Yogurt : It Isn’t Healthy, it is Just Ice Cream Usually

June 4, 2014 Culinary Medicine 0 Comments

You might think that “Greek Yogurt” would mean something healthy…it doesn’t. In fact, when it comes to Ben & Jerry’s, it means 26 grams of sugar. Contrast that with their ice cream. Their Cherry Garcia Ice has 23 grams of sugar. Yogurt is often nothing more than warm ice cream – but not as healthy. People think yogurt is healthy, it isn’t. It is a product that has been remade by American food companies with lots of sugar added. The most obvious example: Greek Yogurt from Ben & Jerry – which has more sugar than their Cherry Garcia Ice cream!

The American Heart Association recommends NO MORE than 6 teaspoons a day of sugar for women and 9 teaspoons a day for men. Translated into grams that is no more than 24 grams of sugar a DAY for women and no more than 36 grams a day for men.

One teaspoon of sugar equals 4 grams of sugar.

Generally people think of Greek Yogurt as “good for you” – so let us examine the nutritional content of a few more of the popular brands of Greek Yogurt:

Greek Yogurt
Chobani Greek Style Yogurt: Strawberry has 19 grams of sugar. Someone will point out the 14 grams of protein, but lets be honest, when was the last time you saw someone who was protein deficient in the United States? This is five teaspoons of sugar – FIVE.

Dannon Plain Greek Yogurt: 19 grams of sugar with 11 grams of protein.

Fage Greek yogurt: well, you have to be careful here – their 0% has 7 grams of sugar. In that one bit of  yogurt you are getting 1/4 the maximum dose of sugar for women.

Activia Greek Yogurt: 19 grams of sugar.

Yoplait: 19 grams of sugar.

Oikos: 18 grams of sugar.

Ice Cream
Blue Bunny Ice Cream: 15 grams per scoop.

Haagen Dazs Ice Cream Bar: 19 grams.

Breyers Extra Creamy All Natural Vanilla: 13 grams.

Dreyers Grand Vanilla Bean: 14 grams.

There is some more fat in some of the ice creams than in some of the yogurts.  But not too much difference. Here is the plan: if you think you want to lose weight – then a low-fat dairy, or regular fat dairy, or yogurt is probably not on your menu. If you think ice cream is a once a week product- you should think that yogurt should be too.

I don’t know about you- but when it comes to what I eat- I will take ice cream over yogurt every single time.

About the Author
You probably first saw Dr. Simpson on TikTok or Instagram or Facebook or Twitter. Dr. Terry Simpson received his undergraduate, graduate, and medical degrees from the University of Chicago, where he spent several years in the Kovler Viral Oncology laboratories doing genetic engineering. Until he found he liked people more than Petri dishes. After a career in surgery, his focus is to make sense of the madness, and bust myths. Dr. Simpson, an advocate of culinary medicine, believes in teaching people to improve their health through their food and in their kitchen. On the other side of the world, he has been a leading advocate of changing health care to make it more "relationship based," and his efforts awarded his team the Malcolm Baldrige award for healthcare in 2018 and 2011 for the NUKA system of care in Alaska and in 2013 Dr Simpson won the National Indian Health Board Area Impact Award. A frequent contributor to media outlets discussing health related topics and advances in medicine, he is also a proud dad, author, cook, and doctor “in that order.” For media inquiries, please visit www.terrysimpson.com.