The Ultimate Yoghurt Question!
I get many questions about yoghurt and The Harcombe Diet. I’m hoping that this will be the definitive answer to any more yoghurt questions. If it is not answered here, I’ll show you how to do your own research…
Q) Should I have Natural Live Yoghurt with a fat meal or a carb meal?
A) This is the second most FAQ on The Harcombe Diet answered here.
Q) Do I have to eat NLY on The Harcombe Diet?
A) No! If you don’t like it, or are strongly dairy intolerant (check the FAQ on Phase 1 no dairy but NLY first), don’t eat it. It does attack Candida, but not eating carbs and processed food will have way more impact on attacking Candida. Hence it is not essential to have NLY for the diet to work. It is just a nice menu option if you like it and are not highly lactose intolerant (you would likely have had this diagnosed if this were the case).
Q) ACTIMEL – is it OK?
A) The answer on Actimel is here.
Q) ACTIVIA – is it OK?
A) The answer on Activia is here.
Q) TOTAL Greek yoghurt – is it OK?
A) The answer on TOTAL Greek yoghurt is here.
Q) ANY OTHER YOGHURT not listed – is it OK?
A) The only ingredients needed in Natural Live Yoghurt are Natural Live Yoghurt! Sometimes “live” will be called “bio” – that’s the same. Sometimes the yoghurt will say “with active cultures” or ” with live cultures” – that’s also the same. Sometimes the tub will say “yoghurt”, sometimes it will say “milk cultures” – but that’s all it needs to say. If it says anything else – keep looking for NLY!
If a yoghurt has any sweetener, sugar, anything with an ‘ose’ (fructose, dextrose, sucrose etc) , anything other than natural lactose in natural yoghurt, any ingredient that you don’t recognise – it is not OK. Every supermarket, let alone health food shop, I have gone in to has a Natural Yoghurt. Nine times out of ten, it is also “live”, so it is perfect. If you can’t find a “live/bio” version then you can have just natural yoghurt in Phase 2, but don’t have non-live natural yoghurt in Phase 1, as we only have NLY in Phase 1 to attack Candida.
To check the ingredients yourself – in a shop, follow the guidelines above and only buy the tub that has Natural Live Yoghurt and nothing else. You can check ingredients on line. I have never bought TOTAL, Activia or Actimel. I just put “Actimel ingredients” or “Actimel nutritional information” into Google and you get the manufacturers own web site with the full product ingredients listed and nutritional information. It may take a bit of searching, but that’s what research is! You will be amazed at how much you can get in a couple of minutes on line. If you see an ingredient you don’t recognise and you don’t want to discard the option straight away, open up another window and search on that ingredient. In a few seconds you will know what it is, where it comes from etc. As a golden rule – if it doesn’t sound like a real food (vegetable oil, milk, salt etc) then don’t have it.
That must surely be it on yoghurt!!
23 Responses to “The Ultimate Yoghurt Question!”
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Hi Zoe,
I have a question!!! If a yoghurt has 9.8g carbs per pot (activia)will it raise my blood glucose in the same way other carbs do? Is 10g too much in a yog? Wont eating 10g carbs after a fat meal in the way of a yog cause my fat meal to be stored?
thanks in advance.
susan
Hi Susan –
a) don’t have Activia!
b) 10g is quite high (probably because it’s one you shouldn’t have). My Tesco own brand Natural Bio Yoghurt is 7.6 per 100g and this is no different to having a good mix of veg/salad with a fat meal – the table in Phase 2 shows what you can have with either meal to keep the staple carbs (rice, pasta, baked potatoes etc) away from the staple fat/proteins (meat, fish, eggs, cheese etc).
c) As I said in another answer on the Big Fat Diet Show blog about another dairy product:
“Cottage cheese (low fat) has more protein than fat, but it does register a carb content. The only zero carb groups are meat and fish. Eggs are essentially carb free and dairy starts to have a small carb content. Having low fat dairy with carb meals is no different to having veg/salad with carb meals – the small carb content you consume should be well handled by the body and cause negligible impact. I study the carb/fat/protein content of every real food and we can either make a really, really complicated diet, or we can say don’t mix carb/proteins with fat/proteins (the table in the Phase 2 chapter is the best visual for this) and this gets us 99% of the way there!”
Hope this helps
Best wishes – Zoe
ACTIVIA, stirred yoghurt. plain flavour..
Composition: per pot 125g
Protein – 6.1g
Carbs – 9.8g
sugars – og
Total grams fat – 5g
Ingredients:
Fresh skimmed cows milk
Fresh cream
milk protein
bifidus actiregularis
This is the only active yog I can buy here in Saudi!!
Hi Zoe can you have yeo valley bio yoghurt strawberry flavour in phase 2?
Hi Susan – sorry – as the Activia question says – the original Activia is OK – more plain stuff is always better – unless you can’t get it in Saudi! You’re getting the best you can, therefore. Just don’t have too much of it too often or the carbs will start to add up. Lucky you away from all this snow! Best wishes – Zoe
hi,
are sweet potatoes classed as a carb? can i eat them with meat?
thanks Amanda
Hi Amanda – check out FAQ 5! http://theharcombediet.com/faqs/top-5-faqs/ x
is one allowed to drink spirits and wine. thank you.
