Healthy Food choices

Question
Hello,
I was hoping you could help me. I am trying to revamp the way my family eats and figuring out how to make healthier choices- for my kids especially. Both my children LOVE yogurt, its practically a MAINSTAY in their diet. Thus far I have been giving them Regular Yoplait (not the lowfat, I don't trust artificial sweeteners). But I have been researching the organic varieties particularly the Brown Cow and Stonyfield Farms brands. Most tout that they use a "healthier" version of sugar called evaporated cane juice or pure milled sugar. And I have always been told that you should stay away from foods that contain high fructose corn syrup. Anyway here FINALLY is my question. If Yoplait contains 27 grams of sugar and has HFCS as an ingredient but the Brown Cow and Stonyfield farm sugar content is HIGHER (around 35 for flavored yogurts) but DOESN'T have HFCS...which is better for you?? The sugar content seems pretty high in the other 2 brands... Thank you for your time.

Brianna

Answer
Brianna,

Great Question.

Sugar comes in different forms (dextrose, fructose, sucrose, etc.) Each of these forms has a different glycemic index, which means they cause your blood sugar to go up at different rates. So glucose, for example, raises your blood sugar faster than sucrose (table sugar) - even if you eat the same grams of each.

Unfortunately, manufacturers don't typically list what type of sugar is in their product. Sometimes you can somewhat figure it out from the label ingredients - like the HFCS. The evaporated cane juice should be lower on the glycemic index scale than HFCS, meaning you can't just look at the grams of sugar to decide which has 'more'. You really need to know the glycemic index of the sugars to know which carries a higher sugar spiking punch.

The answer to your question is not straight forward. You are correct to try and minimize the amount of sugar that your kids eat. You can actually reduce their liking for sweet things by slowly reducing their intake of sugars.

Would it be possible for you to buy unsweetened yogurt and mix it with the organic sweetened yogurts? If you slowly changed the ratio of sweet to unsweet your kids tastes would adjust. Also, mixing it with real fruit, like sliced bananas or berries works well.

Another advantage to the organic yogurt is the fact that it comes from organic milk. I am not over the top on organic food but do buy a few things organic and milk is one them. I think that it is worth it to your health to avoid the hormone treated dairy cows.

Hope this helps.  

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