I think someone has really mislead you on yoghurt. If you get plain, natural yoghurt it’s not ultra processed.

YeGoblynQueenne 36 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

Nobody seems to have noticed the "product" next to "yogurt":

>> * Almost all yogurt products, flavored or otherwise

If we weren't on HN I'd say that's a subtle engagement hack calculated to generate maximum confusion and irate debate in the comments below. But we're on HN and good faith etc.

So, yes, "yogurt products" are all going to be ultra-processed not least because they will have to destroy the gel matrix of yogurt to incorporate whatever other ingredients they must like fruit juice or sugar, stabilisers, emulsifiers etc. Actually I guess they must include the stabilisers and emulsifiers because they mix in flavours and therefore destroy the yogurt gel matrix, which would otherwise result in an unpleasant gloopy mess.

Speaking of course in all this from the privilege of a summer in Greece where I've start every morning since June with a tub of 150g of fresh (not strained) goat's milk yogurt with the skin on and with a (European) teaspoonfull of honey.

Not healthy, you understand. Not with all the saturated fats and sugars. But, boy, is it palatable.

	▲	tptacek 26 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		That's the point. The ultra-processing of shelf-stable unsweetened yogurt food products has nothing to do with engineering it for palatability. And yet they're UPFs, and you could easily ship a highly sweetened dessert yogurt product that would be far less healthy without tripping a UPF standard.

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maxerickson 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It sort of illustrates the uselessness of the terms. Yogurt is made by sterilizing (likely homogenized) milk and introducing microorganisms that carry out some desired chemical reactions. They produce lactic acid, which is a stabilizer.

Everyone apparently knows that those are good things, so they don't count.

	▲	YeGoblynQueenne 33 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		>> They produce lactic acid, which is a stabilizer. Is it? The role of lactic acid in yogurt is to hydrolyze milk proteins and turn them into solids, so you can eat it with a spoon.

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tptacek 38 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

No. And the way you're wrong about this is important. Any plain whole milk yogurt thickened or stabilized with starches or pectin is a UPF; Kroger's Plain Whole Milk, for instance, is a UPF and it isn't sweetened.

(For what it's worth, I really dislike yogurt and would not in 1000 years consume a sweetened yogurt product, though I do work skyr into every other meal these days for protein-maxxing reasons).

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sellmesoap 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Flavored yoghurt is often candy adjacent, but sneeks under the radar as a health food "It's probiotic!"

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rpdillon 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Yeah, this is totally true. A Greek yogurt is considered minimally processed, not ultra processed. The problem is, far and away, the majority of yogurt sold is fruit-flavored yogurt, which is considered ultra-processed. Icelandic yogurt and Greek yogurt are premium niche yogurts.

I guess all I'm saying is that for the majority of people eating yogurt, it's an ultra-processed food.

	▲	YeGoblynQueenne 23 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		The majority of people in which part of the world? Certainly not e.g. in the Eastern Med and the Balkans, I can assure you of that.