Tuesday, April 3

Healthy Eats: "Light" Yogurt

Today's post may seem like a no-brainer to a lot of you, but for me it was a fairly recent "bright idea." Figured I may as well share! If you're smarter than me, than just move on and come back tomorrow. :)


So, first let me say if I offend any diet soda drinkers out there, I apologize. That said, I hate artificial sweeteners. I don't like the taste, but I'm also a firm believer that eating less of something natural and "unhealthy" (i.e. sugar, butter, etc) is healthier than eating something "fake," (i.e. said sweeteners, transfats, etc). See, there I go offending people... ANYWAY...I HATE light yogurt because it has all those yucky tasting artificial sweeteners. (Clarification - low fat yogurt is different from light and is just fine with me.)

The problem: regular yogurt (low or regular fat content) has so much sugar in it! One day I said to Nate, why can't they do light yogurt that simply has less sugar in it? Well, "the man" may not do it for me, but I can do it myself! I've started mixing my yogurt with plain! It's not as sweet but still tastes good to me (and Cate!) and comes with a lot less guilt, half to be exact. I know, DUH. But I'm happy I finally figured this out! Yes, plain yogurt all by its lonesome is definitely the healthiest, but I'm not eatin' that stuff. :)

9 comments:

Monnik said...

Hey, I just came across your blog and I love it! Thanks for the ideas.

I'm not a yogurt fan for the exact same reasons you mentioned. I hadn't thought to mix the plain with the decent kind. Seems like a lightbulb moment to me!

Anonymous said...

Hi, I too just found this blog and love it!

You can also control the sugar content by mixing plain yogurt with lightly sweetened, chopped fresh fruit, for instance those yummy strawberries that are now in season, or add a little jam or lemon curd. Then you get to choose how much sugar goes in.

Jenny said...

I have been trying to decide what to do about the whole incredibly sweet yogurt thing, since I'm not going to make my own. This is a great idea, I feel kinof dumb for not thinking of it sooner.

jane maynard said...

welcome to the blog, newcomers! so glad you found it! glad this post was helpful and, kacey - good idea on making plain yogurt more enjoyable!

Emily said...

Hey Jane - so Sherri Knobloch told me that she just buys plain yogurt and then mixes in Stevia, which is an all-natural sweetener(the container says calorie, saccharin and aspartame free). You can buy it at TJs. I just bought some, but haven't tried it with yogurt yet...however, it made a great sweetener for a smoothie the other day. Anyway, just an idea.

Kerri said...

I do similar things to lower the sugar content. Another one is to combine instant flavored oatmeal with normal oats (I personally like the Quaker tin). This saves money, since you can buy a huge canister of oats for fairly little money. I store the oatmeal blend in a zip lock bag which also makes mixing easy.

Jenni said...

yoplait now makes a kids yogurt with less sugar, not bad, but I buy plain and sweeten with fruit or honey sometimes too

jane maynard said...

good to know about yoplait... I don't even look at stuff marketed to kids most of the time, so I would have missed that. thanks everyone for all your great suggestions!

Anonymous said...

i was wondering if i was crazy for complaining about this very issue for so long! finally, someone on the same wavelength. i will definitely try this tip. fyi- stoneyfield farms has a light yogurt without the artificial sweeteners that you can buy at your local co-op or health food store. i tried it, but unfortunately didn't like the texture. maybe now i can still have my yoplait and eat it too!