is-vegan-yoghurt-better-holistic-nutritionist

Introduction

Plant based eating is all the rage & with that vegan yoghurt consumption has become popular. But are they really a healthier choice? We compare the market.

Veganism is a diet that excludes all animal products. More people than ever are shifting to this way of eating for a variety of reasons including environmental and animal welfare concerns, the perceived health benefits and the increasing prevalence of allergies and intolerance to dairy.

Due to more people being focused on plant based eating, vegan yoghurts have exploded in popularity over the last few years. As of 2020 the global market was worth US $1.94 billion, this trend is predicted to climb by 17.6% over the next 5 years (Research & Markets Ltd, 2021).

There is more of a focus on plant-based diets by the governments and relevant associations due to the growing overweight and obesity epidemic. Over two thirds of the Australian population is overweight or obese and an estimated $11.8 billion is spent on health care due to this just in Australia (Collective for Action on Obesity, 2019) (Faruque et al., 2019). Given the rising healthcare costs governments need to increase efforts on the prevention of diet and lifestyle related chronic diseases and rising rates of overweight and obese Australians. Excess sugar, fat and energy consumption contributes to the increasing rates of metabolic and cardiovascular diseases (Craig & Brothers, 2021). The general consensus is that over consumption of kilojoules leads to weight gain and excess weight gain is associated with an increased risk of chronic diseases (FSANZ, 2019).

Another reason driving the popularity of plant based yoghurts is that around 70% of the population is intolerant to lactose (NIH, 2022) and around 10% cannot handle the casein protein. Reported allergy to milk in children is as high as 3.8%, the increase in allergies cannot be explained by genetic drift according to researchers (Zepeda-Ortega et al., 2021).

Comparing vegan yoghurt

Considering these issues, market research is required to review the nutrition information of vegan yoghurts and cross reference this with dairy yoghurts. There is very little research regarding the nutrition of plant-based yoghurts in the Australian market so I took the liberty of conducting a research project comparing vanilla plant-based and dairy yoghurts in the local Australian market. This research will look at the fat, sugar, protein, energy, and ingredients and compare them to the recommendations and guidelines set by the Food Standards Australian and New Zealand (FSANZ) and World Health Organisation (WHO).

The hypothesis of this research is that vegan yoghurts in the Australian market will exceed the recommended guidelines for total fat intake, particularly saturated fat and will be lower in protein and sugar than dairy yoghurts.

 

Existing research

Most of the existing research on plant-based yoghurt is focused on consumer preferences and how fat and sugar relate to likeability rather than measuring macro nutrients and kilojoules from a health perspective (Gupta et al., 2022). The research also usually included a variety of different flavours which makes comparison more difficult, the literature featured no comparisons specifically for plant-based vanilla yoghurts.

The existing research shows that coconut yoghurt is generally higher in total fat and saturated fat and the lowest in sugar. Soy yoghurt was comparable to dairy yoghurt for fat and lower in sugar (Gupta et al., 2022). In Europe coconut and almond formulations dominate the plant-based yoghurt market which were found to have higher levels of fat. Overall energy and fat content was higher in plant-based yoghurts in comparison to conventional dairy formulations but had a similar amount of sugar and saturated fatty acids (Boukid et al., 2021).

 

 

Methods

This cross-sectional study analyses 16 vanilla yoghurts, 7 plant based and 9 dairy based to compare their nutrient profiles provided on the nutrition panel. In order to qualify as a sample, the product needs an ingredients list and nutrition panel with sugar, fat, protein and energy content as well as recommended serving size. Analysis has been made by comparing products per 100 grams as well as the recommended serving size. The nutrition information in relation to the government approved dietary recommendations for sugar, protein and fat will be analysed.

Vanilla yoghurt was selected because this flavour dominates the Australian market and around the world. Other flavours such as berry may have more variability of ingredients as berry may contain different types of berries and amounts (Narayana & Edirimanna, 2020). Vanilla yoghurt is also more palatable to eat on its own than plain yoghurt.

