Evolving WellnessTM

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Review: Danone Naturalia Yogurt

Published
by Evita
 on May 4, 2008
 in Food, Nutritional Information, Reviews
. Tags: , .

naturalyogurt.JPGI have recently begun to pay much more attention to the yogurt I eat, as I really enjoy yogurt and feel it does have some valuable health benefits.  I always made sure that the yogurt was not heavily processed such as fat-free, or sugar-free or contained any artificial sweeteners or colors. 

However, I became so comfortable with a few brands over the years that I neglected to focus in on their nutritional labels.  And to tell you the truth, I was pretty sure that most yogurts did not have trans fats in it. Well I recently started to re-examine my usual brands and was shocked to find trans fats in them. So I am not sure if I missed this somehow in the past or if the way they make them now, they contain trans fats. I also noticed the saturated fat was way too much for my liking.  So I searched for new alternatives and came across Danone’s Naturalia.

This yogurt is a fairly new product, especially to the Canadian market and I tried the strawberry and the plain varieties. The yogurt in one word is delicious! It is nice and creamy and tastes “very real”. For example I tried other strawberry yogurts before and they were too red and the strawberry taste was like a candy strawberry flavor.  The Naturalia strawberry yogurt also includes some fruit pieces of real strawberries, which I enjoyed. The texture of the yogurt is the typical “runny” yogurt not solidified like Balkan style yogurts, so no necessary stirring to mix in the fruits.

I fell in love instantly with this yogurt because it contains no preservatives, no gelatin, no colors or artificial flavors. The fact that is contains no gelatin is also nice for vegetarians. The saturated fat content is very low and the sugar content is lower compared to other yogurts. The sodium content is in a low and in an acceptable range, it contains very little cholesterol and a good amount of protein.  On top of that it is fortified with a bunch of critical vitamins and minerals.

Ingredients (for strawberry flavor)

  • Skim Milk
  • Concentrated Skim Milk
  • Strawberries
  • Cream
  • Fructose
  • Cane Sugar
  • Milk and Whey Protein Concentrates
  • Natural Flavor
  • Citrus Fruit Pectin
  • Locust Bean Gum (natural thickener)
  • Active Bacterial Cultures
  • Natural Color
  • Calcium Lactate

Nutritional Information (per 125g of strawberry flavor)

  • 120 Calories
  • 2.5 g Fat (1.5g Saturated Fat)
  • 6g Protein
  • 19g Carbohydrate (18g Sugar)
  • 75mg Sodium
  • 10mg Cholesterol

Vitamins & Minerals  

  • 20% Calcium
  • 20% Vitamin B12
  • 15% Vitamin B2
  • 15% Phosphorus
  • 6% Magnesium
  • 2% Iron
  • 2% Vitamin A

Packaging

You can get the yogurt in 650g plastic tub containers. The plastic is #5, so safe (as far as we know today) for our health and easily recyclable.  You can also purchase the yogurt in multiples of single cups of 4X100g, 8X100g or 12X100g each.

Price (as of this posting)

  • Around $4.79 CDN for the  4X100g packs
  • Around $3.00 CDN for the 650g tubs

Availability

  • In Canada and the United States in local supermarkets, grocery stores and variety stores
  • I am not sure if it is available in Europe or other parts of the world

The Good

  • Delicious taste
  • Great Texture
  • No trans fats
  • Low saturated fats
  • Lower sugar than most other yogurts
  • Not overly sweet
  • No artificial colors
  • No artificial flavors
  • No artificial preservatives
  • No gelatin
  • Ingredients and nutritional information easily found on product label
  • Fortified with a great mix of vitamins and minerals
  • Fair price
  • Good packaging

The Bad

  • It is sweetened (not too much, but still)
  • It is not organic

Overall Rating as a Great Natural Product

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WELLNESS RATING: Very Good
Rating of 8 out of 10 8 OUT OF 10

One Comment, Comment or Ping

  1. Brandi Magill says:

    I know the feeling all to well. I don’t pay much attention to my caloric intake but when I started looking at the lables for the ingredients listed in my fav foods I was just as shocked. I have given up on yogurt but will have to take another look at the Dannon you mentioned. You have given me hope:~)

    May 8th, 2008

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