These Dietitian-Approved Yogurts Are Rich in Protein and Great for Your Gut

Head to your local supermarket’s dairy department and you’ll find hundreds of yogurt brands to choose from. From dairy-free yogurts and Greek yogurts, to fruit-flavored varieties that taste like dessert, the options are pretty endless.

Whether you mix plain yogurt into a delicious spinach and yogurt dip or top a bowl full with berries and homemade granola, yogurt is a super versatile food, says Abby Langer R.D., owner of Abby Langer Nutrition and author of Good Food, Bad Diet. That’s because it’s rich in protein and high in probiotics, the good bugs that are essential to gut health.

“The more and more we learn, we see that so much of our health is related to the health of our gut,” says Lauren Harris-Pincus, M.S., R.D.N., author of The Protein-Packed Breakfast Club. “Yogurt, as a fermented food, has live cultures in it to populate the healthy bacteria in our gut.”

As a bonus, most yogurts are also a great source of calcium and vitamin D, which can be tricky to find naturally in foods, Harris-Pincus adds.

How to choose the healthiest yogurt brand

✔️ Pay attention to ingredients: This list should be short. “It really should be the milk, active cultures, and sometimes there’s added vitamins depending on what the brand chooses to do,” says Harris-Pincus.

✔️ Cap the sugar: Harris-Pincus notes that the American Heart Association recommends limiting daily sugar to 24 grams for women and 36 grams for men. Many yogurts can hit way beyond 20 grams per serving, she warns. (Our picks below hover around 10 grams of sugar or less.)

✔️ Look at the fat: Harris-Pincus enjoys non-fat yogurt varieties and adds her own mix of satisfying toppings, such as fiber-rich fruits, as well as seeds and nuts to boost the healthy fat content. Langer, meanwhile, opts for 2 to 4% percent milkfat yogurts, because she prefers the creaminess and satiety that a higher-fat yogurt offers. The option you choose really depends on what you’re looking for in consistency, taste, and nutrition.

✔️ Pump up the protein: For cow’s milk yogurt, Langer suggests aiming for a minimum of 5 grams of protein per serving. But both Langer and Harris-Pincus agree that choosing a strained yogurt brand, like a Greek yogurt, can boost that number significantly—which can ultimately help you stay fuller for longer.

Ready to find your new favorite yogurt brand? Ahead, we rounded up the healthiest picks, from plain Greek yogurts to sweeter, dessert-like varieties.