Noosa Yogurt: A Dietitians Review
With its bright packaging and unique flavors, Noosa Yoghurt may have caught your eye at the grocery store but is it the yogurt you should make a daily staple? Today we will review Noosa Yogurt, compare it to other yogurt brands and types, and find out if it’s the best choice for you!
Anyone taken a stroll through the yogurt aisle lately? You may have left that aisle feeling slightly hungry and slightly overwhelmed. With different types of yogurt, different flavors, and varying package sizes, I don’t blame you… there are a lot of options to choose between!
Yogurt is one of my favorite daily staples to include in my diet and it’s a food I recommend most people keep in their home. Beyond it’s versatility in sweet and savory recipes, yogurt can be packed with protein and probiotics… if you choose the right yogurt, that is.
One brand that always catches peoples eye with its unique flavors and colorful packaging is Noosa Yoghurt (spelled the Australian way) and you may be curious if this is the yogurt you should be adding to your snacks and meals. Good news, I dove into the label and product so you don’t have to!
Hey, I’m Lauren, I’m a registered dietitian and I’m here to help simplify the yogurt aisle by sifting through some of the brands that you have available to you. Today we will be reviewing Noosa Yogurt, it’s nutrition, and a few things I would take into consider before you buy!
What is Noosa Yoghurt?
Noosa Yogurt or “Noosa Yoghurt” which how yogurt is spelled in Australia- the home country of Noosa- is an Australian style yogurt that is available in multi-serve, single serve, multipack, tubs, and yoghurt delight options. A small note- while it is Australian inspired, the milk is sourced from the US in Colorado.
As mentioned, Noosa Yoghurt is an Australian style yogurt. Not Greek, not Icelandic, and not traditional yogurt. While Greek yogurt is strained (giving it that higher protein content we know and love), Australian yogurt is “unstrained” with a creamy texture that is not as thick as Greek yogurt.
This review will be looking specifically at the yogurt itself but it’s worth mentioning that Noosa Yoghurt offers other products beyond their yogurt including their cheesecake bites and their frozen yoghurt gelato products that can be found in the freezer section of some stores.
Noosa Yogurt Nutrition:
1) Nutrients in Noosa Yoghurt:
Noosa Yoghurt is just one of many yogurt brands that you can choose from at the grocery store.
Each yogurt brand varies in the yogurt type they sell, the sweeteners they use, the milk they use to make the yogurt, and more which means that every nutrition label looks very different. To compare, let’s look at Noosa Yogurt vs popular competitors with similar flavors but different yogurt styles:
*Note serving size differences.
Now, let’s compare Noosa Yoghurt to a few lower sugar, higher protein options on the shelf and brands that you often will find in my own refrigerator:
*Note serving size differences.
A few things to note about the nutrition of Noosa Yoghurt is that they:
Are lower in protein content than most greek yogurt competitors but higher than traditional yogurt brands. This is because Noosa yoghurt is an unstrained, Aussie style yogurt which gives a creamy texture but does not concentrate the protein the way that a strained greek yogurt does.
Tend to be higher in calorie content (and fat) than other brands but this is mostly attributed to their use of whole milk to make their yogurt as well as the higher added sugar content which adds a significant amount of calories.
Generally speaking, Noosa Yoghurt is much higher in added sugar than many other yogurt brands. (Varies by flavor and by brand). Many children yogurts unfortunately contain high amounts of added sugar as well, and those yogurts are not included in this review.
2) Noosa Yogurt Ingredients:
Now that we have compared some of the nutritional differences between Noosa yogurt and other popular yogurts brands on the shelves, let’s take a look at some of the Noosa ingredients:
Grade A Pasteurized whole milk: Whole milk sourced from Colorado is the base of every Noosa Yoghurt.
Cane sugar: This is one way that Noosa Yoghurt adds sweetness to their flavors without using artificial sweeteners. Depending on the flavor you purchase, some of the options also contain brown sugar like the cinnamon roll flavor.
Wildflower honey: This is another way that Noosa Yoghurt adds sweetness to their yogurt without using artificial sweeteners.
Kosher Gelatin: This is a bovine gelatin that is used to maintain texture and consistency.
Pectin: This is a thickener commonly found in yogurts that helps maintain texture and consistency.
