Healthy Food Choices: Sugar-Free Dairy

Video Transcript

MARY HONDROS: Okay, now I am going to talk to you a little bit about sugar free dairy. Most regular milk, including skim and low fat, is not a sugar free product because it contains lactose which is a natural sugar that is found in milk. But you will find some sugar free dairy items when they are chocolate, vanilla or strawberry flavored milks that are labelled sugar free. This means that they have had an artificial sweetener added to them so that they are still sweet flavored milks. Other dairy products like yogurt can come sugar free as well. They usually say sweetened with Splenda or something along those lines to give you a hint that they do have artificial sweetener in them in place of regular sugar to make them sweeter. Dairy products like cheese, especially aged cheeses and very dry cheeses, are already free of sugar because the sugar has been fermented out when the cheese was made. So cheeses have little or no sugar content. So some tips on consuming sugar free dairy, first of all sugar free dairy is not appropriate for children under the age of two because they are too young to have any calorie restrictions or anything like that and they need to be consuming regular dairy products. Secondly, sugar free dairy is appropriate for older children and adults if you are trying to control your weight or limit the amount of sugar that you are eating. The third thing to remember is that cheeses are usually free of sugar because it has been fermented. And lastly, just remember, like with anything that is artificially sweetened in place of sugar, you are getting a sugar replacer which they are not--we are not really sure of the health risks involved with consuming a lot of sugar replacers. So just keep that in mind when you are choosing a sugar free dairy product. And those are four tips on your sugar free dairy.