8 ms·

They might as well be candy, honestly. I would have to slather one with peanut butter to even consider it a semi-acceptable snack.

fullshark 5y ago
A lot of convenient breakfast foods are basically candy: children's cereal, nutella spread, etc.
- ceejayoz 5y ago
  Yogurt is a really insidious one. More sugar in most of them than a can of soda, but marketed as healthy. As an example, https://www.yoplait.com/products/original-single-serve-strawberry/ https://www.yoplait.com/products/original-single-serve-straw... has 27g carbohydrates. An 8oz Coke has 26g.
  - lotsofpulp 5y ago
    The new legislation to require showing added sugar is very helpful.
  - switch007 5y ago
    Calling it yoghurt is such a lie. It’s sugar with some milk! Not sure about the North American markets but plain old Natural/Greek yoghurt is a good way to avoid tons of added sugar. The majority of them in the UK are not desserts masquerading as sugar. They’re around 3-5% sugar from the milk.
    - adventured 5y ago
      In the US you have three options to avoid the high amounts of sugar in the mass products. You can buy proper natural/greek yogurts, they're fairly common, most grocery stores will have multiple options. You can get various low sugar yogurts. You can go with artificially flavored options, which will be 0-3g of sugar typically. Kroger's (popular grocery store) house brand of vanilla yogurt is 4.6g of sugar per ounce. Their Greek version of that product is about half that sugar level. Noosa vanilla bean yogurt is 4g of sugar per ounce. Their Lemon flavor is 4.3g of sugar per ounce. Yoplait original strawberry is 3.1g of sugar per ounce. Chobani greek yogurt with strawberries added is 2.5g of sugar per ounce. Walmart's house brand of vanilla yogurt is 2.5g of sugar per ounce. Walmart's house brand of plain greek yogurt is about 1g of total sugar per ounce, claiming no added sugars. The Greek Gods plain Greek yogurt is 1.5g of total sugar per ounce. Oikos plain greek yogurt is around 1.1g of total sugar per ounce. Oikos sells a "triple zero" brand of supposedly greek yogurt that is popular at grocery stores in the US. It claims zero sugar, zero sugar added, zero artificial sweeteners. It lists Stevia as its fourth ingredient (I guess they get to claim that's simultaneously not sugar and not an artificial sweetener). Chobani makes a zero sugar line, that claims to have zero sugar and no artificial sweeteners. However they list Allulose on the label, which is really just a sugar (D-psicose). The Two Good brand claims 0.38g of sugar per ounce, they use Stevia as the sweetener. The US has about 4,000 yogurt options to choose from. That might be nice but it actually makes it annoying to sort through and find the quality options in the pile.
      - moistly 5y ago
        Grams per ounce is an odd measurement…
  - mint2 5y ago
    It’s a stretch to say that yogurt is what companies like yoplait, danon and gogurt market. Sure they will claim it, but it’s pretty much false advertising for gelled sugar goop. And due to the Greek yogurt fad it’s actually hard to get normal yogurt from any brand except for large containers.
  - Bancakes 5y ago
    It's sad to see something like Trimona plain yogurt get a bad rep by these sweet oily concoctions. Fun fact: iodine is a litmus test for starch in food, and you can see if yogurt has been thickened in an unnatural way.
  - pizza234 5y ago
    This is a very interesting case, for a few reasons. First, marketing: they cleverly declare that the product has "No high fructose corn syrup", while they added a lot of sugars (13g/26%!!). I'm looking forward the next product declaring "no added cyanide" :) The second is classifications of sugar. The "carbohydrates" term is too generic to ascertain the type(s) (and associated health impact); for example, 100g of dry beans are certainly a good meal, but in terms of labelling, they're around 90% of "carbohydrates" (one needs to look at the "sugars" label). On this product label, around 8g are not "sugars", in other words, not simple carbohydrates, but I don't understand where they come from, based on the ingredients; they could be starch, but the label says <1% of corn starch. I wonder if "modified corn starch" classifies as "not corn starch", which would explain the missing 8g.
ausbah 5y ago
there are some "healthy competitors" that just have a jam filling around a while wheat breading(?)
marcellus23 5y ago
Uh, why would smearing peanut butter on it make it healthier? Or did I get whooshed?
- nkingsy 5y ago
  Less sugar per calorie. One pop tart with peanut butter is better than two pop tarts
  - ceejayoz 5y ago
    (Plus improved satiety from the protein content, so you don't want a third one an hour or two later.)
- Bancakes 5y ago
  Hopefully he meant homemade peanut butter, none of that vegetable oil mess.
  - xboxnolifes 5y ago
    Not sure what kind of peanut butter you buy, but all of the common brands I see have at most 3 ingredients: Peanuts, salt, and sometimes sugar.
- slfnflctd 5y ago
  Better overall macronutrient profile, more fiber. I would highly recommend the kind with only 2 ingredients that separates at room temperature. Yeah, it sucks to have to stir it, but you only need to do that once per jar if you put it in the fridge afterward. Alternatively, just eat a couple handfuls of minimally processed peanuts or whatever other nuts/legumes you prefer along with the less healthy stuff. They improve the nutrition value of almost any meal (provided you're not allergic, of course).
phkahler 5y ago
>> I would have to slather one with peanut butter to even consider it a semi-acceptable snack. Try turning it over and put butter on it while hot. Yum. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlsFgDjyePc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlsFgDjyePc
tshaddox 5y ago
For a while they had peanut butter and chocolate + peanut butter varieties. I enjoyed those.

