I received a comment last week asking if homemade yogurt is really worth the effort – if it’s better than storebought.  It’s a good question, and I wanted to give it a whole post.  The short answer is, it’s different.

Storebought yogurt is not a cultured food in the traditional sense.  It is typically made by culturing the yogurt (along with a number of ingredients ordinarily not added to homemade yogurt – stabilizers, fillers, sugars, etc.), then pasteurizing it.  Then some companies add some live cultures back in.  (Check the packaging; not all do.  And some that do, don’t with every different “line” of yogurts.)

Because it is pasteurized, even if some live cultures are added afterward, it is not likely to have the same spectrum of beneficial bacteria that homemade yogurt has.  I suspect that homemade yogurt may have some enzymes and/or similar factors, as well, that commercial yogurt does not.  Of course, there is also the fact that when we make it ourselves, we can control the added ingredients.  (Maybe you want yours sweetened, but you can use honey instead of high-fructose corn syrup.  Or you can use less sugar.  Maybe you want yours flavored, but you prefer to leave the FD&C colors to someone else.)

However, with all that said, I still believe that (well-chosen) commercial yogurt can be one of the few healthful commercial snack choices.  Not everyone is going to make their own yogurt.  (Or can’t keep up.  There’s plenty of Stonyfield yogurt in my fridge!)  I don’t believe that commercial yogurt is (necessarily) an inherently unhealthy choice.  (Don’t get me started, though, on fat-free yogurt with artificial colors and flavors and aspartame.)  I just believe that homemade is healthier.  And isn’t that usually the case?  The homemade version of most things is healthier, but there’s a tradeoff of time, effort, and convenience.  We will all balance that differently at different times.