June 29, 2009 Yogurt vs. Coke
Did you know that eating one small container of sweetened yogurt is the same as drinking half a can of sugary soda? I know it is hard to believe, but get this: one 12-ounce can of soda has about 40 grams of sugar (depending on the brand) and one 6-ounce cup of sweetened yogurt can have 20 grams of sugar or more (again, depending upon the brand).
True, some of the sugar in yogurt comes from the yogurt itself, and some comes from the fruit that gets mixed in, but even the most "healthful" brands load their yogurts up with additional sweeteners. (Check out the ingredients of YoBaby Yogurt -- just click on one of the flavors. Added sugar comes before the fruit. That means there is more added sugar than fruit. And since the fruit is fruit concentrate - considered sugar by the USDA...) And guess what else? Those squeezable yogurts your kids love? They're the sweetest. Check this out:
- COKE (12 oz): 140 calories; 39g sugar; 3.3g sugar per oz
- YoBaby Simply Plain (4 oz): 90 cal; 6g sugar; 1.5g sugar/oz
- YoBaby Blueberry (4 oz): 110 cal; 13g sugar; 3.3g sugar/oz
- YoKids Squeezers (2 oz): 60 cal; 10g sugar; 5.0g sugar/oz
- YoBaby Banana Drinkable (6 oz): 180 cal; 22g sugar; 3.6g sugar/oz
Now, I'm not suggesting that sweetened yogurt and soda are equals. And I know you are probably willing to compromise on the sugar to get the calcium and protein. But, when you consider the impact of consuming ultra-sweet yogurts on habits -- eating sweet things pretty much guarantees that sweet is the flavor your kids will grow to prefer -- it is even harder to put sweetened yogurt on the "healthy" list. (At least when we give our kids Coke we tell them it's junk.)
The USDA lists sweetened yogurt as one of the foods that contain the most added sugars in the American diet. It's listed right under items such as soft drinks, candy, cakes, cookies and pies.
After decades of consuming ever-sweeter fare, it is pretty clear now that America's sweet tooth is much more nurture than nature. Consider the habits you are fostering and use sweetened yogurt as a dessert. Instead, teach your children to like plain yogurt. Add a scoop of jelly, a sprinkle of sprinkles, or even REAL fresh fruit. The payoff will go beyond yogurt. In the long run, it will teach your children to like a wider variety of foods because you'll be varying the tastes, textures and appearances of what you give them.
Source: www.choosemyplate.gov: What are added sugars?; calculations from nutrition labels.
Dina Rose
The USDA has changed its listing of foods that contain the most added sugars in the American diet. Yogurt is no longer listed as a separate item. See the USDA list.
Reader Comments (8)
Yogurt marketing is one of my top things that drives me NUTS. People think they're doing themselves good when they eat that yogurt in the pretty little cup....real fruit and probiotics, oh my! But they don't look down the Nutrition Facts all the way to the sugar line....
Yogurt is SO easy to make at home! I started doing it last year because I would eat a lot for breakfast & wanted to save tons of money. Plain honey + any of: fresh in-season fruit, vanilla, nuts, or smidge of raw honey = amazing combo!
By the way, I love your site!! I just ran across it a few days ago & have been reading lots of articles. I have an almost-2-year-old who isn't a picky eater but I want to make sure he stays that way!
Rebecca,
Thanks for your comment, and for your kind words about my site.
I'm with you ALL the way on yogurt. Parents are the victims of excellent advertising and positioning of yogurt as a healthy, functional food. Unfortunately, the manufactured sugared-up stuff is only good for dessert.
Dina
This is terrific. I just found your website today. My brother mentioned how he would eat yogurt-covered raisins for breakfast. I've read the nutrition info on those things and know they should be a rare treat. So, I googled "yogurt-covered raisins" and your website was one of the hits. I saw your link to Coke vs. yogurt, and since I eat a lot of yogurt decided to read that too. Keep up the good work. You're performing a wonderful service for your readers.
Duane
Thanks for your kind words, Duane.
Dina
I don't really see how yogurt with a scoop of jam is that different from sweetened yogurt. It's still a big scoop of added sugar disguised as fruit. I have noticed that the brand of yogurt I buy the "fruit on the bottom" tend to have a notablly lower sugar content than the "blended" kind. A tip I read on a diet blog some time ago said to buy larger containers of sweeteend and plain and mix them and put them in reusable single serve containers yourself, that way you can gradually reduce the amount of sugar you're used to. Personally I found that to be too much work and found that fresh cut fruit that is naturally sweet such as melon, pineapple and berries with the plain yogurt tasred so much better. I'm sure that frozen unsweetened berries would be great too.
I don't really see how yogurt with a scoop of jam is that different from sweetened yogurt. It's still a big scoop of added sugar disguised as fruit. I have noticed that the brand of yogurt I buy the "fruit on the bottom" tend to have a notablly lower sugar content than the "blended" kind. A tip I read on a diet blog some time ago said to buy larger containers of sweeteend and plain and mix them and put them in reusable single serve containers yourself, that way you can gradually reduce the amount of sugar you're used to. Personally I found that to be too much work and found that fresh cut fruit that is naturally sweet such as melon, pineapple and berries with the plain yogurt tasted so much better. I'm sure that frozen unsweetened berries would be great too.
I also wanted to say that I LOVE how you compare sodas to yogurts. The way you say it is so much like the way I have ever since I really started looking at the labels of food closely. I once came to the conclusion that at the local store there were ice cream bars that were healthier than some of the yogurts, and, when I wanted a sweet treat, I felt no more guilty about the one frozen treat than the yogurts. I began veiwing yogurt as a sweet. I only recently started with the plain yogurts and it really is so much better. I like the less sweetened and unsweetened versions better. Why do we dump all this added sugar to our foods? I've pretty much discovered that if the word syrup or any arteficial sweetener is in the ingredients, it's going to be too sweet to have any real taste to it. At one point u had my boyfriend off soda, he was just doing it to please me, but then he was having a soda one day and he made this face, I asked what was wrong and he said that it was too thick. Hehehe. I felt pretty proud of my influence in that moment.
Nancy,
Thanks for the comment, the kind words about my blog, and the opportunity to clarify my thoughts about plain yogurt.
You say you don't understand how yogurt with a scoop of jam is any better than the sweetened varieties sold in the store. Here's how it is. For starters, from a straight nutrition perspective, a teaspoon of jam is 2-4 grams of sugar, the sweetened varieties have around 7grams or more. But here's the real difference: when you serve plain yogurt with something mixed in, kids learn what the taste of yogurt is, and, from a habits perspective, each time you make it the taste will vary (even if you're trying to make it the same). Manufactured products always taste the same. When you're trying to teach kids to broaden their palates, teaching them to accept (even minor) variations is key.
Hope this helps.
Dina
I just stumbled onto your site and I'm in LOVE! Your advice is sound and strategies doable. I have a just-turned-3-yr-old whose veggie consumption used to elicit looks of awe and comments of disbelief as he rode in my shopping cart gnawing on raw broccoli. He started "preschool" 2 mornings a week and has since been introduced to goldfish crackers, gummy candy, and some sort of birthday treat from a classmate nearly every week. This has wreaked havoc on his diet and I'm mad as hell and not gonna take it any more! :) Although we are a juice-free household that loves us some organic plain greek yogurt (with cinnamon), I still see room for improvement. I just overhauled our pantry and fridge (sayonara string cheese) and am going to implement your strategies STAT! Keep the GREAT info coming!