Any yoghurt labelled as low fat, yoghurt drinks and kefir yoghurt was excluded. When the same yoghurt was available in multiple sizes only the data from the largest size was recorded.

 

Findings

Vegan yoghurts can consist of a large range of ingredients such as soy, coconut, oat, almond, cashews, and peas (Gupta et al., 2022). However there were only two types of plant based yoghurts found in Noosa, Australia – almond and coconut. A total of 7 plant based vanilla yoghurts were included in the review, 2 were almond and 5 were made out of coconut, 9 dairy vanilla yoghurts were also found in market, resulting in a total sample size of 16.

Preliminary findings show there is a large variance in fat and energy amongst brands. Plant based yoghurts did not provide nutrition information on calcium due to low content. There was also a variety of ingredients used, however it was common to incorporate starch as a thickener and use natural flavours. Traditional dairy yoghurt were overall higher in protein and sugar than the vegan yoghurts, however were the lowest in fat on average.

 

Table 1 – nutrition label comparison of dairy & vegan yoghurt
Vanilla Yoghurt Energy per 100g Fat

Saturated

Fat

Sugar Protein

 

Recommended

Serving Size

ALMOND YOGHURT
Alpro Almond Yoghurt Vanilla 412 6 1 5 3 166
So Delicious Almond Vanilla Yoghurt 440 6.8 0.1 7.7 2.6 150
Almond average: 426 6.4 0.55 6.35 2.8

 

158

COCONUT YOGHURT
Coco Tribe Vanilla Yoghurt 877 18.9 14.4 4 2.3

 

50

Cocobella Vanilla Yoghurt 564 8.4 7.5 5.5 0.8 125
Coyo coconut vanilla 742 16.3 15 2.7 1.6 100
Nakula Island Style Organic Yoghurt Vanilla Bean 676 13.6 12.1 7.1 1.3

 

100

Nakula Vanilla Coconut Yoghurt 526 9.1 8.2 3.4 1

 

150

Coconut average 637 12.1 11.4 4.5 1.4

 

105

DAIRY YOGHURTS
Vanilla Yoghurt Energy per 100g Fat

Saturated

Fat

Sugar Protein

 

Recommended

Serving Size

Vaalia French Vanilla 389 2.1 1.3 10 4.6 150
Dairy farmers vanilla 525 6.3 4.1 12.9 3.7 150
Jalna vanilla 470 5.4 4.8 9.9 5.4 100
Tamar Valley vanilla 576 5.3 5 13.8 5.3 100
Yoplait Vanilla 375 1.9 1.2 12.8 4.6 175
5am organic vanilla 474 5.3 3.4 10.4 4.5 150
YoPro high protein 243 0.3 0.2 3.2 9.5 160
Activia 337 3.8 2.5 5.1 4.9 125
Baramba organic 372 3.4 2.2 9.7 5 200
Just Organic Aldi vanilla 506 4.2 2.5 14 5 100
Dairy average: 426 3.8 2.72 10.18 5.25 141

 

Table 1.1 – TOTAL AVERAGES
Vanilla Yoghurt Energy per 100g Fat

Saturated

Fat

Sugar Protein

 

Recommended

Serving Size

Almond average: 426 6.4 0.55 6.35 2.8

 

158

Coconut average 637 12.1 11.4 4.5 1.4

 

105

Dairy average: 426 3.8 2.72 10.18 5.25 141
Total average: 496.3 7.4 4.89 7 3.1  134.6

 

Table 2: Percentage breakdown
 
  Coconut Almond Dairy

Sugar

1.     Higher

2.     Low

3.     Sweetener

 

3 (60%)

2 (40%)

0

 

2 (100%)

0

0

 

9 (90%)

1 (10%)

2

Fat

1.     Higher

2.     Low

 

5 (100%)

0

 

2 (100%)

0

 

10

3

Protein

1.     Good

2.     Low

 

0

5 (100%)

 

0

2 (100%)

 

2 (20%)

8 (80%)

Flavours

1.     Real Vanilla

2.     Natural flavour

3.     Synthetic

 

5 (71%)

2 (29%)

