How to choose yogurt for babies? Yogurt is made by heating and pasteurizing fresh milk, inoculating it with Lactobacillus acidophilus, and fermenting it at around 30°C for 4-6 hours. Rich in nutrients, yogurt is easily digestible and stimulates gastric acid secretion. Lactobacillus multiplies in the intestines, inhibiting harmful bacteria, regulating gut flora, and preventing detrimental effects from putrefactive amines.
Furthermore, most of the lactose in milk is fermented into lactic acid during this process. This makes yogurt less likely to cause abdominal pain or diarrhea in individuals with lactose intolerance. Consequently, yogurt is an ideal food for those with digestive sensitivities, infants, and the elderly.
1. When selecting yogurt, consider your baby's taste preferences.
By production method: Yogurt is categorized as stirred or set-style, with slight taste differences (set-style yogurt tends to be more tart), but no nutritional distinction. Parents should choose based on their baby's preference.
By ingredients and additives: Yogurt is primarily categorized into plain yogurt, flavored yogurt, and fruit-flavored yogurt. Plain yogurt is fermented using only milk or reconstituted milk. Flavored or fruit-flavored yogurt is made by adding sugar, flavorings, or natural fruit ingredients to milk or reconstituted milk during fermentation. Parents are advised to choose plain yogurt for their babies.
By fat content: Yogurt is generally categorized as whole-fat, low-fat, or nonfat. Whole-fat yogurt is rich in vitamins A and D, making it the most nutritionally valuable yogurt product. Parents may consider choosing whole-fat yogurt for their babies.
2. Carefully examine labels before purchasing
Pay particular attention to the ingredient list and product composition to distinguish between yogurt and yogurt drinks. Per national standards, both yogurt and dairy-based beverages must list ingredients and composition on packaging. Yogurt ingredient lists should indicate a protein content of no less than 2.9% or 2.3%.Yogurt drinks typically list water and sorbic acid in their ingredients, with protein content labeled at no less than 1.0% or 0.7%.
3. Taste it carefully after purchase
Yogurt should have the distinctive flavor of pure lactic acid fermentation; yogurt drinks, however, have a much milder dairy taste and often feature fruit flavors.
Fermented dairy beverages are active or inactive products made by blending water, sugar solutions, etc., into a milk emulsion fermented with lactic acid bacteria from fresh milk or milk powder. Products with protein content ≥1.0% are termed lactic acid bacteria milk beverages, while those with ≥0.7% protein are called lactic acid bacteria beverages.Products that add acidulants for flavoring to formulated dairy-based beverages, along with fermented products, can be categorized as acidified milk beverages. Fermented active products contain a certain quantity of live beneficial microorganisms, such as lactic acid bacteria, which can inhibit putrefactive bacteria in the human intestine and promote the digestion and absorption of nutrients.
After rapid growth in the early 1990s, dairy-based beverage products have now entered a period of stable development. Currently, except for a few manufacturers specializing in dairy-based beverages, most dairy companies produce these products only as a supplementary line.Milk-based beverages are an extremely common type of nutritional drink. While they possess some nutritional value, the primary ingredient in most such products is water—accounting for up to two-thirds of the total volume—resulting in nutritional content equivalent to only one-third that of pure milk.