Candy Yogurt

I keep calling the kids' favorite yogurt "candy yogurt" because it's so sweet and yummy. Today I happened to glance at the nutrition facts. One cup of strawberry "candy yogurt" has 33 grams of sugar in it! And that's the recommended serving size.

For comparison, 1 cup of my favorite mango-passionfruit ice cream has only 26 grams of sugar.

And a regular teaspoon holds 4 grams of sugar (approximately).

So that candy yogurt really is like candy. It has over 8 teaspoons of sugar in it! Pour that out on a plate sometime (it's 1/6 of a cup) and see if you really want to hand that to your kids with a spoon.

For further comparison: to get as much sugar as that one cup of yogurt holds, you would have to eat 2 1/2 Blow Pops (you know, the lollipops with gum in them?) or 3 DumDums lollipops or 9 Jolly Ranchers. (I like Jolly Ranchers, but I'm not sure I could eat NINE of them !).

No wonder that stuff tastes like a dessert. It IS one. Next time, I'm having ice cream for breakfast!

And for that yogurt craving? I started making my own yogurt again this week. 1 cup of homemade yogurt has as little sugar as I care to add--usually a teaspoon is sufficient (or two, for my sugar addicts, but I won't feel guilty about putting that second one in anymore!). And I make it out of whole milk, which means there is enough fat and protein to balance out the sugar better and help it digest more slowly, which helps it have less impact on your body.

My next experiment: making yogurt from half-and-half or cream. Sounds yum.