0

 

2 (100%)

2 (100%)

0

 

7 (78%)

7 (78%)

1 (11%)

 

 

Sugar

Out of the three types of yoghurts 100% of the almond yoghurts, 90% of the dairy yoghurts and 60% of the coconut yoghurts were not considered to be low in sugar (refer to table 2). The FSANZ requires food to be classed as low sugar to be under 5 grams per 100 (FSANZ, 2019). 4 out of the 7 plant-based yoghurts were classified as low sugar as they were 5 grams or under. The average sugar content of the coconut yoghurts is 4.54, therefore overall these types of yoghurts are low in sugar. The almond yoghurts averaged 6.35 grams of sugar and therefore are not considered low in sugar. Cocobella just missed the classification at 5.5 and So Delicious Almond Vanilla Yoghurt was the highest at 7.7 grams and Nakula Island Style Organic is 7.1 grams of sugar per 100 grams (refer to table 1).

In contrast dairy based vanilla yoghurt that there is an average of 10.18 grams of sugar per 100 grams. Two of the yoghurts had added sweetener which would decrease the average, if these two are excluded the average sugar content increases to 11.68 grams per 100 grams. This amount doesn’t include the lactose and other milk sugars. In plain yoghurt there is an average of 6 grams of sugar per 100 grams from the lactose naturally occurring in the milk (Moore et al., 2018).

 

Fat

In order for a food such as yoghurt to be considered low fat according to Food Standards Australia and New Zealand it needs to contain less than 3% fat (FSANZ, 2018). None of the dairy, almond nor coconut yoghurts met this criteria, however dairy was the lowest in fat with 3.8 grams of fat per 100 on average, almond was 6.4 and coconut had the highest fat content with 12.1 grams per 100. The majority of the fat in the coconut yoghurt consisted of saturated fat with the average being 11.4 grams of saturated fat per 100 grams (refer to table 1). Almond yoghurt was found to be the lowest in fat and energy whilst coconut yoghurt was significantly higher in total fat, saturated fat and energy content however was lower in sugar on average.

The World Health Organisation recommends that less than 10% of the foods consumed should come from saturated fat. This equates to around 20 grams a day for women and 30 grams for men, therefore a 200 gram serve would exceed this recommendation.  A meta-analysis of 16 studies regarding the consumption of coconut oil showed statistically significant increases in both bad LDL and good HDL cholesterol in comparison to other vegetable oils. Coconut oil is also rich in medium-chain fatty acids which has been show to improve metabolic health and cognition, has shown strong anti-fungal and antibacterial properties (Roopashree et al., 2021). Traditional dietary advice has been to limit coconut oil because it is detrimental to the cardiovascular system however Hewlings argues that not all fatty acids are created and that the ones found in coconut oil and should not be put in the same category as more harmful long chain saturated fatty acids (Hewlings, 2020).

 

Protein

For a food to be considered a good source of protein needs to contain at least 10 grams of protein per serve (FSANZ, 2016). Only a couple of the dairy yoghurts qualified for this claim – ‘Yopro High Protein’ with 15.2 grams of protein per 160 grams serve. Barambah Organic has 10 grams per of protein 200 gram recommended serve. Incidentally Barambah Organic also has the largest recommended serving size. As expected, dairy had the highest amount of protein per 100 grams with an average of 5.2 grams, almond came in next with 2.8 grams and coconut was the lowest with 1.4 (refer to table 1).

 

Serving size

The manufacturers recommended serving sizes varied significantly from brand to brand, the smallest serving size was the Coco Tribe Coconut yoghurt with 50 grams and the largest was 200 grams for Barambah Organic Yoghurt (refer to table 1). The Coco Tribe coconut yoghurt also happened to have the highest amount of fat and kilojoules out of all of the 16 samples. On average the coconut yoghurts had the smallest serving sizes at 105 grams. Almond yoghurt had the largest recommended serving size at 158 grams and dairy followed with 141 grams (refer to table 1.1).

