Sugar-Blues in Your Yogurt
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The average person in American eats 7 tablespoons or 300 calories of sugar everyday! (American Heart Association). Those between the ages of 13-19 (Generation Y) eat an average of 12 tablespoons or about 515 calories every day.
It's not just the calories that should concern us. Through the aging process, our bodies become stiff due, in part, to a lack of activity but more so because of something known as cross-linking.
Cross-linking results when protein molecules bond with sugar molecules. This process is called glycation and it impairs molecular functioning. Numerous studies including ones done at Columbia University Medical Center show that high concentrations of sugar in the blood expedite the cross-linking process.
It would be enough that too much sugar in the diet just increases your chances of suffering stiff muscles and joints. But it gets worse, cross-linking occurs in all of your tissues including your lungs, arteries, heart and other organs. Cataracts are this stiffening process on the eye lenses.
How Commercial Yogurt Leads to Cross-Linking
Erin Hobday, a senior diet and nutrition editor at Self magazine, reviewed seven top brands and so called healthy yogurts and found that they are anything but healthy!*
One teaspoon of sugar is 4 grams.
| Fage Total Plain Greek Yogurt | 7 grams |
| Dannon All Natural Nonfat Plain Yogurt | 12 grams |
| Ronnybrook Peach Creamline Yogurt | 17 grams |
| Stonyfield Farm Fat Free French Vanilla Yogurt | 24 grams |
| Yoplait Original Blueberry Yogurt | 27 grams |
| Breyer's YoCrunch Vanilla Yogurt with M&M's | 30 grams |
| Stonyfield Farm Fat Free Chocolate Underground Yogurt | 35 grams |
Best Sugar Alternative
Yes, there is a better option to sweetening. The best natural sugar substitute is stevia.
One half teaspoon stevia is equal to one cup of sugar.
A member of the chrysanthemum and sunflower family, stevia is 200-300 times sweeter than sugar. It's low in carbohydrates, calorie free and has an negligible effect on blood sugar.
Do your body a favor and sweeten your yogurt naturally and keep it a health-creating food!
*Data from CBS News "Which Yogurts Are Healthiest"
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