Yogurt is such a popular food item. It always has been, but now with the hundreds of flavors and styles they have, it is even more so. I have never been a yogurt fan, but I feed it to my young children and they love it. Unfortunately, yogurt, like most things has it's pros and cons. The pros are that it is a quick, easy snack, there are lots of different flavors, you can cook with it, kids LOVE it, and it "can" be very healthy. I didn't know much about yogurt years ago. I used to think that (before Greek yogurt) brands like Yoplait were the BEST because they were brand-name. I started learning alot more about yogurt over the past few years, and being that I have two very young boys, I am glad I did!
There are certain brands of yogurt that contain the dreaded ingredient HFCS. Yoplait is one of these. Most store brands do as well. Not only do these brands contain HFCS, but they contain a massive amount of refined sugar! Am I against sugar? ABSOLUTELY not. But we do not need refined sugar in everything we eat, because the food we eat already contains natural sugar. If you look at the backof the yogurt container, you will see in the ingredients "high fructose corn syrup" and "sugar". That "sugar" is added sugar, not natural sugar. Also, a lot of the yogurts contain artificial flavors and coloring. We want to be eating healthy snacks, don't we? I do not purchase flavored yogurt, even Greek, because of all of the added sugar. Greek yogurt is the best because it does not contain HFCS and has fewer calories. The thing is, the flavored Greek yogurts still contain a ton of added sugar. So even if you ditched the yogurts that contain HFCS, you are still getting a container loaded with sugar. Here are some ideas to still get any flavor you want, but without the added sugar!
I never fed my children the "kiddie" yogurts. If you are food educated, you know that yogurts like "Danimals" are terrible for your child. What, with all of the artificial flavor, coloring, and added sugar. The added sugar in foods is not good for children and has been said to compromise their immune systems, leading to them being sick all of the time when they shouldn't be. We do, however buy the Greek yogurt. When I found out how much sugar was in the honey flavor, I decided to start buying plain only and add my own honey. The kids loved it. I realized that they would also love other flavors, and since they don't really enjoy fresh fruit cut up and put on top, I decided to blend any flavor I wanted to make! I started blending yogurt with strawberries, blueberries, pineapple, ground flax, chia and anything else I could think of. I used honey as the sweetener, and the texture comes out perfect. If you have really picky eaters, you can just place the yogurt back in it's original container, and they will never even know you messed with it ;-)
Sounds like alot of work right? It's really not! If you make flavored yogurt in big batches, you don't have to do it again for along time. Your child won't be getting the extra refined sugar, and will also be getting servings of fruit! You can still make different flavors for your child to choose from. Your child will still get a choice because they have the ability to pick the flavor, but "you" have the ability to make sure your child eats right and is getting the best nutrition possible.
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