Nutrition Expert Warns People Not To Eat This So-Called ‘Low-Fat’ Breakfast Food: "I Am Aware..."

One popular dish that millions of Americans, especially the health-conscious, love to eat each morning is yogurt. While Bill Gates loves having fungi-based yogurt, Gal Gadot likes mixing it with green apples. But when “one of the most cited scientists in the world,” Doctor Tim Spector (@tim.spector) approaches his breakfast table, he opts for the kind of yogurt that would make all the diet freaks drop their jaws. Instead of choosing a low-fat or fat-free yogurt, he prefers “full-fat yogurt.” The reason is that the so-called “low-fat” or “fat-free” labels are part of a deceptive marketing strategy that hides from the world a crucial bit of information about this dessert.

Spector, a gut health expert, is renowned for sharing mind-bending ideas about foods, diet, and health. From “exercise doesn’t promote weight loss” to “coffee is good for health” and “you should not count calories,” his notion-shattering health science has spurred the interest of not just the mindful eaters but also the entire community of health and nutrition experts. In this post, he shared a simple piece of knowledge he uses to choose what kind of Greek yogurt he likes to have on his breakfast menu. “As you know, on most days, I eat yogurt; it’s great for my gut health, but I am aware that there are many products out there that are bewildering to people,” Spector said while displaying several yogurt packets on the camera.

The co-founder of Zoe explained that while fruit-flavoured yogurts such as the “Activia” one claim to be good for people’s gut health, each small pot contains 14.5 grams of sugar, equivalent to more than 3 teaspoons. He emphasized that whether a yogurt claims to be “zero sugar” or “low fat,” it usually disguises a lot of artificial sweeteners and added sugar, and flavors. “If you see the ingredients, you’ll see all kinds of strange chemicals, such as emulsifiers that have been shown to be bad for your gut microbiome. So I always go for products that look as simple as possible, basically just milk and microbes,” the doctor explained.

Spector added that he “never” goes for fat-free products for yogurts, partly because he doesn’t like their taste and partly because they’re not good for his “sugar spikes.” “They’ve just substituted fat with cheaper starch from corn and added all sorts of flavorings and glues to make it feel like it’s still got that milk fat in it,” Spector told Fortune. Instead of the low-fat varieties, he goes for “3 to 4 generous tablespoons of full-fat Greek yogurt mixed with about 150 milliliters of kefir, or fermented milk,” according to Business Insider. He usually sprinkles toppings like nuts, dried fruits, seeds, and fresh or frozen berries on this yogurt, selecting them from his “diversity jar,” a handy jar of fiber-rich toppings.

“Low fat, you're more likely to have fake yogurt than if it's full fat,” Spector said in an episode of Zoe podcast discussing “ultra-processed food” with doctor Chris van Tulleken. The nutrition expert shared that the choice of low-fat yogurt usually stems from a misunderstanding people have of the packaging labels and the food in general. “Most people still assume it's just because it's high fat. Therefore, if I pick the low-fat one, that's gonna be fine. And this is a huge misunderstanding, cleverly done by the food companies as well,” he explained. Most yogurt varieties are made by squeezing cow milk, followed by pasteurization, fermentation, and dairy processing units that churn it into yogurt. When making Greek yogurt, regular yogurt is concentrated or strained by eliminating the whey and other liquids.

You can follow Doctor Tim Spector (@tim.spector) on Instagram for eye-opening health and food content.