic yogurts, settled a class-action lawsuit this month over its Activia yogurts and DanActive yogurt drinks, which claimed to help regulate digestion and stimulate the immune system. As part of the $35 million settlement, Dannon agreed to reimburse dissatisfied consumers and make labeling changes, among them adding the scientific names of probiotic strains it uses.

I'll talk about that case and the others that are pending, tomorrow.

Yogurt and Soy Milk in Cuba

Yogurt wouldn't seem to be part of the Cuban culinary tradition. Historically, it wasn't. That began to change after the revolution, when the island cut ties with the U.S. and Soviets and Eastern Europeans became the source of influences. The unusual story is told in the Havana Times.

With the Cuban Revolution in 1959, yogurt began to be widely distributed and went from being a barely consumed product to an indispensable supplement in university cafeterias and boarding school dorms that started to spread across the island in the 1970s.

Eventually, production was carried out throughout the nation and yogurt became a regular Cuban food item offered in a wide range off flavors of domestically grown fruits such as orange, banana and mango, and even imported fruits such as strawberry, one of the most popular flavors.

Cuban’s consumption of yogurt no doubt grew as the island developed strong ties and scientific exchanges with Eastern Europe.

The large number of Eastern European technicians and consultants who arrived to Cuba brought with them their dietary habits, including a love for yogurt, and this became an important source of nutrition for Cubans and the favorite dairy product for many.

Beginning in the 1970s, yogurt became recognized as a good substitute for milk for segments of the population who were lactose intolerant and as a remedy, as the bacterium in yogurt breaks down lactose.

The 1970s also saw the creation of the Research Institute for the National Food Industry, sponsored by the FAO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The Institute took the next step for those who couldn't drink cow's milk and introduced soy milk into the culture.

The widespread introduction of soy milk first for the lactose intolerant segment of the population and then as a regular product for all Cubans was one of the important achievements of this institute.

In the 1990s, the island was sent into a full-on crisis with the disintegration of the Eastern European Socialist Camp and a hardening of the decades-long US blockade. The Cuban government responded with a series of measures during what was called the Special Period. The Ministry of Food and Health began to produce soy yogurt on an industrial scale, especially for children and teenagers, as it became harder and harder to import powdered milk.

Despite the huge cultural differences, this progression is oddly parallel to the adoption of yogurt and soy by increasingly mainstream audiences in the U.S. Solutions know no bounds when problems are universal.

Make Your Own Yogurt

The "Yogurt too tangy? Make your own," article by Jenny Lass and Jodi Bager of the Chicago Tribune got me thinking.

The recipe on that page seems fine and most people can use it. But the article also assumes that you already have a yogurt maker to make the recipe in.

Wait a second. If you already have a yogurt maker, don't you already have basic homemade yogurt recipes? I'll bet you get some in the same box as the appliance.

There are dozens of yogurt makers on the market. They go for about $25-50. What should you look for in a basic yogurt maker?

This Yogurt Maker Reviews and Buying Guide from Galt Technologies provides good information. It starts:

Just what should you look for in a yogurt maker? First, let's start with the top brands - Easiyo, Salton, Yogourmet, Donvier, Euro Cuisine, Waring Pro, Yolife and Cuisipro. They are sold in stores like Walmart, Target, and Sears in the kitchen appliance section. You can also find them online at websites like Amazon.com or Cooking.com. What size yogurt maker is best? You will find that most machines will make 1 quart of yogurt although you can find 2 quart makers like the Yogourmet Multi. We say stick with the 1 quart variety unless everyone in the family agrees on the same type of yogurt.

There's more there of interest, so click on the link.

If you want individual product reviews, you can go to Amazon.com as the above page suggests. A short-lived blog, Your Yogurt Maker, compiled about a dozen reviews of top names on one page.

And Stylefeeder.com puts some how to's and reviews on a single page that supplies all of the basics.

