Book looks at the benefits of yogurt
Cut fat, add protein, boost nutrition and enhance taste by adding ingredient to just about everything, Laura Brehaut writes.
Hubert Cormier has always been a yogurt lover, even though the vanilla-flavoured snack pack he loved as a child has since been replaced by protein-rich Greek-style. From fresh salads to vibrant smoothie bowls to the mashed potatoes atop his braised beef shepherd’s pie, the registered dietitian and author is an expert at incorporating yogurt into pretty much anything.
In his first English book, Yogurt Every Day, Cormier highlights the versatile dairy product in 75 recipes.
Originally published in French — Ma table festive: Yogourt — the book was born out of his doctoral research at Laval University. Cormier and his team investigated the impact of yogurt consumption on the development of Type 2 diabetes, heart disease and stroke (i.e. cardiometabolic risk factors).
“We found that yogurt consumers have a better diet quality overall. So, they will tend to eat more fresh products, fish, grains, fruit, vegetables and nuts,” he says.
While the European Journal of Nutrition published the study, Cormier’s yogurt fascination was far from over. Excited by the findings, he created a user-friendly way to share them — a cookbook that enables people to include yogurt in their diets on a daily basis.
“In most recipes, we can cut fat and add protein by adding yogurt. That’s the principle,” Cormier says.
“This book was … to give (people) recipes to put yogurt everywhere, from breakfast to dinner to dessert to snacks. Not only as a dessert in their lunch box in individual containers ... to put it directly in their sandwiches and in their muffins.”
For those new to making yogurt at home, Cormier offers several how-to options in the book: both with and without a yogurt maker, and using a slow cooker. He also includes instructions for plant-based versions such as soy and coconut.
“It’s really easy to make yogurt at home, but you have to respect the right temperature and the time,” Cormier says. “It’s so simple to make because it’s just milk and bacteria: two ingredients.”
He writes that the main issue he sees with his clients is an uneven distribution of protein consumption throughout the day. Often, he says, people eat the bulk of their protein at dinner — neglecting it in breakfasts and snacks. One solution, he says, is to add yogurt.
“Statistics Canada shows that the average yogurt consumption in Canada is not more than 100 grams of yogurt per week. That’s the equivalent of a small, individual-container serving size. And that’s not really (very much) versus all the health benefits it has to offer,” Cormier says.
He includes a useful substitutions table in the book, making it easy to swap out or modify ingredients in recipes already in your repertoire.
“It’s really a good substitute for any fat. That’s why we can put it in banana bread instead of oil or in other recipes (like) muffins. It really works perfectly,” Cormier says.
“Especially when the recipe requires some cream, sour cream or creme fraiche, we can always substitute by cutting half the cream and replacing it with yogurt.”
Cormier favours Greek yogurt because of its high protein content, and says fullfat or higher-fat yogurt is a good choice because it’s more filling than low-fat.
“It’s important to remember that even if you choose full-fat yogurt, yogurt in general still remains a lower-fat option than ice cream, than cheese, butter or cream,” he says. “So, it’s a low-fat option, even if it’s a full-fat yogurt.”