 

Added ingredients

4 out of the 7 plant-based yoghurts have natural flavours listed as an ingredient. Food manufacturers are not required to disclose the ingredients that it is made out of to protect trade secrets, however this means a long list of ingredients may not be disclosed such as rendered beaver anal gland (Nicole, 2013). 7 out of 9 dairy yoghurts have added natural flavours, 3 of these had no actual vanilla only natural flavours and one of them contained synthetic flavours (refer to table 3). Coconut yoghurts were the least likely to have undisclosed natural flavours added.

Starches such as tapioca, native starches, faba bean, rice, agar are also common ingredients used in these plant-based yoghurt for the purposes of thickening because these long chain carbohydrates swell in liquid, this assists with viscosity (Lawton, 2004).

 

Table 3: Ingredients list of dairy & vegan yoghurt
VEGAN YOGHURT INGREDIENTS
Alpro Almond Yoghurt Vanilla Almond milk (89%) (water, almonds (11%), starch (tapioca), sugar, faba beans, mineral (calcium), vitamins (B2, B12), water, sugar, natural flavour, starch (rice), vanilla bean (0.01%), vegan cultures
Coco Tribe Vanilla Yoghurt Organic coconut cream, organic rice malt syrup, tapioca starch, agar agar, live vegan cultures including probiotics acidophilus and bifidus.
Cocobella Vanilla Yoghurt Coconut yoghurt (water, coconut milk, native starch, tapioca syrup, carob bean extract, agar, yoghurt cultures and probiotics), Vanilla blend (water, sugar, rice starch, natural flavour, vanilla bean (<1%), lemon juice concentrate).
Coyo coconut vanilla Organic Coconut Milk (94%) [Organic Coconut Cream, Water], Organic Tapioca Starch, Organic Vanilla Bean Paste (1.5%), Chicory Root Fibre
Nakula Island Style Organic Coconut Milk Yoghurt Vanilla Bean Certified Organic Coconut Milk (92%) (Coconut Cream, Water), Organic Tapioca Starch, Organic Cane Sugar, Native Starch, Stabiliser (Organic Guar Gum), Organic Natural Vanilla, Vanilla Bean Seeds (0.2%), Live Vegan Cultures and Probiotics (L. casei, L. acidophilus, L. bulgaricus, S. thermophilus, Bifidobacterium).
Nakula Vanilla Coconut Yoghurt Coconut Yoghurt 92% (coconut, water, native starch, cane sugar, stabiliser (guar gum), live vegan cultures and probiotics (L. casei, L. acidophilus, L. bulgaricus, S. thermophilus, Bifidobacterium). Vanilla blend 8% (water, cane sugar, native starch, natural flavour, vanilla bean seeds (0.2%), acidity regulator (malic acid).
So Delicious Almond Vanilla Yoghurt Almond Milk (Water, Almonds (14%), Water, Sugar, Starch (Tapioca, Rice), Natural Flavours, Vanilla Bean (0.02%), Vegan Cultures, Lemon Juice Concentrate
DAIRY YOGHURT INGREDIENTS
Vaalia Probiotic Yoghurt French Vanilla Skim milk, milk solids, cream, water, sugar, thickeners (1422, 1442), dietary fibre (inulin), stabiliser (440), flavour, natural colour (caramel l), acidity regulators (330, 331), live yoghurt cultures (incl. L. acidophilus, Bifidobacterium, Lactobacillus GG).
Dairy farmers vanilla Milk, Milk Solids, Water, Sugar, Cream, Thickener (Modified Starch), Natural Flavours, Lemon Juice Concentrate, Live Yoghurt Cultures: S. Thermophilus, B. Lactis, L. Acidophilus & L. Bulgaricus.
Jalna vanilla Pasteurised whole milk, milk solids, sugar and natural vanilla flavour (0.25%), enzyme (lactase)
Tamar Valley vanilla Milk, Sugar, Milk Solids, Cream, Rice Starch, Natural Flavours, Caramelised Sugar, Vanilla Bean (0.01%), Lemon Juice Concentrate, Live Cultures.
Yoplait Vanilla Milk, Skim Milk, Milk Solids, Water, Sugar, Thickeners (Gelatine, Modified Starch), Natural Flavour, Natural Colour (Carotene) Acidity Regulator (Citric Acid), Vanilla Bean Seed (0.01%), Live Yoghurt Cultures (Milk):S. Thermophilus & L. Bulgaricus.
5am organic vanilla Organic Milk, Organic Raw Sugar, Organic Milk Solids, Water, Rice Starch, Natural Vanilla Flavour, Vanilla Bean Macerates, Citric Acid, Live Cultures
YoPro high protein Fresh milk, water, rice starch, natural flavours, lemon pulp, enzyme (lactase), live yoghurt cultures (Lactobacillus bulgaricus, Streptococcus thermophilus), stevia leaf extract, vanilla bean (0.013%), sea salt, natural colour (caramel), milk minerals.
Activia Whole Milk, Water, Milk Solids, Thickener (1442), Lemon Pulp, Live Lactic Acid Cultures (Bifidobacterium Animalis Subspecies Lactis CNCM I-2494, Streptococcus Thermophilus, Lactococcus Lactis and Lactobacillus Bulgaricus), Natural Flavours, Lactase, Locust Bean Gum, Vanilla Bean (0.013%), Stevia Leaf Extract, Sea Salt, Natural Colour (Carotene)
Baramba organic Certified Organic Non-homogenised Pasteurised Milk, Certified Organic Non-Fat Milk Solids, Certified Organic Vanilla Bean (10%), Certified Organic Vanilla Essence, Certified Organic Sugar, Lactose Enzyme, Certified Organic Cinnamon. Contains active cultures including Lacidophilus and B.lactic
Just Organic Aldi vanilla Organic full cream milk, organic milk powders, cultures, organic raw sugar, maize starch, vanilla extract, vanilla bean, acidity regulator