How to Make Yogurt at Home

Mother Earth News has a long (five pages), detailed article about home-made yogurt written by V.B. Ramig.

She gives recommendations about yogurt makers and has a yogurtmaking troubleshooting guide that's sure to be helpful to those who like me are twelve thumbs in the kitchen.

Last Lactose-Free Yogurt Disappears

The last time I checked I could find only one true dairy-based lactose-free yogurt. That was Continental Yogurt, made by Continental Culture Specialists of Glendale, CA.

Then I got an email informing me that they haven't been able to find any Continental Yogurt for a year. When I checked I found that the company's website was abandoned and its phone number disconnected. That's good confirmation.

A search didn't bring up any other brands of real milk dairy-free yogurt. Lots of soy-based brands, to be be sure. You can find a number of brands listed on my Nondairy Milk Alternatives - Other Nondairy Products page in my Lactose Intolerance Clearinghouse website. It hasn't been updated in a while because I make all my announcements here on my blog, though. If I get a chance I'll do some catching up, so if you know of brands that aren't listed there, post a comment or send me an email.

Turtle Mountain Goes Coconut Crazy

Turtle Mountain, the makers of So Delicious, Soy Delicious, Purely Decadent, and Sweet Nothings products, has started making coconut milk versions of, well, almost everything.

It's So Delicious Coconut Milk Yogurt is being billed as the first in the world. It's dairy-free and soy-free.

Read the reviews they have posted.

Their Purely Decadent line has a coconut milk variety as well, and also a reviews page.


Want more? How 'bout a Coconut Milk Beverage? You'll just have to wait for that one. It doesn't hit stores until March and won't get true national distribution until the summer. The company says that it's coconut milk products are a hit and are out-selling their traditional soy products, so there may be more coconuttiness in everybody's futures.

UPDATE: The people at Turtle Mountain sent me a link to the Whole Foods Market blog, Whole Story, with an entry and comments on their coconut milk yogurt.

Arla Lactose-Free Yogurts

Arla, the British company that makes the Lactofree line of lactose-free milks, has added some new lactose-free yogurts to its product list.

A press release announced that:

The flavoured yoghurts are available in raspberry, strawberry and a natural variety, and have been developed for consumers that are lactose intolerant, the company said today (27 November).

Tribute to Stamen Grigorov

It isn't every day that you see a tribute to Stamen Grigorov, and if you ask who? that only proves my point.

Dr. Stamen Grigorov was the Bulgarian scientist who in 1905 first isolated and identified Lactobacillus bulgaricus, the bacteria that is primarily responsible for yogurt. He did so, ironically, in sterile Switzerland.

Stamen Grigorov, in the middle, as a student in Geneva, Switzerland

Who's doing the tribute? It's taking place in Sofia, Bulgaria, naturally where the Fourth Annual European Researcher's Night takes place today.

Clips from films on how Bulgarian science fits into the European sphere; on God’s particle, black holes and the mysteries of CERN; on forbidden discoveries and more will be shown.

For those looking for something a bit more interactive, there will be a live performance called the Voyage of Sound, and another one called Science in Fairytales, organised with the support of the British Council, that will examine what connects the Wizard of Oz, the Little Mermaid, Andersen’s Snow Queen, Alice, Gulliver, Zlatka the Golden Girl and fairytale princesses. (Hint – the show includes the participation of a chemist, two meteorologists, a doctor of molecular medicine, a physicist and a general practitioners.)

For the visual arts-inclined, there is an exhibition on turning rubbish into a fun science game and another one on Bulgarian scientific research, a project of the National Polytechnical Museum, which presents curious facts about famous Bulgarian scientists and researchers (think Stamen Grigovor [sic], discoverer – in 1905 – of Lactobacillus bulgaricus, the bacteria that breaks down the lactose in milk and makes yoghurt what it is).

Yes, it would be nicer if they hadn't typoed his name.

