Yogurt Question

[Dana114]

I should have read all those previous yogurt threads about Blue Bunny Lite 85 but just skimmed over them. Could someone kindly explain to me how come we can have these?

How does that work? Are they really legal? Can we really stay in ketosis, while in maintenance phase and have these occasionally? 14 grams of carbs is beyond what I would usually spend on a single carb item, especially a non-veggie item.

Do they effect blood sugar?

[pocahontas]

I didnt read the threads very well either, LOL! However, I thought that the BB contained food starch or something like that. I have eaten yogurt in the past but stuck with the full fat kind from Trader Joes because the only ingredients were whole milk and live cultures. I dont want that other junk, KWIM?

[Ntombi]

From my understanding, the FDA does not take into account the way the fermentation process "eats" some of the carbs in the milk as it turns to yogurt, so the listed carb count in yogurt may be as much as twice the actual number.

There are daily yogurt threads in the CC, and there are links there to explain the chemistry.

WOW! I get to answer a question for Dana!

[Ntombi]

I forgot to say that while I don't eat the Blue Bunny yogurt, I do eat Stonyfield's or Trader Joe's full fat plain yogurt. I eat only about a third of a cup at a time, and add heavy cream (maybe a tbs, but I don't measure anything) and liquid Splenda or Da Vinci syrup, or, if I'm feeling really decadent, SF jam.

I've had no problems with it, but I still usually won't eat it alone, because I think I'd get hungry in too short a time after. There are a bunch of people who eat it alone, stay in ketosis, don't get hungry, and still lose, but I'm still leery of that.

Yogurt Thread


We don't get BlueBunny in this country, but I eat full fat natural Greek yogurt every day and simply sweeten it a little with Spenda or a Da Vinci syrup. I also drain big tubs into 'yocheese' and use it to cook with.

Seems to speed up my weight loss - but then there's mounting research that high Calcium levels prompt the body to lose fat:

High-calcium, low-calorie diets help obese mice lose weight at rates double those of mice given low levels of calcium. Researchers believe high levels of dietary calcium may suppress hormones that help us 'hold on' to stored fat. For any given level of energy balance -- of calorie intake and physical activity -- dietary calcium helps determine whether calories go to storage in the form of fat, or get burned.

The investigators were first tipped off to a potential link between calcium and fat metabolism in studies conducted years ago in obese men. When the men were placed on high-calcium diets they lost significant amounts of body fat, -- even though their calorie intake remained the same. Studies in mice suggested that low-calcium diets help stimulate hormones that push dietary calcium into fat cells. These hormones also appear to 'switch on' fat-storing and fat-preserving mechanisms within fat cells. High-calcium diets seem to have the opposite effect -- suppressing these weight-gain hormones so that the mice stay thin.

But would high-calcium diets help already obese mice lose weight? In their latest round of research, researchers provided overweight mice with one of five diets. One group of mice stayed on the same high-calorie, low-calcium regimens that made them fat to begin with. The other four groups were placed on 30% reduced-calorie diets with varying levels of calcium intake, either from supplements (calcium carbonate) or dairy (dry skim milk powder).

Animals placed on low-cal, low-calcium diets did lose a little weight -- about 11% of total body weight and 8% of total body fat. But obese mice placed on the high-calcium, low-cal diets lost roughly a fifth of their body weight and 42% of their body fat over the next 6 weeks. And mice who got their calcium from dairy lost even more -- a quarter of their body weight and 60% of their body fat.

Clinical trials are now underway, and results in humans should become available within a year. It's not clear why calcium from dairy might stimulate fat loss any more efficiently than supplemental calcium carbonate. Calcium is also found in produce such as collards, turnip greens, rhubarb, broccoli and kale.

Experimental Biology 2000 Conference San Diego April 17, 2000

[redblack]

I was going to start eating the yogurt, but after looking at a 32 oz container (full fat) kind, started to wonder why everyone was eating it ... it has a lot of sugar in it.

[Ntombi]

See the answers above, and the links. It's not added sugar, it's naturally occuring milk sugar (lactose) from the milk. Yes, that's what avoid as well, but like I said above, apparently quite a bit is disarmed in the fermentation process.

