I remember when I was a kid in the 70’s and yogurt tasted horrible. We never ate it. Ditto with the cranberry juices… I remember drinking some at my gramma’s house and I didn’t want much beyond the first sip. Tasted as bad as a little nip of wine my parents gave me to test.

Fast forward to the 90’s and beyond — look at how much cranberry-based drinks and yogurt gets consumed. What happened — they added lots sugar and other sweeteners. Props to Fooducate to pointing this out.

The best way, in my opinion, to eat yogurt is to buy plain and add fruit, cinnamon and (if necessary) fake sweeteners.

I’ve actually been doing some research one of the questionable ingredients, Carmine, for a class. It’s what gives the strawberry yogurt it’s strawberry-red tint. Cochineal extract (or carmine) is made from the desiccated bodies of female Dactlyopius coccus Costa, a small insect harvested mainly in Peru and Canary Islands. The bug feeds on red berries. They are collected, dried and crushed into pigment, which we then enjoy for breakfast. Yum.

I am surprised that Carmine is coming from animal product…I am a vegetarian and I am shocked that insects are being killed to give the coloring or flavor. Is this true?

I know this post is old, but it is number three on the popular posts list :-p

You talk about the natural sugar found in strawberries, but not the natural sugar found in milk…lactose. From comparing their plain yogurt (Cultured Pasteurized Grade A Nonfat Milk, Modified Corn Starch, Kosher Gelatin) it would seem that about 12.7 of those 27 grams of sugar are from the yogurt itself.

Great article. I suspected the “light” version was “artificially sweetened”, which is such a shame. That artificial sweetener is just terrible for so many of us – we think we have IBS or lactose intolerance or whatever (horrible symptoms), when in fact it is artificial sweetener causing all the angst. I’m all for saving calories, goodness knows, but I will have to go for sugar if I want to eat yogurt (which I do!) For years I thought I couldn’t eat yogurt….now I realize it is just “light” that I can’t eat (unless I want to spend the rest of the day in the lady’s room!)

@raj
Well, plants are alive as much as any animal. We cannot eat or survive without killing. The better idea to live by is kill only what you need to survive and allow the rest to repopulate for future harvests and planetary benefit.

@raj
Not to mention the gelatin. What animal is that coming from…

Yoplait Yogurt
Cultured Pasteurized Grade A Low Fat Milk, Sugar, Strawberries, Modified Corn Starch, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Nonfat Milk, Kosher Gelatin, Citric Acid, Tricalcium Phosphate, Natural Flavor, Pectin, Colored with Carmine, Vitamin A Acetate, Vitamin D3.

DIY yogurt
Cultured Pasteurized Grade A Low Fat Milk, Strawberries, Sugar, Pectin

Tastes loads better with half of all bad things and twice of all good things. I always keep frozen strawberries on hand. A teaspoon of sugar isn’t ridiculous for ~1 cup of fruit yogurt. The 14g in ‘light’ yogurt is (almost half a soda!).

I cook almost everything myself from scratch and this is why.

Also, yes one of the enumbers is beetles. You should look into some of the other dyes, many of which are illegal now.

I eat Yoplait Light everyday, sometimes twice a day. I always knew it had a boost of sugar, which is not bad if you eat it right after a workout. With that said, how do you balance the pros and cons of eating this yogurt versus an organic fat free yogurt that you must mix with your own berries and sugar. Should I take the plunge?

I had a sample of Yoplait at B.J. Wholesase in Miami. I have a severe reaction to gluten, beans, tubers, rice, corn starch and more. I have controlled my diet so that I have had no symptoms in a long time. This week the symptoms came back and I could not figure out why. Then I remembered the 2 tbs of Yoplait in the sample. Yes, a list of ingredients is essential for people with food allergies or incompatibilities.
What % of cornstarch is in Yoplait? Whatever it is, is too much for me. LIST YOUR INGREDIENTS, YOPLAIT!

ADDING SUGARS/HIGH FRUCTOSE SYRUPS TO YOGURTS IS NOT A HEALTHY YOGURT. YOPLAIT MAY CLAIM THAT IT IS BUT, I KNOW WHAT IS HEALTHY FOR MY OWN BODY.I HAVE TYPE 1 DIABETES & I PROHIBIT PRODUCTS W’ ADDED SUGARS(TABLE/HIGH FRUCTOSE SYRUPS) IN ANY FOODS I CONSUME. THEREFORE DO NOT & WILL NOT BUY YOPLAIT YOGURTS, EVEN THOUGH YOPLAIT CLAIMS IT TO BE BETTER FOR DIGESTION ETC. ETC. THERE IS ENOUGH NATURAL SUGARS IN MILKS & FRUITS THAT ARE ADDED TO YOGURTS FOR A HEALTHY BODY. WHY ADD EXTRA UNHEALTHY SUGARS? DOES YOPLAIT MAKE PLAIN YOGURTS W’ ACTIVE LIVE CULTURES W’ LACTOBACILLUS BULGARICUS, LACTO ACIDOPHILUS & BIFIDUS LACTO BIFODO BACTERIAS? DOES YOPLAIT HAVE THE NYA-LAC SEAL? I DO BELIEVE THAT I AM INDEED, FOODUCATED.

Nobody mentions that there are 10 sources of GMO corn in this yogurt: Low Fat Milk, Modified Corn Starch, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Nonfat Milk, Citric Acid, Tricalcium Phosphate, Natural Flavor, Pectin, Vitamin A Acetate, Vitamin D3. 10 out of 15 ingredients contain genetically modified corn. This yogurt is essentially a little milk and a bunch of inedible corn, like almost every yogurt on the market. No one should be ingesting GMOs, but anyone with allergies, blood sugar problems, or digestive issues should be especially diligent in avoiding them. The only widely available yogurt on the market without GMO corn is Dannon whole milk plain and I can’t get my grocery store to carry it (apparently I am the only person in the world that wants whole milk plain yogurt). (I hate to get off topic, but isn’t anyone else horrified by this new trend of putting toddlers on non-fat and low-fat diets?) I also can’t get milk without GMO corn so that I can make my own which is my preference, actually. Didn’t you know there is GMO corn in your organic milk? Anything fortified with vitamins in this country contains GMO corn. That includes table salt, milk, white rice, wheat products, vitamin supplements – even organic brands.