Ingredients

Serves: 4

• ½ cup non-fat plain Greek yogurt
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar
• ¼ teaspoon mustard powder
• ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
• ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
• ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 plum tomatoes
• 2 Kirby or Persian cucumbers
• ¼ head romaine lettuce
• 1 yellow bell pepper
• 2 medium carrots

Instructions

1. Put the yogurt in a medium bowl, add the basil and parsley, and stir to combine. Set aside.
2. Mince the garlic.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the garlic, vinegar, mustard powder, salt, and black pepper.
4. While whisking, slowly drizzle in the olive oil until emulsified.
5. Cut the tomatoes and cucumbers into ¼-inch dice and shred the romaine. Cut the yellow bell pepper in half, discard the seeds, and cut into ¼-inch dice. Peel and grate the carrots.
6. To assemble the parfaits, layer the bottom of each of 4 parfait glasses with ¼ cup diced tomatoes, followed by ¼ cup diced cucumbers and ½ cup shredded lettuce.
7. Gently press down with the back of a spoon to pack the ingredients.
8. Top with 2 tablespoons of the yogurt mixture, ¼ cup of the diced yellow pepper, and then ¼ cup of the shredded carrots.
9. Drizzle with 1½ tablespoons of the vinaigrette.

Serving size

1 parfait

Nutrition information (per serving)

Calories: 168; Total Fat: 14 grams; Saturated Fat: 2 grams; Protein: 4 grams; Total Carbohydrates: 9 grams; Sugars: 4 grams; Fiber: 2 grams; Cholesterol: 0 milligrams; Sodium: 166 milligrams

Recipes from THE GREEK YOGURT KITCHEN by Toby Amidor. Copyright © 2014 by Toby Amidor. Used with permission by Grand Central Publishing. All rights reserved.

Photo credit : Hollan Publishing

The 3rd yogurt summit is indeed a great success with more than 250 participants, many questions and an amazing social activity on our #yogurt2015 that generated 432 tweets and 632,193 impressions on Twitter.

Yes, it’s done, but far from over!

In the coming days, our editorial will share with you great content from the event so you feel as though you were there : video interviews of our speakers, a summary report, photos and a detailed coverage of the entire Yogurt Summit.

So make sure you stay connected to the #Yogurt2015 community. Why not take a look at our brand new website: dev.yogurtinnutrition.com. We have given it new life and refreshed it from the ground up to make our content easy to access. Looking for yogurt info ? We’ve got content for that !

Did you get Toby’s book ?

Toby Amidor, MS, RD, CDN, founder of Toby Amidor Nutrition, has written a book entirely devoted to the cult product, “The Greek Yogurt Kitchen: More than 130 Delicious, Healthy Recipes for Every Meal of the Day”. Toby is the contributor to FoodNetwork.com Healthy Eats blog and US News & World Report Eat + Run blog and has a monthly column in Today’s Dietitian Magazine. She is also the nutrition advisor for Sears’ FitStudio and an adjunct professor at Teachers College, Columbia University.

As a special guest of 3rd Yogurt Summit, Toby attended a signing session of her new book. If you missed it, you can grab her book right here : http://buff.ly/1EgdNIU

Saturday, March 28th, 2015 – 8:00 am – Room YELLOW 2

WCO, IOF and ESCEO have worked in partnership for several years to develop a unique European springtime meeting programme for healthcare professionals, researchers and young scientists. With over 4,500 participants, this has become the largest educational event and most vibrant clinical research forum for osteoporosis, osteoarthritis and musculoskeletal diseases in Europe.

In these context, the Yogurt in Nutrition Initiative for a Balanced Diet will be holding a satellite symposium dedicated to weight management and musculoskeletal health. The preliminary program can be viewed hereafter.

Mean intake of yogurt, based on 3 consecutive days, was 21 g/day, with 24% of consumers who had a mean intake of 88 g/day. However, more detailed data suggest that consumption of this product is associated with a healthy lifestyle. Yogurt consumers showed a global positive trend towards a better diet quality (PanDiet score) and increasing interest in nutritional information. Females were twice as likely to consume yogurt and consumption was much higher for 18-64-year-olds vs. 65-year-olds, as well as for higher vs. lower physical activity. Smokers were 30% less likely to consume yogurt than non-smokers.

The time of day at which yogurt is consumed is a significant factor in how often it is consumed. Breakfast was the moment of consumption for which highest intake was registered (8.3 g/day vs. 4.8 g/day for snacking) and regular breakfast consumers were 2.7 times more likely to eat yogurt than those who skipped it. People who reported often eating out also showed a reduced tendency to consume yogurt.

Source: Turrini, A et al. The FASEB Journal 2014 vol. 28 no. 1 Supplement 1018.2

The possible effects of dairy consumption on diabetes prevention remain controversial, although some recent data unveiled growing scientific evidence for the benefits of yogurt consumption. This study investigated specifically the impact of dairy consumption on type-2 diabetes risk in the elderly.

The authors prospectively followed 3,454 non-diabetic individuals from the PREDIMED study. After a follow-up of 4.1 years, results showed that total dairy product consumption was associated with a reduced T2D risk of 32%. This association appeared to be mainly attributed to low-fat dairy. The association was even lightly stronger with total yogurt consumption (-40%). Furthermore, the study also revealed that yogurt as a snack can be beneficial: substituting 1 unhealthy snack portion per day (biscuit, chocolate or cake) with 1 portion of yogurt can reduce the risk of T2D by up to 45%. These findings highlight the potential role of dairy products, like yogurt, in the prevention of T2D in older adults.

Why is yogurt best?