A Stamen Grigorov Foundation exists today, with lofty-sounding ambitions:

For ten years now the main activities of the Foundation have been related to the microbiology and art by means of organization and realization of courses, consultations, plenaries, symposiums, conferences; organization and realization of specific scientific forums, exhibitions, musical and literature days, etc.

but some dubiously extravagant claims about Bulgarian yogurt:

His further research carried out in many institutes worldwide proved that Bulgarian yogurt helps in the treatment of various diseases and conditions like infections, otic-rhino-laryngeal diseases, tuberculosis, stomach and intestine conditions, ulcers, some gynecologic diseases, fatigue, etc. These prophylactic and curative properties of Bulgarian yogurt are due to the rich vitamin content including B₁, B₂, C, A, D, E, PP, B₁₂, as well as lactose, proteins, and other important stimulating substances.

Yogurt in its original variety can be produced only in Bulgaria and in some neighboring regions on the Balkan peninsula. In other natural climatic conditions the bacteria quickly degenerate, lose their qualities and die.

I have my doubts, but it is true that American-style yogurt, pioneered by Isaac Carasso of Dannon in 1947 is a far cry from the original, tart, and fruit-free yogurt known to Europeans.

Dr. Grigorov is a reminder that science is truly an international endeavor. Discoveries and discoverers can emerge from any point. All that matters is the result.

Making Sense of Yogurt Choices

An article by the American Institute for Cancer Research on FoodConsumer.org offers a quick tutorial on the multitude of claims that yogurts are making. Here's a shortened version.

Probiotics. All yogurts provide probiotics, live microorganisms (bacteria) that confer a wide range of potential health benefits. Research tentatively supports using probiotics to help resolve diarrhea and symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome, as well as to enhance immune system functions and reduce susceptibility to infections. But not all types of probiotic bacteria offer identical benefits. In the U.S., the starter bacteria for yogurt cultures (L bulgaricus and S thermophilus) have been shown to help with lactose intolerance, but research does not provide convincing evidence of the other proposed benefits.

Prebiotics. Several yogurt manufacturers now go a step further by adding prebiotics to their products. Prebiotics are carbohydrates that feed probiotic bacteria, supporting their growth or activity. Some types of dietary fiber are classified as prebiotics, but it’s not as simple as just looking for fiber on the Nutrition Facts panel. Prebiotics added to yogurt include inulin (made from chicory or table sugar), soy oligosaccharides and some types of maltodextrins and modified food starch. And don’t assume that prebiotics are listed on all labels; some yogurts contain one or more prebiotics without identifying the ingredient to the consumer. Other yogurts correctly note that they contain prebiotics, but each serving may contain only a quarter to a half of the amount that research identifies as effective.

Omega-3s and plant sterols. Omega-3 fats and sterols that promote heart health are now added to some yogurts. Omega-3 fat, which has received much attention for its purported role in reducing heart disease, is naturally abundant in fatty fish like salmon and mackerel. While yogurts fortified with omega-3s may convey some benefit, they often contain less than 10 percent of the amount found in a standard serving of salmon. Alternatively, many yogurts contain the plant form of omega-3s (the type of essential fatty acid supplied by flax), which does not seem nearly as potent as the compound found in seafood.

When Is a Billion Not So Many?

Ellen Kanner of the McClatchy Newspapers writes a column called The Edgy Veggie. This week's is about foods with added probiotics.

There's even a probiotic cereal, Kashi Vive ($4.49, 12 ounces). It's whole grain (wheat, rye, triticale, brown rice, barley, buckwheat, oats plus freeze-dried broccoli sprouts) with a masterly 12 fiber grams per 1-\ cup serving.

Vive's probiotics come from cultured nonfat dry milk and yogurt, appearing as little white puffballs among the flakes. It's crunchy-munchy and mildly sweet, with 170 calories, 2.5 fat grams and a billion probiotics.