Fruit puree, natural flavors, and lemon or fruit juice concentrates: All of the fruit flavored yoghurt options contain a puree made from fruit, natural flavors, and concentrates.
Live and active cultures: These are the gut healthy bacteria in cultured yogurt. I always recommend trying to find a yogurt that contains live and active cultures!
Other ingredients you may see depending on the flavor: Locus bean gum, spices (like cinnamon), water, lactic acid, butter, corn starch, tapioca starch,
A few things to note about the ingredients in Noosa Yoghurt:
All of the flavors are made with pasteurized whole milk.
Sweetened with cane sugar and wildflower honey and no artificial sweeteners. Because each yoghurt is sweetened with honey, I would not recommend giving this yoghurt to children under the age of 1.
The fruit flavors do have real fruit that has been pureed and combined with other natural flavors and juice concentrates for bright and fresh flavors.
There are a few thickeners in the ingredients list like pectin and locus bean gum.
Everyone has different preferences for they see on the ingredients panel so this is just a brief summary and my own high level takeaway of the ingredients list.
Why Noosa Yoghurt is not the brand I recommend:
Now, here is my big bugaboo with Noosa Yoghurt and why it is NOT be the yogurt brand that I recommend as the base of your snack. You may be drawn in by the eye catching packaging, but I always recommend that you turn every food over and look at the nutrition label.
Looking at the nutrition label of Noosa my eye was immediately drawn to the added sugar line because, while each flavor does vary, almost every flavor of Noosa yogurt is very high in added sugar. Let’s take a look at some of them:
Vanilla Yoghurt: 32 grams of sugar and 19 grams of added sugar (38% DV).
Honey Yoghurt: 28 grams of sugar and 14 grams of added sugar (28% DV).
Of all the flavors, this flavor is the lowest in added sugar at the time of this review though I read on their website that they will be offering a plain yogurt in the 24oz size.
Strawberry Yoghurt: 33 grams of sugar and 20 grams of added sugar (40% DV).
Lemon Yoghurt: 37 grams of sugar and 25 grams of added sugar (50% DV)
Coconut Yoghurt: 29 grams of sugar and 17 grams of added sugar (34%).
Why does this matter? Simply put, Americans consume WAY TO MUCH added sugar which not only comes with potential negative health implications but also adds a significant amount of calories to your diet. Remember, each gram of carbohydrate (and therefore added sugar) contains 4 calories.
Current guidelines recommend keeping your added sugar intake to less than 10% of your daily calorie intake (knowing that the less added sugar you consume, the better) and one way to reduce your added sugar intake is to always read the food label so you know what you are eating.
Yogurt in general is almost always equated to health in many people’s minds, and it can absolutely be a healthy food to include in your diet every single day, but not all yogurts are created equal and many are hidden sources of added sugar.
Noosa Yoghurt tastes delicious and has a very creamy texture but it is much higher in added sugar, and therefore calories, than other brands that you have available to you. While this is partly true because Noosa does not use artificial sweeteners, there are other brands of yogurt that also do not have artificial sweeteners and are still much lower in added sugar content.
Does that mean you can never eat Noosa Yogurt? Absolutely not. But it’s worth noting what you are consuming when you fill your bowl with this brand and while you are consuming some probiotics, protein, and delicious flavor, you are also consuming a lot of sugar. No thanks!
One other small note to add, and something that my toddler mom’s eyes caught, is that every flavor is sweetened with honey so this is not a brand that you want to give to children under the age of 1.
So… is Noosa Yogurt healthy?
Yogurt will continue to be a refrigerator staple that I recommend people include in their diet consistently. As a cultured dairy product, yogurt is a nutrient dense food that offers calcium, vitamin D, protein, live and active cultures, and other aspects that benefit health.
However, now all yogurts are created equal and it’s incredibly important that you read the food label to see what the yogurt you are purchasing contains. I always recommend starting at the calorie content and then moving into fat, protein, and carbohydrate/sugar to see where the calories are coming from.
From there, many people will move into ingredients and this is going to be personal preference for what you like to include on your own plate. For example, some people prefer the naturally sweetened options while others prefer the lower calorie, blood sugar friendly choices that have artificial sweeteners.
