Professor Tim Spector's warning over surprising ingredients in low-fat yoghurt

Professor Tim Spector has issued a warning about what's really inside low-fat yoghurt.

During a recent discussion on the ZOE Science and Nutrition podcast aired on October 1, Dr Chris Van Tulleken and Professor Spector delved into the topic of yoghurt as part of a broader conversation about ultra-processed foods.

Podcast host Jonathan Wolf expressed his surprise at discovering that most plain yoghurts can contain "half a dozen" or "even ten ingredients", despite the expectation that they should "basically have milk in".

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He said: "It's right next to the one that only has milk in it and it's impossible to tell. There's nothing on the...you know, until you actually go and look into the ingredients, they look the same. So there's a sense, I think, in which it's.."

Interjecting, Professor Spector highlighted a surprising fact. He told listeners: "It says low fat, you're more likely to have fake yoghurt than if it's full fat."

Jonathan continued, pointing out the deceptive nature of ultra-processed foods. "There's something really hidden I guess is what I'm saying about these ultra-processed foods," he said. "So it seems to have happened without it being very visible to us."

Dr Van Tulleken responded: "That's completely right and if you consider...one of the things, the illusions of our sort of food supply system, is that it exists to supply food to us and that isn't the way it works. It exists to extract money from us and so low-fat yoghurt, the genius of low-fat yoghurt, is you can sell your yoghurt at a premium price because it doesn't have fat in it."

He explained that a "very cheap" modified maize starch can be employed to create a "creamy feel" or ingredients like xanthan gum, guar gum, or locust bean gum can be added to provide a "fatty mouth feel" along with some "other stuff".

He said the "highest priced" commodity fat - dairy fat - could then be used for "all kinds of other things". Protein might be isolated for use in products such as "whey protein" and muscle drinks, thereby adding "much more value" to the commodified milk, he said.

He further commented: "So yoghurt's this brilliant idea of repurposing waste and extracting more value, but none of it's done with an eye on our health."