But Frozen Greek Yogurt is Good for You because its GREEK Yogurt...Isn't It?

Good for You?

First let's define what is good for you:  Any food that has some benefit to your body, can process through your body easily, is clean, free of chemicals, free of processed ingredients, devoid of added sugars, excessive saturated fats and additives.  Any food that increases benefits to your body like antioxidants, energy inducing complex carbohydrates, muscle building lean protein, detoxifying healthy fats....you get the picture!

I LOVE Greek Yogurt - and I suggest it to my clients in their meal plans because it has excellent protein content and is a GREAT replacement in many recipes for mayo, sour cream even butter and oils!

But when I suggest Greek Yogurt, I suggest PLAIN Greek yogurt - with no added sugars and sweeteners.  Whats the difference?

1 individual Fage Plain Greek Yogurt (6oz):  
100 calories
0g fat
7g carbs
7g sugar (naturally occurring from lactose)
18g protein

1 individual Honey Mango Plain Greek Yogurt (6oz)
120 calories
0 fat
18g carbs
29g SUGAR!!
13g protein

Honey is natural right?  Yes its natural but that doesn't make it 'good for you'.  Your body will still process this as a sugar.  And remember - your body can only process 30-35g of sugar PER DAY.  Which means - one yogurt - and you are done!  No milk (there are lactose sugars), no fruit (there are natural fructose sugars), no restaurant eating (sugar added into SO many things) - etc.  Any more sugar past your 30-35g and it will store as fat stores.

Remember that ALL yogurt with fruit has additives unless otherwise stated - the Fage honey mango has not only mango sugar, honey sugar but also straight up table sugar added!

So why would 'Frozen Greek Yogurt' be any different?  Its actually WORSE in most cases.  It is a great marketing effort to make you believe it is 'Good for You' - when in fact, its glorified ice cream with protein.

Ben and Jerry's Frozen Greek Yogurt - Strawberry Shortcake (1/2 cup serving):
180 calories
5g of fat (3 of it saturated)
28g carb
23g sugar
6g protein
....hmmmmmmmm 23g of sugar for a half cup?  But thats not good for me? Nope.

Oikos Frozen Greek Yogurt - Blueberry (1/2 cup serving)
100 calories
0g fat
21g carbs
20g sugar
6g protein

Yasso Frozen Greek Yogurt Smoothie Pouch:
140 calories
0g fat
30g carbs
18g sugar
4g protein

Wait a second....6g protein?  Thats not that much....sounds like we are being DUPED!  Yup - you guessed it.

By comparison - most national ice cream brands you buy in the store have between 13-16g of sugar per half cup.  So the Frozen Greek varieties above have MORE sugar than regular ice cream!

Don't get me wrong - if you prefer the flavor of Greek Frozen Yogurt to Ice Cream - by all means, have a sweet treat and indulge!  But don't mistake 'Frozen Greek Yogurt' as a healthy alternative to other frozen delights - its simply an ice cream with the same amount of sugar (and sometimes MORE) and a tiny boost of protein.

I'd rather have some low fat, no sugar added ice cream with some berries - see a great alternative below:

1/2 cup Edy's No Sugar Added Ice Cream w/ 1/4 cup fresh berries:
140 calories
3g fat
18g carbs
6g sugar
3g protein

Remember - always be an informed consumer - all of the nutritional information is made available to you via the internet on all of the ice cream brands sites as well as many calorie content sites!  Be good to your body - and it will reward you :-)

Happy and HEALTHY eating!
~Nutritionista