Rules of thumb... and yogurt.

[elfs]

This morning, I was excessively hungry despite having had an ordinary breakfast. Since I needed to get cash for parking, I stopped by the grocery store and decided that rather than pay $2.00 for the convenience of getting my money out of an ATM (and it is merely a convenience; I don't have to keep my money in a bank, and I don't have to use the ATMs provided) I decided to buy something instead. I settled on some yogurt.

All of the yogurts at Safeway were excessively oversugared. I could not find one that wasn't: even the "light" ones made with partially artificial sweeteners still got 54.5% of their calorie count from simple sugar. The lowest sugar I could find without buying "plain" was a knockoff brand that got 79.5% of its calories from added sugar.

Now, a rule of thumb that I've tried to accept is this: if more than half the calories in a food come from simple sugars, that food is a dessert. (There are exceptions to this rule that all nutritionists accept, the most obvious of which is fresh fruit. Just eat it.) It's depressing to see just how much of what's on the shelves qualifies as dessert, and makes me wonder just how distorted my tastebuds have become over the years by a diet that made up mostly of desserts.

Comments

[codeamazon.livejournal.com]

I buy full-cream Organic yoghurt and then dress it with fruit, jam, nuts or maple syrup to my tastes. Doesn't take a lot.

My kids remain baffled about why I won't allow them to eat "healthy yoghurt!" out of little cute containers very often. I've taught them to check the sugar levels on things and they do at least often put things down without even asking.

I also have an absolute no-artificial sugar rule.