As part of its World Diabetes Day celebrations, Diabetes Ireland in conjunction with University of Limerick Masters dietetic students is launching a new resource to help people make healthier choices when selecting yogurts to eat as there is a huge variety of choice when it comes to yogurts but some are healthier than others.
“Which is a better choice; a question often posed to us by people living with diabetes”
This video helps to explain why some yogurts are better than others.
To access the “Healthy Yogurts” video – see https://www.diabetes.ie/are-you-at-risk-free-diabetes-test/get-sugar-smart/be-sugar-smart-with-yoghurts/
The video was developed by student dietitians Deirbhile Sherry and Lauren Cowley with support from Diabetes Ireland. The students were keen to complete this video because they had found during their studies that “Including yogurt as part of our recommended 3-5 dairy servings daily supports the normal growth and development in children and helps maintain bone health throughout the life stages but yogurts can be seen by people in a negative light. We thought it would be important to bust negative myths and support the public to make a healthy yogurt choice.”
Dr. Anne Griffin, Lecturer in Dietetics at UL further explains – “Students were involved in a video project to assess their skills in relation to communicating nutrition information to the public. This is a key skill for dietitians in practice as there can be much misinformation in the media around nutrition. Dietitians are best placed to provide evidence-based nutrition advice on a range of important topics.”
The World Health Organisation advises us to reduce our intake of ‘free’ (refined) sugars – essentially any sugar added to a product by consumer or manufacturer. Diabetes Ireland’s online “Sugar Smart” initiative at aims to equip people with the knowledge to make better food choices to help them lower their daily sugar consumption. Small changes all matter – making a few changes to the way you eat, and drink can make a big difference to your health over time.
Sinead Powell, Senior Dietitian with Diabetes Ireland states “Drawing on current national and international guidance such as that from the Food Safety Authority of Ireland and World Health Organisation underpins this project. This educational video can provide invaluable support to people in helping them make healthy choices when grocery shopping and we are delighted to include it to our suite of educational resources on www.diabetes.ie”
Diabetes Ireland is Ireland’s national diabetes charity employing health professionals to support and educate those living with diabetes and raise awareness of Type 2 diabetes and Prediabetes. To learn more about food labelling, being ‘sugar smart’ and for healthy family friendly recipe ideas, see www.diabetes.ie.