 

Limitation

  • Only vanilla yoghurts were included so it is not representative of the whole yoghurt market.
  • Another disadvantage will be that it is only be from the present moment in time so it may not be representative overall given that there are new products being introduced to the market and formulations of existing products changing or supply chain issues. As a consequence of these changing variable’s reliability may be affected.
  • This research doesn’t consider the micronutrient profile, prebiotic content or any other health benefits of the different yoghurts. Future studies could look at vitamin and mineral contents to provide further details to base recommendation off of.

 

Conclusion

This study provides a comprehensive overview of the local market for plant based and traditional vanilla yoghurts and provides a comparison on nutrition based on the food labels.

The purpose of this research is to provide Australian centric industry knowledge about the fat, sugar, protein, and energy content of vanilla plant-based and dairy yoghurts.

After reviewing the nutrition information on the sample vanilla yoghurts it is evident that plant-based yoghurts are a good choice for consumers who are vegan, who have ethical concerns or is intolerant to dairy. However dairy yoghurt may be a better choice for others as it is generally lower in fat and kilojoules and higher in protein.

If you would like a personalised nutrition plan to optimise your health, book an appointment with me here!

References

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Craig, W., & Brothers, C. (2021). Nutritional Content and Health Profile of Non-Dairy Plant-Based Yogurt Alternatives. Nutrients13(11), 4069. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13114069

Faruque, S., Tong, J., Lacmanovic, V., Agbonghae, C., Minaya, D., & Czaja, K. (2019). The Dose Makes the Poison: Sugar and Obesity in the United States – a Review. Polish Journal Of Food And Nutrition Sciences69(3), 219-233. https://doi.org/10.31883/pjfns/110735

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By nutritionist Chrissy

Chrissy is a university qualified nutritionist who graduated with honours at La Trobe University in Melbourne. One of her favourite hobbies is to read the scientific literature on how to optimise health. When she’s not reading, writing or working she’s with her 3 children outdoors, practicing yoga, jogging or cooking up a storm in the kitchen. Chrissy has overcome some debilitating chronic health issues (low mood, adrenal fatigue, insomnia, very bad acne to name a few) with the power of nutrients and correcting gut health, at 39 she now feels better than she did in her 20’s.