Noosa yogurt does contain health promoting nutrients like calcium, protein, and live and active cultures which are important to include in a balanced diet. However, this brand is also very high in added sugar which we should all aim to minimize and therefore is not the brand you buy every day.
Does that mean you can’t eat it? Of course not, foods can be more than one nutrient and it’s important to assess how you are using the food, what you want out of the food, and how it fits into your diet as a whole.
If you want to build up a low sugar, protein packed snack every single day then I would not recommend this yogurt be the base of that snack. If you want a sweet tooth snack at the end of the day but are looking for an alternative to ice cream, this brand could be sweet enough to fill that craving!
Foods can ebb and flow within a diet. I personally do love to have this yogurt every once in a while simply because it has fun flavors and I do not eat a lot of added sugar elsewhere, but I include this brand in moderation and am mindful of how often I eat it and what I pair it with!
When looking at yogurts, I start by finding brands that have live and active cultures, more than 10 grams of protein per serving, and less than 6 grams of added sugar per serving. If you are looking for a list of yogurts that I would recommend, here are a few to try:
Fage Greek Yogurt
Oikos Triple Zero or Oikos Pro Yogurt
Chobani Less Sweet
Any of the Two Good & Co flavors
The Pros of Noosa Yogurt:
Contains probiotics: Noosa does contain live and active cultures which we love to see on any yogurt we buy!
Creamy texture: If you want a creamy yogurt then Noosa Yoghurt would not disappoint you! Because it is an Australian style yogurt, it is not quite as thick as greek yogurt but is much creamier than a traditional yogurt. Delicious!
No artificial sweeteners or flavors: While this ends up leading to the added sugar downfall that I have mentioned, this brand does not contain artificial sweeteners which you may prefer. (note, there are other brands that also do not contain artificial sweeteners).
Made with whole milk*: This is personal preference, and some people prefer yogurt made from low fat or non fat milk for a lower saturated fat and calorie content, but whole milk does make a creamier yogurt and can be more satiating.
Slightly lower in protein content*: There is a star here because this is a pro for some people and would be a con for others. If you are looking for a yogurt that is moderate in protein content, Noosa Yoghurt is a good option and slightly lower in protein than Greek yogurt counterparts.
Delicious!: Ok this is a personal note but truly every flavor of Noosa Yoghurt that I have had is delicious. While it's not a brand that I often buy, I do love to include it every once in a while as a dessert or sweet snack in my day.
Potential Cons of Noosa Yogurt:
Added sugar content!!: This is the biggest con to me and the reason why this brand does not fall on my list of recommended yogurts. With many flavors containing over 15 grams of added sugar per serving, there are simply better options on the shelf.
No plain option: Buying the plain yogurt of any brand is always the best way to cut out all of the added sugar but Noosa Yoghurt did not offer a plain yogurt at the time of this review. However, I did read on their website that they have one coming soon!
All of the yogurts are sweetened with honey: All Noosa Yoghurt flavors are sweetened with unpasteurized honey so this would not be a yoghurt brand I would offer to children under the age of 1.
Slightly lower in protein content*: Noosa Yoghurt is Australian style yogurt meaning it is unstrained. This changes the texture of the yogurt but also gives it slightly lower protein content than other yogurt types.
If you want a higher protein yogurt, I would steer you towards Greek yogurt instead.
The takeaway:
While Noosa Yoghurt is delicious, creamy, and offered in a variety of fun flavors, this yogurt is very high in added sugar and is not the brand that I would recommend you regularly purchase. It’s also lower in protein content than many competitors but that could be personal preference for what you want out of your yogurt.
As a dietitian I do align with the “all foods can fit into a healthy diet” mentality but that clause definitely comes with limitations and considerations. Yes, an occasional Noosa Yoghurt would be just fine to enjoy in moderation or even as a sweet treat at the end of the day but consistently snacking on this brand would add a lot of added sugar to your diet.
Instead, I would steer you towards an unflavored yogurt that you can top with fresh berries or recommend you look for a flavored option that has less than 6 grams of added sugar per serving knowing that the closer to 0 grams of added sugar, the better.
Liked this review? Check out some of my other deep dives:
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Hey! I’m Lauren
I’m a Registered Dietitian and busy toddler mom committed to bringing you delicious, nutritious, and easy-to-make recipes!