Originally posted by Ntombi
See the answers above, and the links. It's not added sugar, it's naturally occuring milk sugar (lactose) from the milk. Yes, that's what avoid as well, but like I said above, apparently quite a bit is disarmed in the fermentation process.

Aye, and also depends on what type of yogurt you're eating. It's my understanding that Bluebunny is sweetened with Splenda. The natural full-fat Greek yogurt I eat is unsweetened and is 4.5g of carbs on the label (i.e no subtracting whey etc).

[Ntombi]

Originally posted by Alestra
Aye, and also depends on what type of yogurt you're eating. It's my understanding that Bluebunny is sweetened with Splenda. The natural full-fat Greek yogurt I eat is unsweetened and is 4.5g of carbs on the label (i.e no subtracting whey etc).

That's interesting. I wonder what that label would say in the US. I know the UK and Europe have different labeling laws.

I don't know about the BB labels, since I only eat full fat plain, which has no sweetener added at all.

Originally posted by Ntombi
That's interesting. I wonder what that label would say in the US. I know the UK and Europe have different labeling laws.

I don't know about the BB labels, since I only eat full fat plain, which has no sweetener added at all.

Ntombi - I've no idea on the labelling differences, but here's a link to the stuff I eat with the nutritional values on: Rachel's Organic Greek Style Bio-live Natural Yogurt

[Ntombi]

Hmm...

Okay, here's the full fat plain from that company:
for 100g
Energy 67Kcal
Protein 3.7g
Carbohydrate 4.6g
Fat 3.8 g

And here's the full fat plain from Trader Joe's:

for 227g that's the difference, the serving size! It's more than twice as much in the US. Our's is one cup (227g), and yours is less than half a cup. Oh.
Energy 160Kcal
Protein 8g
Carbohydrate 11g
Fat 10 g

They seem pretty similar, and the Greek-style has almost identical stats.

Thanks, Alestra.

Ahh - that'll be it then!

Yes, all our labels are valued per 100g and I eat that much a day (usually at breakfast).

Mystery solved

[lovemydogs]

Wow..my idol...asking a question!

All I know is I added yogurt a few weeks ago and started losing weight. Even thought I was losing wieght, I decided on Monday to go back into ketosis because:
(a) I did not do it right the first time
(b) I was eating too many "legal" carbs (Nuts and cheeses)
(c) I was out of ketosis
(d) I was not drinking enough water

As of Monday, I am up three pounds (sigh) and I have been VERY good. (HONEST). I am going to stick to the induction because I believe that eventually it will pay off.

I loved eating the yogurt and believe it actually helped me lose water.

At your goal, you could easily try it and you would know right away if it is working for your body. If not, it would not take much to get back on track....

[lovemydogs]

All I know is I added yogurt a few weeks ago and started losing weight. Even thought I was losing wieght, I decided on Monday to go back into ketosis

oops too early.

I decided to go back into induction.

[DixieDreamer]

I do have yogurt occcasionally - but only a 1/2 cup serving of plain whole milk (cream on the top) yogurt. I also count if for the full carbs - just to be on the safe side.

[jgarreth]

I was skeptical about the yogurt thing too. I am trying it for a week or so. After reading all the postings about yogurt and the whole carb process, I figure these ladies know their stuff! I really needed something else to eat for breakfast and if I mix it with a little bit of Gram's nut crunchies, it really holds me until lunch. I'm careful to measure though.

Hopefully it won't stall me or make me gain! I'm trusting the experts!!

Jill
(down 1 more lb. finally)

[SpicyBC]

While I do eat plain full fat yogurt (Brown Cow cream top!! Yummie!) I'm a bit hesistant to have the Blue Bunny stuff. The flavors are pretty good, but there's something fakish about the yogurt texture. It seems to have some starch in it too as a thickener. For that reason alone, I'd avoid the Blue Bunny.

[Sharon]

I've added back yogurt into my WOE. I tried to find BB but it's not out in my area so I just bought some but aspertame is in it. I don't care - having yogurt again if wonderful! I usually have a container every other day and have had no evil effects on my body such as the scale going the wrong way.

