Yogurt is generally regarded as a healthy food, but I kind of have a feeling that Yoplait isn't.... I just ate one (Strawberry Banana) for a snack (and it was delicious) but then taking a look at the nutrition label...
Ingredients: Cultured Pasteurized Grade A Reduced Fat Milk, Sugar, Nonfat Milk, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Modified Corn Starch, Kosher Gelatin, Random Chemicals I cannot read.
And... 28g of sugar per container... hm...
Now it could be just me, but that sounds just as bad as eating a candy bar! Actually, apparently a king-sized Hershey's bar has 37g of sugar.... eating this yogurt is giving me as much sugar as eating 2/3 of a king-sized chocolate bar!!!!!!!! Noooooo good. I don't think I should try to fool myself into saying I'm eating healthy by putting THAT in my body. Is there any healthy yogurts that DON'T taste completely sour I could try?
My main thing is I don't like the runnier yogurts. I never got Yoplait Light because it's more liquid. I like the consistency of their Thick and Creamy variety better.
But seeing the ingredients, I'd rather give up yogurt than snack on those... so I thought I'd ask for some healthier alternatives to Yoplait that actually taste good. ^^
I feel ya on that! Even the calories on a normal Yoplait yogurt boggled my mind one day when I compared the light (which still isn't THAT light) to the regular!
But still, the lady doctor (Ms. Gyno) recommends 1 a day... *sigh*
Last edited by starfishkitty; 07-16-2009 at 04:10 PM.
I like to take plain yogurt and mix it up. Vanilla extract + a little sweetener = your basic vanilla yogurt.
I agree, I have been eating plain yogurt for so long now that if I eat sweetened kind, I don't feel too well and I get faaar more sugar than what I usually put in.
Yogurt + fruit preserves go really great.. and I found out that if you mix in Jell-o with yogurt, it comes out just like yoplait whips, you just might have to add some more sweetener and that's all.
I've steered clear of yogurt because of the sugar ... it's either sugar or artificial sweetener in many of them and then, yes, there is all that other crap.
Plain with berries seems to be the "healthy" recommendation, but I just could not do it. It was way too tart for me even with the berries.
My trainer recommended me to only eat Dannon All Natural Yogurt. I use the Plain kind as like a sour cream substitute and eat the vanilla flavor all natural yogurt. And tho it is slightly higher calories then like the light and fit kind, it doesn't have the artificial sweetner or artifical stuff in it.
You could make your own! I got a yogurt maker at Macys on clearance (70.00 yogurt maker for 19.99) and I haven't used it yet because we just don't buy milk often enough.
But I'm sure you can make it yourself with a lot less sugar. Have you tried greek yogurt or taking a look at other brands?
Plain yogurt and add a little sugar. Cinnamon and vanilla help you use less sugar. Plain yogurt with fruit is a bit on the tart side especially low fat, but I add about a teaspoon of sugar to my yogurt (4 grams of sugar) and it is fabulous.
haha I love yogurt.. plain that is. At first I hated it plain, but after I cut out sugar and processed foods, I've grown to love the taste of plain yogurt and found a lot of creative things to do with it..
Oh, easy thing - plain greek yogurt with honey and if you want to add granola or fruit pieces, that's fine too. Simple, but filling
Try plain Greek yogurt and add fruit and a little honey to make it sweeter. It will have a thicker consistency, like the thick and creamy Yoplaits. I think the sweetness of the honey with the tartness of the yogurt is a divine combination. If you don't mind artificial sweeteners, you could also stir some sugar free syrup into it (like Torani).
There are brands of yogurt that have fewer chemicals and sweeteners in their ingredients. Brown Cow and Mountain High are a couple of examples.
And even the Yoplait yogurt isn't quite as bad as a candy bar. There are other nutrients to consider besides just sugar. The yoplait that you ate also probably has around 5g of protein and only 1g of saturated fat. 2/3 of a Hershey bar has around 9g saturated fat and 4g of protein. So you get a lot less saturated fat and smidge more protein with yoplait. While a serving of Mountain High Vanilla (low fat) still has 28g of sugar, it has 10g of protein, more than twice that of two-thirds of the candy bar, and it has only 1.5g sat fat.
Try plain yogurt with some Smucker's Sugar Free preserves mixed in. I also use some splenda and fresh berries. You must watch for food manufacturer's ways of slipping in sugar and sugar variants. Your example is an excellent one where the company took a healthy food and destroyed it.
I hardly buy the flavoured yogurts any more. (and when I do, I am likely to go for Liberte's Moccha or Coffee flavoured yogurt that has a lot of fat in it but that's another story). I stick to plain yogurt but I think it is Yoplait that came out with some new flavours (also, they sell in a different container, it is more squarish than round) ... one of the flavours has some tropical fruit in it and was actually quite good. It was sweetened with some artificial sweetener and I found it way too sweet so I would mix a little bit of the flavoured Yoplait into my plain yogurt and it was perfect. Or I even mixed it with cottage cheese. One has to be creative. :-)
You're right. Those stats and ingredients look pretty bad. I don't like runny yogurt, either. I love Fage greek yogurt. they strain it, so it's really thick. I add frozen blueberries, agave syrup, and cinnamon to it. It's one of my favorite desserts.
If you can't find greek yogurt, you can buy regular yogurt and strain it in a cheese cloth to get the liquid out.
One thing about Yoplait regular is the sugar - it's high. On the opposite end Yoplait Low Fat - more sugar, and then of course Yoplait Sugar Free - poison the dreaded Aspartame or Splenda, which isn't good either if you read up on it (same as the other fake stuff).
I use to be a BIG Yoplait eater until I started studying the ingredients in all the foods I ate. Now I enjoy Stoneyfields Organic Yogurts. They are delicious and healthy.
Question about Yogurt
