With no artificial colours, flavours, or gelatin, there is finally a vegetarian yogurt that's good and good for you.
It's hard to find a decent vegetarian yogurt.
There are some excellent plain and organic ones, for sure....but they can be hard to find and don't always come in convenience-sized tubs.
Way back when, yogurt used to be milk, sugar, and fruit. Recently though, the demand for sugar-free and fat-free products seems to have forced manufacturers to fill up their "yogurt" with other stuff - like gelatin - to give it a thicker texture and better mouthfeel.
What's wrong with gelatin? Well, it's definitely not vegetarian. For a no-nonense definition of what gelatin is, simply type "what is gelatin" in Google search. Bleh.
Anyway, the only options for gelatin-free yogurt in my local store have been (until recently) some plain yogurts and some very full-fat yogurts - the ones with 8% or more milkfat. Don't get me wrong - these are delicious yogurts - but they are not for every day unless one is looking to add on a few pounds.
Enter Naturalia yogurt. Made by Danone (whose other products contain gelatin), Naturalia is marketed as containing only natural ingredients, and no gelatin. The ingredients are as follows (strawberry flavour): skim milk, concentated skim milk, strawberries, fructose, cream, cane sugar, milk and whey protein concentrates, natural flavours, citrus fruit pectin, locust bean gum, active bacterial cultures, natural colour, calcium lactate.
At 100 calories per 100g mini-tub, this 2.1 % milkfat yogurt is a great snack or dessert after lunch. Its 14 grams of sugar are comparable to other brands. Best of all, it has a very, very creamy texture. It's unctuous, almost.
I highly recommend Naturalia yogurt for flavour and give it three cheers for going the natural route, and for making their newest yogurt gelatin-free. It's about time!
Jill