fullshark 5y ago

A lot of convenient breakfast foods are basically candy: children's cereal, nutella spread, etc.

ceejayoz 5y ago
Yogurt is a really insidious one. More sugar in most of them than a can of soda, but marketed as healthy. As an example, https://www.yoplait.com/products/original-single-serve-strawberry/ https://www.yoplait.com/products/original-single-serve-straw... has 27g carbohydrates. An 8oz Coke has 26g.
- lotsofpulp 5y ago
  The new legislation to require showing added sugar is very helpful.
- switch007 5y ago
  Calling it yoghurt is such a lie. It’s sugar with some milk! Not sure about the North American markets but plain old Natural/Greek yoghurt is a good way to avoid tons of added sugar. The majority of them in the UK are not desserts masquerading as sugar. They’re around 3-5% sugar from the milk.
  - adventured 5y ago
    In the US you have three options to avoid the high amounts of sugar in the mass products. You can buy proper natural/greek yogurts, they're fairly common, most grocery stores will have multiple options. You can get various low sugar yogurts. You can go with artificially flavored options, which will be 0-3g of sugar typically. Kroger's (popular grocery store) house brand of vanilla yogurt is 4.6g of sugar per ounce. Their Greek version of that product is about half that sugar level. Noosa vanilla bean yogurt is 4g of sugar per ounce. Their Lemon flavor is 4.3g of sugar per ounce. Yoplait original strawberry is 3.1g of sugar per ounce. Chobani greek yogurt with strawberries added is 2.5g of sugar per ounce. Walmart's house brand of vanilla yogurt is 2.5g of sugar per ounce. Walmart's house brand of plain greek yogurt is about 1g of total sugar per ounce, claiming no added sugars. The Greek Gods plain Greek yogurt is 1.5g of total sugar per ounce. Oikos plain greek yogurt is around 1.1g of total sugar per ounce. Oikos sells a "triple zero" brand of supposedly greek yogurt that is popular at grocery stores in the US. It claims zero sugar, zero sugar added, zero artificial sweeteners. It lists Stevia as its fourth ingredient (I guess they get to claim that's simultaneously not sugar and not an artificial sweetener). Chobani makes a zero sugar line, that claims to have zero sugar and no artificial sweeteners. However they list Allulose on the label, which is really just a sugar (D-psicose). The Two Good brand claims 0.38g of sugar per ounce, they use Stevia as the sweetener. The US has about 4,000 yogurt options to choose from. That might be nice but it actually makes it annoying to sort through and find the quality options in the pile.
    - moistly 5y ago
      Grams per ounce is an odd measurement…
- mint2 5y ago
  It’s a stretch to say that yogurt is what companies like yoplait, danon and gogurt market. Sure they will claim it, but it’s pretty much false advertising for gelled sugar goop. And due to the Greek yogurt fad it’s actually hard to get normal yogurt from any brand except for large containers.
- Bancakes 5y ago
  It's sad to see something like Trimona plain yogurt get a bad rep by these sweet oily concoctions. Fun fact: iodine is a litmus test for starch in food, and you can see if yogurt has been thickened in an unnatural way.
- pizza234 5y ago
  This is a very interesting case, for a few reasons. First, marketing: they cleverly declare that the product has "No high fructose corn syrup", while they added a lot of sugars (13g/26%!!). I'm looking forward the next product declaring "no added cyanide" :) The second is classifications of sugar. The "carbohydrates" term is too generic to ascertain the type(s) (and associated health impact); for example, 100g of dry beans are certainly a good meal, but in terms of labelling, they're around 90% of "carbohydrates" (one needs to look at the "sugars" label). On this product label, around 8g are not "sugars", in other words, not simple carbohydrates, but I don't understand where they come from, based on the ingredients; they could be starch, but the label says <1% of corn starch. I wonder if "modified corn starch" classifies as "not corn starch", which would explain the missing 8g.

ausbah 5y ago

there are some "healthy competitors" that just have a jam filling around a while wheat breading(?)

marcellus23 5y ago

Uh, why would smearing peanut butter on it make it healthier? Or did I get whooshed?

nkingsy 5y ago
Less sugar per calorie. One pop tart with peanut butter is better than two pop tarts
- ceejayoz 5y ago
  (Plus improved satiety from the protein content, so you don't want a third one an hour or two later.)
Bancakes 5y ago
Hopefully he meant homemade peanut butter, none of that vegetable oil mess.
- xboxnolifes 5y ago
  Not sure what kind of peanut butter you buy, but all of the common brands I see have at most 3 ingredients: Peanuts, salt, and sometimes sugar.
slfnflctd 5y ago
Better overall macronutrient profile, more fiber. I would highly recommend the kind with only 2 ingredients that separates at room temperature. Yeah, it sucks to have to stir it, but you only need to do that once per jar if you put it in the fridge afterward. Alternatively, just eat a couple handfuls of minimally processed peanuts or whatever other nuts/legumes you prefer along with the less healthy stuff. They improve the nutrition value of almost any meal (provided you're not allergic, of course).

phkahler 5y ago

>> I would have to slather one with peanut butter to even consider it a semi-acceptable snack. Try turning it over and put butter on it while hot. Yum. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlsFgDjyePc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlsFgDjyePc

tshaddox 5y ago

For a while they had peanut butter and chocolate + peanut butter varieties. I enjoyed those.