Thursday, December 30, 2010

Best of 2010: Dannon's (Genius) Yogurt Deception

Unfortunately, the marketing deceptions we are subject to are ubiquitous.

Here's a post from earlier this year that got people thinking about their yogurt. (Click here to read about a much healthier and better tasting yogurt that I recently discovered.)

DANNON LIGHT & FIT YOGURT:
AWASH WITH CHEMICALS

(MAY 3, 2010)


While it’s easy to rail against obvious junk food, I have more of a problem with seemingly healthy foodstuffs that are really masqueraded synthetic concoctions.


A prime example is Dannon’s Light & Fit blueberry yogurt. “0% FAT, 80 CALORIES” the label screams at us, roping us into purchasing a product that is a far cry from just yogurt and blueberries.

How many of us have bought this without reading its ingredients? Here's our chance:
Nonfat yogurt (cultured grade A non fat milk, modified food starch, fructose, kosher gelatin, vitamin A palmitate, vitamin D3), water, blueberry puree, fructose, contains less than 1% of modified corn starch, natural flavor, blue 1, red 40, aspartame, potassium sorbate (to maintain freshness), acesfulfame potassium, sucralose, malic acid, sodium citrate.
FYI, aspartame and sucralose are artificial, non-caloric sweeteners that you couldn’t pay me to ingest. We’ve discussed the dangers of petroleum-based artificial colorants (i.e. blue 1, red 40) many times.

(Click here to watch a short video showing how to make your own blueberry yogurt without the synthetic ingredients.)

2 comments:

barrel_racer_82 said...

I really do not like no-fat yoghurt. We recently moved from Europe, where we could easily buy full-fat yoghurt. The only kind that is easily available here is Dannon, which is watery and bland. Most people do not understand what they are missing with the standard American sugary-suck the moisture out of your mouth stuff they call yoghurt in the supermarket.

WordVixen said...

Ugh, it's true. I HATED yogurt for most of my life- until I got my hands on a creamy, full fat (from Jersey cows, to boot!) local yogurt.

And did you see that fructose is listed twice in that ingredients list? Fructose is horrible for your liver, weight, and triglycerides.

I'm still trying to find good information on what acesulfame potassium really is and what it does. Do you have any good info on that?