Skyr (pronounced Skeer) is a type of yogurt (or cheese really) which you can now find in your dairy section at your local grocer. Skyr originated in Iceland over a thousand years ago. It was made with fresh milk and an amount of a previous batch of skyr was added to the milk. This would ferment and turn it into finished Skyr. Now after the fermentation process the skyr is micro filtered which removes most of the remaining fluid yielding a very thick and rich feeling yogurt.  In our grocery stores, we can now find plan zero percent fat skyr as well as some flavoured skyr and even 4% MF skyr.

 

The reason I’m so excited about Skyr is that there is now more than just one type of “healthy/clean” yogurt. Unfortunately, yogurt is quickly becoming the next junk food. The yogurt section continues to grow in size at the store and the more you read labels the more sugar you see. You see many products disguising themselves as yogurts such as drinkable yogurt tubes and highly flavoured (read added sugar) pre packaged yogurt snacks designed for children. The labels have health claims saying “a great source of calcium”.  However, once you start reading the labels you being to see that this is not healthy at all.

 

So then why is this Skyr so exciting? Skyr contains an extremely small amount of sugar and a very large portion of protein. For ¾ cup serving we get the following:

  • Calories 110
  • Sodium 60 mg
  • Carbs: 8 grams
  • Sugar: 2 grams
  • Protein 21 grams

This means that if you want to you can include this yogurt as part of a healthy breakfast without having to ingest a large amount of added sugar!  Personally, I have this with my breakfast a few days a week as I’m currently in the middle of a keto cycle.

A healthy breakfast I often start patients on is a breakfast high in protein, fat and low in carbs. The reason for this is to eliminate a blood sugar spike first thing in the morning.  This kind of breakfast sets the tone for the whole day and stabilizes energy levels as opposed to having spikes and crashes throughout the day.  Skyr can be a great part of this breakfast as it will provide the entire protein amount necessary for your average individual. I then add berries of some sort such as blueberries or raspberries and some macadamia nuts. I combo this with a bulletproof coffee and this rounds out your complete breakfast.

Here is the nutritional breakdown for this meal:

Bulletproof coffee: 459 calories

  • Calories: 230
  • Fat: 26 grams
  • Sugar: 0

Bowl of Skyr with ½ cup blueberries and ¼ cup of macadamia nuts

  • 400 calories
  • Sugar: 7 grams (2 from Skyr and 5 from blueberries)
  • Fat: 25 grams

 

Total Breakfast:

  • Calories 630
  • Fat: 51 grams
  • Carbs/sugar: 7 grams

 

The goal is to frontload the day with calories. This means eating a large percentage of your calories for breakfast, then a moderate lunch and a small supper. Often our standard North American lifestyle does this exactly the opposite which causes people to be very hungry in the evening and leads to over eating and consuming junk food before going to bed.

So if you’re looking to incorporate yogurt as part of your healthy breakfast then why not give Skyr a try. Let me know what you think and let’s share recipes!

 

 

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