I got this question in an email recently:
Question. If I’m trying to cut down on sugars and carbs while still watching Calories, how bad is yogurt? I like my little yogurts, but just one carton has 27g of sugar (ouch). What should I do?
Here’s my response:
Well, it’s all about the big picture. If you have calorie and carb numbers you’re trying to hit, can you make yogurt fit into those numbers with whatever else you’re eating? If so, cool. If not, either adjust something else to save the yogurts, or adjust the yogurts.
If you don’t have calorie and carb numbers, go for a few weeks eating the yogurts and see what happens. If you don’t see the results you’re expecting, you know that yogurts will be one of the first things on the list to get axed. This method requires much more patience, because it might take 2 or 3 weeks to figure out if they’ll work or not.
Really, any food can work into a plan. I could choose to eat 4 pieces of pizza every day and plan the rest of my day around that. It would suck, because I wouldn’t get to eat anything or much at all for the rest of the day, so I have to figure out whether or not those 4 pieces of pizza are worth it. Maybe I should do 3 pieces of pizza and then I can have some string cheese and some ham.
One thing about yogurt is that it’s a dairy product, so there will be sugar (lactose) no matter what. But, some yogurts have added sugar in the ingredients list. If you find it hard to add yogurt into your day, maybe you could find a different yogurt that has different ingredients that would fit.
If yogurt is your thing, I recommend eating plain yogurt and adding your own fruit, preferably berries. Most people find out they don’t really like yogurt when they eat the real thing.
I hope this helps if you’re trying to crack the yogurt conundrum!
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