[lkmjbc3]

Dana:

The real answer to your question is "we don't really know"! I can tell you this however.....

Take a tablespoon of yogurt and mix it with a quart of milk. Store the mixture in a warm place for 48 hours. Open the container. Something has happened to the milk!

The change of the milk from normal to yogurt requires energy. Since the container was closed not much energy crept in from the outside. SOMETHING! had to cause the milk to change.

I believe that the yogurt bacteria eats the milk sugars and breaks them down. Milk sugar is the only thing that these little bugs eat. Therefore some of the sugar is digested (turned into ash and water most likely).

Of course the real question is... how much? Again we don't know. We do know however that yogurt has about 1/2 the glycemic value of whole milk. Milk is already a very low glycemic value food. Yogurt has a value like many complex carbohydrates.

So, does the bacteria really eat the milk sugars... yes. How much.. I would guess about 1/2. Could I be wrong, yes... but how does one then explain the difference with the glycemic index?

lkmjbc3

[xbuffyx]

I hesitantly bought some Dannon Natural yogurt, it has no sugar or sweeteners and it is BITTER. Full fat too. So I put a little Splenda and extract in it for flavor. I have a small bowl of it at night when I can remember and I'm still losing - although I'm ending my TOM so I can't really judge. I just know I'm down 3 pounds from Monday so it definitely hasn't made me gain, and I suspect I will drop a couple more over the weekend as my TOM ends.

[JSSword]

Originally posted by lkmjbc3
Dana:

The real answer to your question is "we don't really know"! I can tell you this however.....

Take a tablespoon of yogurt and mix it with a quart of milk. Store the mixture in a warm place for 48 hours. Open the container. Something has happened to the milk!

The change of the milk from normal to yogurt requires energy. Since the container was closed not much energy crept in from the outside. SOMETHING! had to cause the milk to change.

I believe that the yogurt bacteria eats the milk sugars and breaks them down. Milk sugar is the only thing that these little bugs eat. Therefore some of the sugar is digested (turned into ash and water most likely).

Of course the real question is... how much? Again we don't know. We do know however that yogurt has about 1/2 the glycemic value of whole milk. Milk is already a very low glycemic value food. Yogurt has a value like many complex carbohydrates.

So, does the bacteria really eat the milk sugars... yes. How much.. I would guess about 1/2. Could I be wrong, yes... but how does one then explain the difference with the glycemic index?

lkmjbc3

I have tried the Dannon Full Fat, the Blue Bunny and also homemade yogurt. The ladies on the CC board can probably answer your questions the best, but I did my only little experiment.
In DANDR, Atkins talks about Clinistix. Those are little teststrips for detecting glucose in the foods you eat. They have to be mixed with saliva, so I only use them at home , so nobody gets grossed out...lol... anyway, I tested the Dannon Full Fat, the Blue Bunny and the homemade yogurt for glucose and the only one that didn't show any kind of glucose on the test strips was the homemade yogurt.
Needless to say, I ditched the Dannon Full Fat and the Blue Bunny and have been making my own homemade yogurt for the last 2 weeks and finally started losing again. I use the Davinci Sugar Free flavored syrups to sweeten up the homemade yogurt, because it tastes very sour plain.

So to answer your question, yes there are still carbs in the yogurt, but to a varying degree, and the BB has starch in it, I can taste it.

hth,
Jutta

[THINNER-2003]

Dana, I don't know the "technical" stuff about yogurt but this is what I CAN tell you from my own experience.

I've been eating yogurt usually one a day for months now... some days I don't but on the whole generally usually one a day, occasionally I have had 2 a day! (of the BB lite 85 yogurts I mean)

For ME, it simply CANNOT be really 13/14 carbs as the carton says. Period. Because I have done some experimenting and tried eating that many carbs in other legal foods (like more veggies) and I would either stall or gain weight. My CCLL is very low though. But yet I can have the yogurt and continued to lose? That proved to me that it's not really that amount of carbs. I counted usually 5 carbs- put in ****** as custom food. I truly believe that's about how much it is- because of doing the trial and error thing and with having yogurt at 5 carbs it keeps me right in line with what I needed to eat to lose weight- and now to maintain.