A billion's nothing, babe. Lifeway, your kefir king, has developed SoyTreat ($3.40, 32 ounces), an organic soy kefir with up to 10 billion probiotics per 8-ounce serving.

Kanner is clearly impressed by big numbers, and at first glance 10 billion sounds like a mighty big number.

It isn't. It's probably nowhere big enough.

The bacteria in cultures are incredibly tiny. Ten billion of them is less than a pinpoint. Spreading those ten billion out over eight ounces means that the number per gram - the more usual scientific measure - gives you a number too small to be impressive. I'll do the math. One ounce equals 28.375 grams. Eight ounces is 227 grams. That puts the count at about 44 million per gram.

For comparison I looked up some random yogurts and probiotic capsules to see what their counts were.

Dr. Thomas E. Radecki gave the results of tests on his Modern Psychiatry site:

Astro BioBest yogurt - 794 million live bacterial cultures per gram (175 grams per container or 139 billion per container

Organic Meadow yogurt - 100 million per gram

Danone yogurt 180 million per gram or 32 billion per container

These counts were for the freshest possible yogurt. You can assume that a minimum of two-thirds of the cultures will die off by the end of the shelf life printed on the carton.

Probiotics capsules have far higher concentrations. Of course they have to: you're only going to take one capsule, not eat a whole container.

A site called Custom Probiotics came up first in a Google search. These are merely their claims on their site, which I am using for comparison, not as an endorsement in any way.

1. L. Acidophilus, 150 billion per gram.
2. L. Rhamnosus 200 billion per gram.
3. L. Salivarius, 100 billion per gram.
4. L. Plantarum, 400 billion per gram.
5. B. Lactis, B. Bifidum or B. Infantis, 400 billion per gram.

44 million a gram? Piffle. These contain almost a thousand times as many.

So don't get taken in by mere large numbers. If you're not getting your probiotics by the multiple billions, you're probably not getting enough to do you any good.

In: Icelandic Yogurt

The Shaw Report, Entertainment Weekly’s hopefully jokey review of the latest faddish objets de interest of west coast trendies, had this to say last week:

In: Icelandic yogurt
Five minutes ago: Greek Yogurt
Out: Australian yogurt

Let me try to translate that for the incurably trend-challenged, i.e. all the rest of the continent.

Icelandic yogurt. There’s no such thing, says Icelandic blogger Jared Bibler in The Iceland Report.

If you want yogurt, go back to Stonyfield Farms, or wherever, and pick up some of their slop. If you want skyr, the stuff with the tang, the stuff that leaves chalk residue in your mouth, the real-man Icelandic take-no-prisoners made-since-the-year-1000 stuff, the food that built a nation, then that's just "skyr".

Take that. That’s the attitude that’s made Iceland’s world-wide empire a reality.

Anyway, Wikipedia has a more factual explanation:

Skyr is an Icelandic cultured dairy product, a type of fresh cheese that has been strained, like Bulgarian yoghurt. It is said to have originally come from Norway, brought to Iceland by the Norwegian Vikings, but is currently unique to Icelandic cuisine.

Traditionally, skyr is made with pasteurized skimmed milk and live active cultures such as Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus bulgaricus. Then, "skyr condenser" — good skyr, used to ignite bacteria growth, and rennet was added, and the milk was left to coagulate. The skyr was then strained through fabric to remove the whey, called "mysa" in Icelandic, a by-product that Icelanders used as a thirst-quenching drink. Today it is made from non-fat milk.

Skyr, in its traditional preparation, has no added flavors beyond the ingredients mentioned above. Recently, Icelandic manufacturers of skyr have added flavors such as vanilla, berry, and other flavorings common to yoghurt to the final product, to increase its appeal. Skyr-based smoothies have become very popular.

Another blogger, What’s Out There, takes apart a carton of Skyr, literally, and finds written on the inside this missive from Siggi himself, the CEO of The Icelandic Milk and Skyr Corporation.

