Are Apples & Yogurt Healthy?
Sliced apples topped with vanilla yogurt create more than just a good flavor combination. They complement one another, with yogurt providing nutrients you won't get from apples, and apples filling in with the fiber and vitamin C that yogurt lacks. In spite of their benefits, their collective calories, carbs and sugar may be more than you should consume in a snack.
Apples and yogurt make a healthy snack. (Image: peredniankina/iStock/Getty Images)Watch Calories and Carbs
One cup of low-fat vanilla yogurt contains 208 calories and 34 grams of carbohydrates. One large apple has half the calories, but almost the same amount of carbs. When you mix them together, the totals come to 324 calories, 65 grams of total carbs and 57 grams of sugar. This amount of calories works for a light lunch, but healthy snacks should stay around 100 to 200 calories. The total carbs equal half of an entire day's recommended daily allowance, and they lack starch or complex carbs for sustained energy. Switch to fat-free plain yogurt or yogurt with a low-calorie sweetener, and calories and carbs drop to a healthier range.
Apples Add Fiber and Vitamin C
Yogurt doesn't contain any fiber, but add one large apple with its skin and you will consume 5.4 grams of fiber. This amount equals 22 percent of women's recommended daily allowance and 14 percent of men's. Apples are a good source of soluble and insoluble fiber. Soluble fiber helps lower cholesterol and keeps blood sugar balanced, while insoluble fiber is the roughage that prevents constipation. Yogurt only contains 2 milligrams of antioxidant vitamin C, but one large apple adds 10 milligrams, so you end up with at least 13 percent of the RDA.
Yogurt Boosts Minerals and B-12
Like all milk products, yogurt is a rich source of calcium and vitamin B-12. A 1-cup serving of low-fat vanilla yogurt has 419 milligrams of calcium. Because one large apple only has 13 milligrams of calcium, you get a significant bone-building benefit from eating the two together. Apples don't have any vitamin B-12, while 1 cup of yogurt supplies half your RDA. Yogurt also makes a big difference in the amount of potassium. An apple only has 239 milligrams of potassium, but 1 cup of low-fat vanilla yogurt supplies 537 milligrams. Eat the two together to gain 17 percent of your recommended dietary allowance for potassium.
Variables Make a Difference
If you remove the skin from the apple, you will lose half of the total fiber. Yogurt doesn't contain any vitamin D naturally, which must be present for your body to absorb calcium. When it's fortified, you'll get 115 international units of vitamin D from a 1-cup serving of low-fat vanilla yogurt. You can eliminate all but 1 gram of fat by buying fat-free yogurt, although the low-fat variety only has 3 grams. Between 20 percent and 35 percent of your daily calories should come from fats, according to the Institute of Medicine.
