“Is Soy Yogurt Good for IBS?”
Published by tummyblogger August 17th, 2007 in Probiotics, IBS food, Soy Products, Prebiotics, Dannon Activia YogurtOne-Way Dialog
One way to have a dialog with readers of this blog is to look for the questions people are entering into search engines, where the search engine decides ForMyTummy has something to say on the question. Sometimes I doubt that the questioner found an answer here. When I answer these questions, it’s after the fact, but another reader may have the same question.
This one, “Is soy yogurt good for IBS?” caught my eye, because I just had a cup of soy yogurt for breakfast, and brought it to the computer with me, so it’s right here. I don’t even have to get up! I had Soy Live! (Soy Yogurt) made by Silk, in peach flavor. Here are the ingredients:
Ingredients of Silk Soy Yogurt
Organic soymilk
Organic evaporated cane juice
Peaches
Rice starch [a possible PREbiotic]
Dextrose
Natural flavors
Tricalcium phosphate
Cultured glucose syrup solids (this may be the growing medium for PRObiotic “good bugs”)
Citric acid (a preservative)
Pectin (a possible PREbiotic)
Locust bean gum (PREbiotic - the word “gum” tells us this)
Ascorbic acid (vitamin C)
Annato [sp?] and turmeric (for color)
Yogurt cultures - Lactobacillus bulgaricus, Streptococcus thermophilus, Lactobacillous acidophilus, Bifidobacterium bifidum, Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus rhamosus
PREbiotic and PRObiotic = SYNbiotic
This soy yogurt has all the ingredients of a SYNbiotic (PRObiotic and PREbiotic). For a more general and technical view of the ingredients of soy yogurt, go to this site.
Oh, yes, you wanted to know about protein and sugar content and that kind of thing? This soy yogurt list of contents is from the Silk soymilk website This is for one container of peach.
- Nutrition Table
Calories 160
Calories from fat 20Total Fat 2 g., no saturated fat, no trans fat
No Cholesterol
Sodium 25 mg.Total Carbohydrates 32 grams
Fiber 1 gram
Sugar 25 grams (which you want, for the culture to grow)Protein 4 grams
Is it Good for Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)?”
Now, to the question “Is it good for IBS?” Everything in it except citric acid is well-tolerated by people with IBS. It is not good in the sense that if one a day is good, four per day is even better. No! That’s because of the relatively high sugar content and relatively low protein content. One a day is the equivalent of one Dannon Activia per day, in terms of following the advertising for Activia. If you can tolerate lactose in the form of yogurts and cheeses, as I could once upon a time, then the Silk Soy Live! yogurt increases your options. If you are completely lactose-intolerant, as I am now, then you still have a yogurt alternative in Silk - and there may be other brands I don’t find in my local grocery stores.
In Conclusion
Incidentally, I note from my web searches that according to this blog, Wal-Mart has Silk Soy yogurt for $.89 for an 8 oz. cup! It’s an engaging post, from February 2005, so take it for what it’s worth.
“Just one more thing.” Use a supplement for a daily probiotic, rather than relying solely on soy yogurt.
Here’s the best article on managing IBS:
http://www.dsib.org/ibs?utm_source=sm&utm_medium=blog_posts&utm_term=ibs&utm_campaign=SM
I’ll give the soy yogurt a try and let you know if it works for me.