Skyr is strained yogurt made from cow’s milk. It’s been a staple of the Icelandic diet for more than 1,000 years. Traditionally, skyr is made from skim milk after the cream has been floated off to make butter. So it’s fat free. Like milk, regular yogurt is mostly water-but with skyr, that water is strained away. In other words, one cup of siggi’s skyr requires three times more milk than a regular cup of yogurt. What remains is a protein-rich yogurt with live active cultures.

Greek yogurt is totally different. It’s yogurt with the water strained away. Oh, wait.

Greek yogurt is much thicker than regular yogurt because a lot of the liquid whey is strained out. It doesn't need the pectin or other thickeners found in many yogurts. Greek yogurt is higher in protein than regular yogurt, with 8 ounces of the nonfat version supplying about 20 grams of protein, nearly double the protein content of traditional yogurt. It's also lower in carbohydrates, which means even less lactose for lactose-intolerant people. But it is substantially lower in calcium than regular varieties (about 150 milligrams of calcium per 8 ounces versus the 300 to 450 milligrams in plain regular yogurt). Fat and calories are also more concentrated, particularly in full-fat varieties. Eight ounces of nonfat Greek yogurt contains about 125 calories, but the same portion of the whole milk version contains about 300 calories and more than 20 grams of fat. Fortunately, the characteristic thick creaminess of Greek yogurt is present even in the nonfat form. While Greek yogurt is traditionally unsweetened, some flavored versions are appearing in the U.S.

That’s from Karen Collins, whose Nutrition Wise column is provided as a public service by the American Institute for Cancer Research. I found this edition at NewsOK.com.

As for Australian yogurt, it’s "out" so I can’t imagine why you’d even want to know about it. But for the record, there’s no such thing. Here we go again.

From the anar-anar blog

The Wallaby Yogurt Company... the majority of Americans probably haven't really heard of it as they produce organic yogurt, something not sold in most "regular" grocery stores. When I worked at the co-op though, Wallaby was easily the most popular yogurt (outside of the soy yogurts) sold. One day I asked a customer who regularly purchased Wallaby why he chose it over the other organic dairy yogurts and he told me that you can really "taste the difference" in the Australian yogurt.

Hmmmm.

So I decided to purchase one of these Wallaby yogurts and give it a shot. I was actually rather excited, thinking it was some really fabulous, rich yogurt.

Yeah, no. There is no such thing as "Australian" yogurt, and if there is, it only exists in Australia. Wallaby Yogurt tastes like any other organic yogurt you can purchase, the only difference is the fact that Wallaby costs about six cents more per yogurt.

Just to be fair, this is what the people at the The Wallaby Yogurt Company say:

Rather than adding gelatins for thickness, our yogurt uses a slow cooking process to create a naturally smooth and creamy Australian-style texture. It takes about twice as long to make Wallaby Organic as it does conventional yogurts. The smooth texture and mild taste – the result of our slow, gentle culturing process – is what differentiates Wallaby Organic from other yogurts.

Want even more info on yogurts of the world? Try an article titled Yogurts of the World by Vijaysree Venkatraman on Houston abc13.com.

Cautions When Cooking With Yogurt

I got an email with this question recently:

Does cooking with yogurt make the yogurt no longer tolerable to those of us with LI?

Yogurt, as people with lactose intolerance get told all the time, is not only supposedly healthy but well-tolerated because the live cultures in the yogurt work in your intestines to make lactase and digest any lactose in the yogurt.

I also warn people to check the yogurt carton for the words "live and active cultures." Some yogurts want to have long shelf lives, so they use a quasi-pasteurization technique called heat-treating, in which the yogurt is raised to a temperature near boiling. This reduces spoiling, but also kills off the yogurt that helps us digest the lactose.

The question took this the next logical step. In cooking or baking, the temperature of the food often rises well above 200 degrees F. So wouldn't that make yogurt no better tolerated than any other milk product?

