Dairy for everybody
Children
The UK National Diet and Nutrition survey, conducted in 2000, was a survey of the diets of young people aged 4-18 years. It showed, among other things, that children's diets contained higher than recommended amounts of non-milk extrinsic sugars (sugars that are potentially damaging to teeth), saturated fat and salt, and not enough fruit and vegetables. Some primary school children consumed diets that were low in vitamins and minerals and approximately one child in 12 has a diet deficient in vitamin A. Of the 7-10 year olds surveyed, one in 20 had a diet that was deficient in calcium and magnesium.
A soft drink and bag of crisps are popular break-time snacks. If a child consumed a carton of yogurt and piece of fruit instead, his or her dietary intake would come closer to the Department of Health recommendations. Non-milk extrinsic sugars, saturated fat and salt intakes would decline and intakes of vitamin A, zinc, calcium and magnesium would increase.
Concerns about weight are sometimes a barrier to providing snacks and of course, some so called ‘healthy’ snacks are simply not appealing to image-conscious children. However, a pot of fruit yogurt looks like a trendy dessert and is generally popular with children! Plain milk and yogurt do not cause tooth decay and for this reason dentists (and the British Dental Association) say that milk and yogurt are the best snacks for dental health.
Yogurt and bone health
An adequate calcium intake during childhood and adolescence is important for the development of healthy bones. Several studies have shown that adding extra calcium to primary school-age children increased bone mineral density*. In a study of 48 girls aged between 9 and 13 years, the addition of extra dairy products and yogurt to their diets results in a greater gain in bone mineral density compared with girls who did not eat extra dairy foods**.
Teens
Teenage girls are usually obsessed with their weight. Whether the increasingly obese teenagers we see everywhere or the smaller numbers of ultra-thin girls dieting a little too much, we still need to care for them and give them the best advice. The wonderful thing about yogurt is that it deals with a lot of the problems teens face, like looking uncool when they eat healthy food. A pot of yogurt doesn't look uncool.
A teenager's body needs the nutrients yogurt gives as a complete food. And for the diet obsessed teenager, yogurt is perfect because it doesn't feel as if it's filling her up or leaving her stuffed, when it is probably dealing her double the nutrients of any fast food.
* Johnson e al, 1992, Lee et al, 1994, Bonjour et al, 1997 Dibba et al, 2000
** Chan et al 1995
Pregnant and nursing mothers
It can be hard to keep food down in the early stages of pregnancy. Even in the later, ‘blossoming’ months, you might not fancy cooking or suffer indigestion. Yogurt is the perfect food for pregnant women because it nourishes without adding bulk and of course breastfeeding women are getting extra calcium and B vitamins, essential for putting back what nature is taking out. Yogurt always fills the energy gap yet being a low calorie food, it will help you lose excess post-pregnancy pounds too.
Midlifers
Whatever your experience of midlife, whether plagued with hot flushes, weight gain or general lack of motivation about yourself, feeling those pounds pile on and seeing the skin suffering dryness and loss of elasticity is enough to send you running to the nearest chocolate cake. Well don't! Keeping a svelte figure is easy with yogurt. And you feel great.
You need to cut back on calories to about 1,800 a day after the age of 45, (and if you have weight to lose, reduce further to 1,200) but don't just do it by eating less. You should eat less of the wrong things, like starchy and sweet things that provide hardly any nutrition, and hike up on the good stuff - yogurt of course. I have found that several servings of yogurt, plus low fat cheese and skimmed milk, in place of bread and pasta, keep weight down beautifully and make women look so much better!
The elderly
Older women have as many figure goals as younger women. I know of two women who were at the top of their tree during their working lives, wearing designer suits, traveling the world and never a hair out of place.
Now in their eighties they cannot and will not lower their standards and I hope I'm like them when I reach that age. But older internal organs need special care, and older people often have trouble digesting the things they used to eat with abandon. If you are getting on in years, or if you have an elderly person to care for, yogurt is the perfect nourishment without causing stress to the system.