As a mom who is always in a hurry to get the kids to school, to get myself to work and then to add in a round of training/workout, I thought healthy yogurt was the bomb. Especially the organic, low-fat, no added sugar or greek variety. What could be better than a snack that has a reputation for being healthy, comes in a neatly packaged container and is loved by kids?

2 weeks back I ran out of my packaged yogurts. So I spooned out some normal yogurt (I had Trader Joe’s plain greek yogurt), added in some 1/2 tsp of agave nectar, some strawberries and mixed it with my granola (which is a whole new topic for another day).

When I started back on my packaged strawberry flavoured yogurt, I was struck by how PINK it was. Pretty, bright pink.

My first reaction was to look at the ingredient list. But even before I could process that information, I looked over at the sugar – 18gm of sugar in one serving.

I dug out all the yogurt samples I had with me and saw the sugar content –

• Chobani Pineapple Greek Yogurt – 18gm (even though I’ve always thought that it tastes just right) of sugar
• Dannon Activia Peach Yogurt – 19gm of sugar
• Danimals that my kids drink atleast 2/day – 14gm of sugar

Activia listed “fructose” while Chobani and Danimals both had “sugar” in its ingredient list.

I’m not decrying these numbers as “bad”. In fact, a lot of research I did on “good yogurt” advices to pick one with less than 30gm of sugar and with no HFCS. So Chobani Greek, Dannon Activia and Danimals are amongst the “good” ones on the market. But instinct tells me to try and reduce my dependence on the packaged yogurt and instead mix fruits with the yogurt I make on my own. Which really really is a pity since I love it as a dessert, and it is the one with the most convenience for my kids for snacks when just a fruit + cheese stick just doesn’t cut it with them.

Have you been surprised at the ingredients or nutritional information of a snack/food you thought was healthy? Have you given it up altogether or looked for alternatives?