with sundry varieties served to us on menus heres a guide to which yoghurt is your best bet theres no comfort food like a plate of dahikhichdi well weve savoured the humble yoghurt fermented milk product with or without sugar way before it evolved with various flavours and toppings into a healthy dessert and packagedflavoured varieties but how true are their claims the practice of choosing a healthy yoghurt is all about reading the labels to check the nutrition facts looking for added sugars and protein content and the ingredient list to avoid additives and sweeteners refined sugar will show up in most flavoured yoghurts you might consider choosing a plain yoghurt and adding your own fruits or berries note although common ingredients like pectin and guar gum are derived from plant sources their presence is a sign of a poorerquality product heres how to select the healthiest variety from the counterwholemilk yoghurt recent studies are beginning to show less of an association between dietary fat intake and heart disease in fact in a recent study researchers found that those who consumed highfat milk butter and cream were less likely to become obese over a period of 12 years compared to men who never or rarely ate highfat dairy another study found that in most of the studies highfat dairy was associated with a lower risk of obesity a major health benefit of fullfat yoghurt is that it hardly contains the thickeners and additives that are used to achieve proper consistency and flavour in lowfat yoghurts wholemilk yoghurt is a convenient way to pack in a lot of nutrition so let the calories besoya yoghurt this takes the debate over the soya milk a step further soya yoghurt is made from cultured soya milk and does not contain any dairy it is suita ble for people with lactose intolerance and those who follow a vegan diet the same bacterial strains used to culture dairy based yoghurts l acidophilus and s thermophilus are used in soyabased ones their nutrient content is similar to that of dairy yoghurts except that the saturated fat content of soya yoghurts is much lower than that of dahis made from whole milk but health freaks going in for the soya variety note they tend to contain cornstarchlactosefree yoghurt lactosefree yoghurt is essentially made of cowsmilk yoghurt that has been treated to break down the lactose or milk sugar that irritates people with lactose intolerance consuming lactose may cause lactoseintolerant people to experience gas bloating and abdominal pain lactosefree yoghurt is good for them as it gives them access to a healthy source of calcium protein and probiotics the nutrition profile of lactosefree yoghurt is similar to that of regular varieties although they often come in a variety of flavours including plain vanilla and strawberry which contain sugar gums and artificial flavoursflavoured yoghurt this ones a nutritional disaster most of the flavour in these yoghurts come from added sugar and sweeteners not to mention colour and artificial