At the Yogurt In Nutrition Initiative, we look forward to a more sustainable 2020 and we bring you 12 food resolutions to protect our health and our planet! This month’s resolution is: If you’ve been overeating, eat less and adjust your food and energy intake to the recommended levels (2000-2500kcal/day).

For a more sustainable and healthy diet, if you’ve been overeating, eat less!

Currently, more than 820 million people in the world go hungry, while others might be overweight. A good management of the resources and a fair distribution of foods could be the a way to overcome these serious issues.

Many people have a poor-quality diet with too few micronutrients, vitamins and minerals, and/or too many high-energy foods with “empty” calories. Overeating is a common practice in wealthier countries. We often exceed the energy intake recommended and it might have drawbacks for both the environment and health.

A first step to reduce the environmental footprint and greenhouse gas emissions of the human diet in the Western world could be to adjust our food and energy intake to recommended levels (2000-2500 kcal/day). Indeed, energy intake should balance energy expenditure. So why not trying to establish healthy eating habits?

Remember that breakfast is one of the most important meals of the day! An adequate composition will satiate you until lunchtime. Our previous resolution about making tasty breakfast bowls will help you start your day healthily. Dinner should be a light meal without restriction: don’t overload your digestion before bed. If you still feel hungry, wait 20 minutes to see if your hunger is calming down.

Furthermore, research has shown that people who eat too much can significantly cut down their carbon footprint by reducing their calorie intake to a sensible level (or to an appropriate level). Avoiding overeating could be a way to preserve our planet while providing enough food to feed everyone. Reducing the prevalence of overweight and obesity would decrease complications such as. as type 2 diabetes, and reduce carbon costs related to medical care needed.

For more information, check out our Q&A about sustainable:

• What is a sustainable diet?
• What would a more sustainable diet means for you?

You may also like our energy-reduced recipes:

• Whole weat yogurt waffles
• Smoky salmon tacos with greek yogurt sauce
• Ultimate strawberry frozen yogurt

Sources:

• Van Est L, Blom L, Peters S. Decreasing the environmental footprint of our diet – wrong paradigm? ‘Less animal more plant-based’. Translation from: Voeding Magazine. 2017:p15-22. 

• FAO & WHO. Sustainable healthy diets guidelines principles. 2019.

• Global Nutrition report. 2018. 

• 2004. Human energy requirements. Report of a Joint FAO/WHO/UNU Expert Consultation. Food and Nutrition Technical Report Series. Rome. FAO. 96 pp.

Eating to protect our health and our planet

Chaired by : Sharon Donovan and Olivier Goulet

• Creating a sustainable food future: a menu of solutions to feed nearly 10 billion people by 2050 – Janet Ranganathan
• Healthy and sustainable diets: What do we learn from modeling studies?– Pieter van’t Veer
• How to achieve sustainable healthy eating in practice?– Jess Haines

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Two types of sugars

There are two types of sugars:

• Intrinsic sugars, that are natural part of whole foods such as lactose in plain milk, yogurt and dairy or fructose in fruits and vegetables.
• Added or free sugars, added to foods by manufacturers, cook or you. Among added sugars, there are: table sugar, caramel, honey, jam, fruit juice, molasses, fruit puree, agave syrup,

The consumption of intrinsic sugars is normal whereas the intake of added sugar must be limited. The WHO advise to limit the intake of free sugars below 10% of daily calories.

Lactose in yogurt is not an added or free sugar

Plain yogurt and flavored yogurt (industrial or homemade) contain about 3,7% of lactose.

Plain yogurt does not provide free sugars whereas flavored yogurt provide very variable amounts of free sugars.

How to decrease free sugars consumption?

Here are some ideas to decrease free sugars when flavoring your plain yogurt:

• Use a teaspoon instead of pouring freely
• Use spices or herbs that increase your feeling of sweetness such as cinnamon, anise, nutmeg, vanilla, mint… although they are sugar-free!
• Progressively decrease the amount of sweet flavoring over the weeks, your palate will get used to it
• Keep a limit of no more than 10 teaspoons of free sugars per day (50 g/d) for a 2000 kcal/diet (according to the World Health Organization).

Sources:

• WHO (2015). Sugars intake for adults and children.
• ANSES (2018). Ciqual.
• Saint-Eve A. et al. (2016). Appetite;99:277-284.

For more information

• Do you sweeten yogurt? (and why you shouldn’t have to)
• How much sugar do you add in plain yogurts?
• Yogurts vary widely in sugar content, survey shows
• Yogurt is a low contributor to sugar intake in European children

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What is plain yogurt made of?

Plain yogurt is made of a few ingredients and especially more than 98% milk and less than 2% milk ferments (Lactobacillus bulgaricus & Streptococcus thermophilus). Plain yogurt is a nutrient dense food. Indeed, it contains protein (~4%), sugars (~ 3.7%), fat (0 to 3.5%), calcium, live bacteria, minerals and vitamins.

Sugars in plain yogurt are represented by lactose

The main sugar of milk is intrinsic lactose. Due to fermentation, as bacteria feed on lactose, yogurt contains 23% less sugars than milk and is easier to digest. In the intestine, live bacteria release their own lactase. Thus, yogurt’s live bacteria improve digestion of lactose in individuals with lactose maldigestion.

Sources:

• FAO/WHO (2011). Codex Alimentarius. Milk and milk products.
• ANSES (2018). Ciqual.
• USDA (2019). FoodData Central.
• Source: EFSA (2010). Scientific Opinion. Journal;8(10):1763.