Hi Pamela – check out the factsheet on alcohol on the diet site
Best wishes – Zoe
http://theharcombediet.com/research/fact-sheets/
Hi Zoe,
I have now lost nearly 2 stone and am thrilled with the diet. I have lots of friends joining me, as they are so impressed. Two questions. Are blueberries allowed in your..”all fruit with berries on the end” that I can eat with cream or NLY after a fat meal? I love the raspberries, strawberries and blackberries I have so far. But was worried they were more like red or black currents instead of berries.
Also is fresh coconut allowed in the butternut squash curry instead of creamed cocnut as I have other receipes I could use with fresh coconut too. This is a delicious meal..and is always my standby to share with friends who arnt on diets. I now make my own wholemeal bread with a breadmaker and it is scrummy. Thanks for all.
Hi Maddy – many thanks for sharing your success with us – a big well done!
The red current/black current options are fine as berries.
Fresh coconut needs a bit of recipe adjustment, but it is fine to use (I get the impression you know how to cook and can work it out!) You can use the fresh coconut and add boiling water to mash to a coconut milk type of ‘paste’ and then use this in the same volume as the coconut milk, You can use the milk from the fresh coconut as another option. Or you can just use (say) half the amount for coconut milk as fresh coconut – the recipe will lose a bit of liquid, but this will just make the sauce a bit thicker. To be honest, different vegetables release different amounts of water so our sauce is thinner or thicker every time we make it! Andy often boils some off to adjust.
Watch the bread! I still haven’t found anyone who can tolerate wheat on a regular basis and still lose weight and avoid bloating and other intolerance symptoms. Try varying the flour used for rice flour or rye flour and/or don’t have bread every day. Other grains will help with variety and avoiding intolerance
Best wishes – Zoe
Hi Zoe,
Thanks for the tip about the bread. I actually dont eat wheat more than twice a week but I am going to try the other flours as well.
Another question nothing to do with yoghurt..sorry. What happens to the fats we eat if they are not stored? Are the minerals and goodness taken out and the rest passed through us. I have tended to have much more loose stools after fat meals and have even tried missing out veg but no difference. Every other diet I have ever tried I have had the opposite problem.
Have now bought your receipe book as well after thinking I didnt need it. Wow it is great! lots of receipes I can adjust myself. This is such a brilliant diet.
Many thanks, Maddy
Hi Zoe,
Can u use coconut milk/cream in a tin on this diet….I want to add it to soups.
Thanks,
Jenny
I am on day 1 of phase 1 and worried about the yogurt i have eaten, does anyone know if Rachel’s organic greek style natural bio live yogurt is ok, its just that is has lots of calories, fat and carbs. Thanks in advance !.
Hi Zoe!
The link to the page on Total Greek Yoghurt brings up a 404. The only listed ingredients are
Pasteurised skimmed cows’ milk, live active yoghurt cultures (L.Bulgaricus, S. Thermophilus, L. Acidophilus, Bifidus, L. Casei)
So I assume this is okay to have in Phase 1?
Thanks,
A-L
Hi Zoe,
Would it be ok to have a yogurt drink and strained yogurt in Phase 1 as well? Or are those only allowed in Phase 2?
Much thanks!
Hi Zoe, I have just bought both the harcombe diet book and recipe book, I’m a little confused if I can actually have coconut milk on phase 1 and if so is there a limit?
Thanks,
Emma.
hi
I have been on the harcombe diet for 8 days now i started at 12stone 5half i have been eating for breakfast 2 poached eggs bacon and tin chopped tomatoes yoe vally naturel bio yogurt then either steak salad or chicken salads or stir frys iv had no alcohol and changed to decaff tea i went on the scales today and i was 12stone 7half absolutely gutted :o(( i dont know what i am doing wrong i have been eating alot of live yogurt do you think it can be that ??? can anyone give me some ideas please x
Hi Debs – we’ve set up a forum to help people with support and questions about the diet. Check it out here:
http://www.theharcombedietclub.com/
Very best wishes – Zoe
Hi Zoe, I wanted to check and see if coconut milk /dessicated coconut/coconut flour is classed as a fat or a carb? I use them if I want a treat especially as I have recently done a Candida diet which recommended coconut as it contains Caprylic Acid which helps fight Candida.
Many thanks,
Claire
Hi Zoe, I’ve tried getting NLY at my local Marks and Spencer simply food. I was shocked when the staff really didn’t have a clue and opted for the only thing I could see which was unsweetened and probiotic, but no low-fat, which was ‘Greek Style unsweetened probiotic yoghurt’. It doesn’t have any ingredients on it (it says no added ingredients), so I thought I was probably safe, but it doesn’t mention anywhere whether it’s live or not. Can you let me know if this sounds like a safe bet.
Many thanks,
Simon
Hi Simon – Short answer yes! We have more yoghurt questions in the club than we know what to do with! All help here:
Best wishes – Zoe
HI Zoe
Can you tell me are any soya products allowed and how about soya yogurt is it live? is it allowed please. Am starting diet today.
Thanks Gail