Question: Does yogurt have fiber?
Answer: Most Americans lack a sufficient amount of fiber in their diets. According to WebMD, the average fiber consumption is 15 grams per day. However, the daily recommended fiber intake is about 25-35 grams.
Part of the reason why Americans are lacking in fiber is because they are unaware of which foods actually contain fiber. With so many food options and different nutrition facts for each of these foods, it can be very difficult to keep track of the nutrients in each food. However, hopefully after reading this article you will have an idea of the fiber content of yogurt. Let’s take a closer look at yogurt to see if it contains fiber.
Most yogurt has 0 to 1 gram of fiber, on average. Why so little fiber in yogurt? Yogurt is derived from milk, which is its main ingredient. Milk naturally does not contain fiber. Therefore, any fiber that is in yogurt comes from secondary ingredients like mixed-in nuts, coconut, or fruit. These ingredients are not as abundant as milk in yogurt, therefore, they do not greatly contribute to the fiber content of yogurt.
Let’s look at an example. Please take look at the below ingredients of Siggi’s coconut yogurt vs their plain. The coconut flavored yogurt has a small amount of fiber from the coconut (a high fiber source) whereas the plain yogurt has no fiber.
If you are looking for a higher fiber yogurt, Activia makes a fiber yogurt that has 3 grams of fiber per serving (113 grams). The flavors of yogurt that they provide are peach, pineapple, and strawberry. In full disclosure, we have never had Activia fiber yogurt so we cannot vouch for the products’ flavors.
Outside of Activia, one of the benefits of yogurt, especially with plain or vanilla, is that it is very versatile. You can add an enormous variety of toppings to yogurt that pair well with it. If you are looking to add fiber to yogurt, some things you can mix into it are raisins, nuts, wheat germ, bran cereal, oats, figs, fresh raspberries, fresh blackberries, cherries, chia seeds and dates.
Another option is to make a smoothie with yogurt as the base ingredient and add high fiber foods like fruits as additional ingredients. This makes for an fast an easy breakfast or snack that is both nutritious and tasty.
Generally, while yogurt does not contain a great amount of fiber, if any, it does provide a way to reach your recommended daily requirement by providing a good source to mix-in fiber rich foods. Sometimes eating fiber containing foods alone is boring. Yogurt provides a way to add some flavor to liven thing up.