Although nutritionally, yogurt is comparable to milk, the processing, added ingredients, and fermentation improve the nutritional value of yogurt and provide it with unique properties that enhance the bioavailability of some nutrients (e.g. riboflavin, vitamin B12, calcium, magnesium, zinc). Therefore, yogurt consumption may help to alleviate some of the most common nutritional deficits and related complications in older adults.

Multiple mechanisms might mediate the relationship between dairy consumption and T2D risk. A potential benefit on T2D has been attributed to components of dairy products such as calcium, magnesium, potassium, vitamin A and vitamin D. Some other recent research suggests that probiotic bacteria found in yogurt may improve fat profiles and antioxidant status.

Source : Andrés Díaz-López et al. European Journal of Nutrition 2015 doi10.1007/s00394-015-0855-8

Yogurt exists in countless guises, as a nutritious food, a moisturiser or remedy for burns and psoriasis. It was probably invented by Neolithic people in central Asia around 5000 BC, when the first milk-producing animals were domesticated. They most likely found out how to ferment milk by chance. By 2000 BC, the diets of half the humans on earth included dairy products. Genghis Khan fed his army on fermented mares’ milk.

The word yogurt comes from Turkish, indicating that it arrived in Europe from the Ottoman Empire. It was brought to Vienna by the nomadic farmers of the Balkans and the Turkish army.

Ilya Mechnikov, a Nobel Prize-winning scientist at the Institut Pasteur, was the first to publish research on the potential benefits of yogurt. The bacteria that cause fermentation can prevent stomach ulcers.

The first yogurt factory was opened in Barcelona in 1919, named Danone or “little Daniel” after the owner’s son. Yogurt production is a complex process and today’s yogurt is a far cry from the curds eaten by the Mongol hordes. However it is also possible to make it at home using boiled and cooled milk mixed with a few spoonfuls of real natural yogurt and then left to ferment for 24 hours. It can be eaten just as it is, in soups, with pureed fruit or as the basis of a delicious tzatziki.

Source: Courrier International, December 2014 (in french)

In this experiment, participants were presented with different types of yogurt, with varying levels of sugar and fat content. Even after seeing this information on the list of ingredients, the volunteers did not immediately choose the yogurt that was lowest in calories. This choice was observed most among those individuals who do not eat a balanced diet.

However, both unhealthy and healthy eaters said taste was the main factor in their decision as to which yogurt to select, and it could not be overcome by providing them with nutritional information, according to the study published recently in the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing. Unhealthy is widely associated with being tasty, and taste remains the main driver of food decisions.

According to the authors, the challenge is therefore to make healthy foods more attractive by working on the emotional side of how we taste and reinforcing the message that a healthy diet can be synonymous with gastronomy and enjoying our food.

Yogurt never tasted so good

Thankfully, there are now yogurts available for just about everyone! Smooth and creamy, yogurt is available in so many flavors and consistencies that we can choose based on our personal preferences and taste: stirred, set, drinkable, with fruit, flavored, made of whole, semi-skimmed or skimmed milk, with or without added sugar.

Furthermore, yogurt can be eaten at any meal of the day, making it a versatile pleasure and a habit that can easily be integrated into our daily lives. Finally, yogurt is an accessible pleasure for many because it is an easy way to digest milk, and is the only dairy product that is gentle enough for the lactose intolerant.

SOURCE: Robert Mai and Stefan Hoffmann. How to Combat the Unhealthy = Tasty Intuition: The Influencing Role of Health Consciousness. Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, January 2015

The decline of dairy products consumption in adolescence is mainly driven by a reduction in milk intake and much higher in girls than in boys. Only 8% of 12-year olds and 6% of 17-year olds adhered to the recommended intake of ≥3.5 serves/day of the dairy food group.

In contrast, cheese and yogurt consumption remained low but stable (each accounting for about 25% of intake in terms of serves) between the ages of 12 and 17 in males and females. Frequent flavored-milk consumption (>= 2 serves/week) at baseline was also associated with similar to 5-fold greater likelihood of maintaining intakes of dairy foods above the median during adolescence.

The observed decrease in dietary contribution from this important food is of concern, and could have implications for the future development of non-communicable diseases. Targeted measures should be introduced to address this. In this context, yogurt could potentially play the role of a transition food among adolescents, replacing milk but continuing the sufficient consumption of dairy, which is crucial for growth in particular.

Source: Gopinath, B et al. ASIA PACIFIC JOURNAL OF CLINICAL NUTRITION 2014, 23 (4):612-618; 10.6133/apjcn.2014.23.4.05 2014

In this study, a total of 564 Canadians (160 obese and 404 non-obese individuals) consumed yogurt and were then classified as “consumers”, after filling in a food frequency questionnaire. Results showed that daily yogurt consumption drives a prudent dietary pattern and is inversely associated to a Western dietary pattern. The Western diet is characterized by high intakes of red meat, sugary desserts and drinks, high-fat foods, and refined grains.

Moreover, the contribution of yogurt to daily energy intake was more pronounced in non-obese individuals (% of total energy, 2.92 % vs. 3.54 % respectively), who consumed more yogurt than obese individuals.

Given the relatively low yogurt consumption among general Canadian adults as compared with the European population, increasing yogurt intake among Canadians may be promising in helping to achieve greater adequacy for some of the shortfall nutrients and maintain metabolic well-being as part of a healthy, energy-balanced dietary pattern. Future longitudinal studies are warranted to confirm these findings, especially in obese populations.

Source : Cormier H et al. The FASEB Journal 2014 vol. 28 no. 1 Supplement 1018.6