The answer is yes, as these yogurt websites attest:

The Cascade Yogurt FAQ page says:

Does cooking with yogurt affect the live cultures?
Temperature plays an important role with live active cultures. If yogurt is used in a recipe that requires even moderate heating the living yogurt bacteria may be detrimentally affected to some degree. However, the yogurt still is an excellent low calorie substitute for sour cream in recipes and offers valuable calcium, phosphorus, potassium and protein nutrients.

And Stonyfield Yogurt has similar advice:

Does cooking with yogurt destroy the cultures or alter their effectiveness?
Heating yogurt to a high temperature will destroy the cultures. To prevent this, never add yogurt directly to a hot mixture. Instead, stir a few tablespoons of the hot food into the yogurt, warming it gradually. Then stir the warmed yogurt into the hot mixture. Do this near the end of the cooking process, so the yogurt won’t be heated for a long time.

If you can adapt your recipes to keep the yogurt from prolonged high heating, you should do so.

Answers to Questions from Readers, part 15

Q. What exactly is the ingredient in dairy products that causes the binding? I read that you feel it is not the lactose.

You're right about that. It's the protein.

Take a look at this Constipation and Milk Allergy page on my web site. It's a discussion of a seminal journal article that makes a connection between a dairy protein allergy and constipation in young children, the first such report to my knowledge. You should then talk to your doctor about it.

Q. What is the lactose content of yogurts containing active cultures?

This sounds like a straightforward question, but it isn't. Two problems.

One is that many manufacturers add additional milk solids to the yogurt during the manufacturing process, because true natural yogurt tends to be too thin and sour for American audiences. This makes it impossible to judge lactose content.

The other problem isn't really a problem, but a boon. The active cultures work to manufacture their own lactase, both during the manufacturing process and even in your intestines. This neutralizes, pretty much, any lactose in the yogurt, even from added milk solids.

So the amount of actual lactose is more or less irrelevant to the end result, which is that yogurts with live and active cultures are well tolerated by most people with lactose intolerance.

Q. a) How is lactose made - I assume it is a protein in the cows stomach or something? Or is it part of the grass?
b) And is Lactaid a protein or an enzyme?

a) Neither. Lactose is made in the mammary gland. (It's a part of milk and found only in milk.) It's a tremendously complicated chemical process that starts with the simple sugar, glucose. Some other glucose is converted to another simple sugar, galactose. Then the whey protein called alpha-lactalbumin bonds them together to make the complex sugar we know as lactose.

b) Lactaid is a brand name for the enzyme known as lactase. (But all enzymes are proteins, except for a couple of weird exceptions.)

Q. I have heard that some meats can contain lactose (unless they are Kosher) is this true? If so which ones?

No meat of any kind contains lactose in and of itself. However, some processed meat products (including cold cuts and hot dogs) can have a dairy product as an ingredient.

The only way to tell is to be sure you always read ingredients lists for anything you buy. And you're right about Kosher meats being dairy-free. They have to be that way. If you can, try to find Kosher cold cuts and hot dogs. Not only are they great tasting, but you can be assured that they don't contain milk.

Q. Does cocoa butter contain lactose like I think it probably does?

Nope, butter here refers only to consistency. Peanut butter, apple butter, and cocoa butter are all lactose free.

You might want to check out my Foolers page on my web site.

Q. If LI is the result of not being able to breaking down the compound sugar found in milk and milk products, then would it also be true that anything made with a compound sugar would also be a problem?

This is a very good question. However, the answer is no, except is a very few people.

The lactase enzyme that digests lactose is an unusual one. Even in people who can drink milk as adults, it is manufactured in smaller quantities than the enzymes that digest other compound sugars. The reasons probably go back well into human evolution, since lactase only needed to be manufactured early in life when milk was the sole food, while all the others were needed for a wide range of foods all one's life.

There are some people who have a wide range of sugar intolerances, but overall it is seldom a problem.