For more information

• Yogurt beyond nutrient density: a look back in 2019:
• Lactose as a nutrient
• What is the function of lactose?
• Yogurt consumption helps meet nutrient intake requirements
• Boost your nutrient intake with a daily yogurt
• Yogurt consumption, signature of a healthy diet and lifestyle

IN A NUTSHELL:  Recently published in Nutrition Journal, this study investigated the relation between dairy products consumption and blood pressure, in a large cohort of French women. Previous studies about the relation between dairy consumption and hypertension provided inconsistent results but this publication shows that in this large prospective cohort, overall consumption of dairy products was not associated with risk of hypertension.

Abstract

Source: Villaverde P. et al. Dairy product consumption and hypertension risk in a prospective French cohort of women;Nutr J. 2020 Feb 5;19(1):12. doi: 10.1186/s12937-020-0527-2.

To go further, we may have som documents for you:

• Milk and dairy products in health : a series of systematic reviews
• Yogurt may reduce the risk of high blood pressure
• Yogurt benefits blood pressure in women
• High protein diets lead to lower blood pressure
• Regular yogurt consumption is associated with reduced heart risk in people with hypertension
• Call for more research into role of yogurt in combating cardiometabolic diseases

You can also try some tasty recipes

• Labneh with tomatoes, pesto and tapenade
• Make tzatziki with yogurt and cucumbers
• Fruit salad with yogurt honey-lime dressing

IN A NUTSHELL: The current global outbreak of Coronavirus (COVID-19) has disrupted food systems around the world. In a recent publication, the United Nations System Standing Committee on Nutrition (UNSCN) explains how food environments are rapidly changing in this context. It provides specific examples of positive policy actions to mitigate changes and improve food environments and nutrition during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

 Source: United Nations System Standing Committee on Nutrition, “RECENT NEWS Food Environments in the COVID-19 Pandemic Impacts and positive policy actions to deliver sustainable healthy diets for all”, 2020

TO GO FURTHER, WE MAY HAVE SOME DOCUMENTS FOR YOU:

• Yogurt consumption, signature of a healthy diet and lifestyle
• Malnutrition in a obese world: How yogurt can help?
• Eating to protect our health – and our planet: What needs to change in food production to help us achieve a sustainable diet?

At the Yogurt In Nutrition Initiative, we look forward to a more sustainable 2020.  Based on all the science we’ve read and the materials we’ve published on the subject, we bring you 12 food resolutions to protect our health and our planet! This month’s goal: introduce a greater variety of foods in your diet and…

…include some of the food groups that you don’t usually eat, like legumes (beans, lentils, peas) and seeds.

The international dietary recommendation (The FAO & WHO report) are quite clear: eat more vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts and seeds, and less red meat or added sugars. It advises to eat at least 400g of fruits and vegetables a day. If your diet is mostly based on processed foods, increasing the diversity of foods in your diet will benefit your health.

We tend to build our meals around the same foods that we know how to cook. However, the possibilities are greater than we think. For instance, adding germinate seeds to salads or whole grains to starters improve the nutritional value of regular recipes.

Each food group has specific health benefits:

• Fruits and vegetables are sources of insoluble and soluble fibers. They also provide vitamins, carotenoids, polyphenols and antioxidants. Try to replace jam in the yogurt by pieces of fruit, or to add fruits when you are backing a cake
• Nuts and seeds are rich in vitamin E and healthy unsaturated fats such as Omega-3 fatty acid. They’re a great option when looking for a healthy snack and staying dynamic.
• Legumes such as lentils are a great source of plant proteins, B vitamins and magnesium (which helps to protect against cardiovascular diseases risk).

And don’t forget dairy foods! They contain high-quality proteins, vitamins, calcium, phosphorus, zinc… and have a key role in a well-balanced diet. Dairy products are not just a nutrient-rich food group, they also have a lower environmental footprint than other animal products.

Think about combination! It is a good way to enjoy all the food benefits at the same time. For instance, a study suggests that eating yogurt and fruit together brings the nutritional benefits of each. They are both healthy and nutrient dense foods! They are associated with healthy dietary patterns. Combining yogurt with fruits provides synergistic effects on health by the interaction of prebiotic and probiotic effects on nutrient digestion and absorption.

Diversifying foods is a good way to meet our nutritional needs while reducing food costs and environmental damages. Because our health needs a variety of nutritious foods rather than large amounts of just a few ingredients, it is crucial to diversify our diet.

For more information, check out our Q&A about sustainable diets and our study reports:

• What would a more sustainable diet mean to you?
• What needs to change in food production to help us achieve a sustainable diet?
• What is a flexitarian diet?
• Magnesium found in yogurt may help protect cardiovascular diseases risk
• Yogurt and fruits: the winning combination

You may also like our recipes based on diverse foods:

• Banana yogurt pancakes
• Corn and Peach palm soup
• Deep fried potato greek yogurt shrimp and almond croquette

Sources:

• FAO & WHO. Sustainable healthy diets guidelines principles. 2019.

• Willett W, Rockström J, Loken B, et al. EAT-Lancet Commission Summary report: Food in the anthropocene: the EAT– Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems. Lancet. 2019;393(10170):447-492.

• Van Est L, Blom L, Peters S. Decreasing the environmental footprint of our diet – wrong paradigm? ‘Less animal more plant-based’. Translation from: Voeding Magazine. 2017:p15-22.

• World Resources Institute. Ranganathan J, Vennard D, Waite R et al. Working paper: Shifting diets for a sustainable food future. 2016.

• Chen C, Chaudhary A, Mathys A. Dietary change scenarios and implications for environmental, nutrition, human health and economicdimensions of food sustainability. Nutrients. 2019 Apr 16;11(4).