As for keeping in ketosis- it has never thrown me out of ketosis nor does it stimulate cravings like other LEGAL things do to me- such as other things made with splenda (I realize it has splenda in it- but all the other things I have made with splenda is using it in the powder form so maybe it's only powder form splenda that causes me problems?), heavy cream, etc.

I do make the yocheese now with the Dannon Full fat yogurt and mix it half/half of that with BB lite 85.... simply because the BB yogurt is 0 fat so it was messing up my fat %'s everytime I had it by itself. It's thicker, more filling, and keeps my %'s on track now by having a half/half mixture.

I've been eating 4 bb yogurts plus 3 cups of Dannon full fat yogurt with about 3 hardboiled eggs a day with 3 tsp mayo and am in the best ketosis ever! One day I ate 6 bbs and was still in! I also have TVP, granola or almonds with my yogurt, and I'm STILL in ketosis. I've been doing this since Saturday afternoon.

Don't be afraid. It really IS okay. I didn't believe it at first either.

Oh, and my hair looks FABU after this week. It's shiny and soft and Prent! My skin is much softer, too! I'm waiting on the wait loss since TOM is sneaking up on me. But, I feel the inches are coming off.

[Dana114]

Wow, thanks for the great information, you guys! This has been very helpful and I plan on bookmarking this thread. Appreciate it very much!

Shelley, thanks for giving me your experience. I had some LeCarb yogurt a couple of times and while it didn't knock me out of ketosis, I didn't really like the consistency. It is too soupy. Whereas the BB is nice and thick. I bought some BB yesterday and I will see what happens.

Thanks again, folks!

[JONAH'S GRANNY]

I've been eating two BB Lite Yogurts per day for months now. All I know is that I continued to lose while eating it and have not gained any since I have started Maintenance. I don't know all the particulars but checked out the "Yogurt Challenge" quite carefully before I started eating it. I don't think there could possibly be more than 5-6 carbs per container. I also consider it my source of calcium since I don't have any other dairy products (heavy cream, etc.). Good flora too -to fight the good old "yeasties" which is another issue (or was at one time for me). Give it a try.

[schaferk]

I eat BB Lite 85 once a day or every other day and still lose. They have such a wide variety of good flavers. KeyLime is excellent. I have not tried mixing it with yo-cheese yet but I'm looking forward to trying it. I'm not positive, but is seems like I lose better when I am eating the yogurt and don't stray off track as easily.

[MaryMary]

Someone once explained it to me that the lactose is converted to lactic acid in the process of fermentation, thus eliminating most of the carbs. I am lactose intolerant, yet I can eat the yogurt without problems.

[redblack]

When I went looking for Whole Milk yogurt, this is what I found:

Whole Milk
Brown Cow
Cream Top
Yogurt Plain (2 lbs)

1 cup serving
Calories: 170
total fat: 10 g
total carbohydrates: 12 g
Protein: 8 g

I trust this is OK to use; the numbers are pretty much the same as Trader Joe's (as someone posted above).

Dana, I'm a huge yogurt fan! I think it's the perfect food for maintenance -- perfect mix of protein/fat/carbs (not to mention calcium)!

When my kids are running late for school, it's the one thing I grab for them to eat in the car.

My good friends at the Atkins site say it's not OK to subtract. Someone posted either the link to the site location or the email, not too long ago. What that means to me is to count everything which makes it perfect for pre-maint or maint.

Yogurt is my standard breakfast nearly everyday.

[Xylus]

I read a site somewhere that said the bacteria actually breaks the lactose into glucose but who knows, there seems to be conflicting info. It doesn't really matter because it's the one thing (besides erythritol) that I can eat and still lose. In fact it was after eating bb's light 85 yogurt that I got down to a lower weight than I've been in a long time! I plan to keep eating this stuff, it's the perfect snack and a good way to get benenficial bacteria and calcium.