Yogurt Brand Name Comparison

Plop a 1960s shopper down in the yogurt aisle of a 1990s supermarket and she’d probably drop her loaf of Wonder bread. Yogurt’s come a long way, baby.

On the upside, it’s got less fat than it did 30 years ago, when yogurt first showed up in supermarket dairy cases. On the downside, it’s looking a lot more like dessert than health food.

For children, you can now find yogurt with added candy, Jell-O, or Trix "fruity colors"—that is, the same artificial colors and flavors that make some kids think they’re getting fruit instead of sugar when they eat Trix (make that "Tricks") cereal. For adults, you can find flavors like chocolate eclair, coconut cream pie, and caramel praline.

If you’re looking for dessert, almost any yogurt is better than cakes, cookies, pies, and the rest. But if you’re looking for a healthy food, you’ve got to be choosy.

You can’t beat a cup of plain low-fat or fat-free yogurt. It can have as much as 400 mg of calcium—40 percent of the Daily Value (DV)—more than a glass of 1% or fat-free milk

(30 to 35 percent of the DV). And, like milk, it also has protein, B-12, riboflavin, potassium, magnesium, and zinc. The only exception: Yogurt has no vitamin D because, unlike milk, it’s not fortified.

What’s more, people who have trouble digesting lactose (the naturally occurring sugar in milk) should have no problem with yogurt. The "live and active cultures" digest the lactose for you.

Whether those Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus—the bacteria in yogurt—have other benefits is unclear. But even if they don’t, yogurt’s still a bargain. All those nutrients for just over 100 calories is a steal.

Yogurt’s natural tartness makes it a perfect foil for a sweet, ripe banana, juicy fresh (or frozen) berries, or even canned (unsweetened) pineapples or peaches. Throw it in the blender or spoon it into a bowl. Either way, you get one of the five daily servings of fresh fruit that could cut your risk of cancer.

Plain fat-free or low-fat yogurt is a Best Bite if there ever was one. Unfortunately, that’s not the way most people eat it.

People who would never let a sip of chocolate milk cross their lips think nothing of eating a cup of sweetened yogurt. Yet an eight-ounce cup of Dannon Lowfat fruit-on-the-bottom has six teaspoons of added sugar. A glass of Hershey’s Chocolate Fat Free Milk has four.

Now you’re talking 240 calories in a snack that many people gulp down in 240 seconds. You could have spent the 100 calories from the added sugar on a banana or a couple of cups of low-fat microwave popcorn.

Judging by the calories in other brands—whose manufacturers are more secretive than Dannon—six teaspoons of sugar is par for the course for yogurts with fruit. (Flavored yogurts like coffee, vanilla, and lemon may have "only" four teaspoons.)

Since the calcium comes from milk, that means you’re also getting less potassium, magnesium, zinc, etc. Plus, the sweeter the yogurt, the less likely you are to add your own fruit.

Still, if it’s a choice between sweetened yogurt and no yogurt, get the sweetened. Just try to pick the best ones. That means the most calcium and fruit and the least added sugar.

But while food labels list calcium and sugar, there’s no way to tell how much of the sugar comes from the milk and fruit and how much is added.

So we gave Honorable Mentions to yogurts that kept the calcium up to at least 300 mg (30 percent of the Daily Value) in eight ounces.

Just because a yogurt didn’t make an Honorable Mention doesn’t mean it’s dishonorable. More than a few just missed the cutoff for calcium. When push comes to shove, most yogurts are more nutritious than most ice creams, frozen yogurts, or prepared puddings.

One more thing: If coffee’s your flavor, you may end up with an unwanted shot of caffeine. And, in most cases, there’s nothing on the label to clue you in. For the record, an eight-ounce container of Dannon Lowfat Coffee Yogurt contains 45 mg of caffeine. That’s about what you’d get in half a cup of brewed coffee. Six ounces of Horizon Organic Nonfat Cappuccino have 25 mg. Dannon Light Cappuccino and Stonyfield Farm Nonfat Cappuccino have none.

Too little calcium. A few brands—like Colombo, Jell-O, Light n’ Lively, SnackWell’s, and some lines of Breyers—had less calcium than their competitors. Is that because they have more sugar? Or is it because other brands have more milk solids? The companies won’t say.

Artificial sweeteners. Though the aspartame (NutraSweet) in "light" yogurts cuts calories to 100 or less, its safety isn’t 100 percent certain.

Heat-treatment. SnackWell’s is heat-treated to get rid of the off-flavors that arise when chocolate mixes with the acid made by yogurt’s beneficial bacteria. Unfortunately, the heat also kills the bacteria.

We only included fat-free or low-fat yogurts. They’re listed from highest percent DV for calcium to lowest.

Yogurt (8-oz. containers)	Calories	Calcium (%DV)
Dannon Fat Free, plain	110	40
Dannon Lowfat, plain	140	40
Dannon Lowfat, Coffee, Cranberry-Raspberry, Lemon, Vanilla¹	210	40
Colombo Light*²	100	35
Dannon Light*²	100	35
Stonyfield Farm Nonfat, plain	100	35
Alta Dena Nonfat, plain	110	35
Brown Cow Farm Fat Free, plain	110	35
Dannon Light, with crunchies*²	140	35
Alta Dena Nonfat, Vanilla	160	35
Stonyfield Farm Nonfat, Cappuccino, French Vanilla, Lotsa Lemon¹	160	35
Breyers Lowfat, Vanilla	220	35
Dannon Lowfat, fruit on the bottom²	240	35
Stonyfield Farm Nonfat, with fruit²	160	30
Brown Cow Farm Fat Free, Cappuccino, Chocolate, Maple-Almond, Vanilla¹	180	30
Alta Dena Nonfat, fruit on the bottom²	190	30
Alta Dena Lowfat²	200	30
Brown Cow Farm Fat Free, with fruit²	200	30
Breyers Lowfat, with fruit²	240	30
Colombo Classic Fat Free, Cappuccino, French Roast, Lemon, Vanilla¹	170	25
Breyers Smooth & Creamy²	230	25
Breyers Light Fat Free*²	120	20
Colombo Classic Fat Free, fruit on the bottom²	200	20
Colombo Classic Fat Free, Banana Strawberry, Vanilla Caramel Sundae¹	220	20
Yogurt (6-oz. containers)	Calories	Calcium (%DV)
Brown Cow Farm Organic Fat Free, plain	80	30
Horizon Organic Nonfat, plain	80	30
Horizon Organic Nonfat, Cappuccino, Vanilla¹	120	25
Horizon Organic Nonfat, with fruit²	120	25
Stonyfield Farm Organic Lowfat, Maple Vanilla, Mocha Latte, Vanilla¹	120	25
Yoplait Light Crunch ’n Yogurt*²	140	25
Dannon Double Delights, caramel or chocolate toppings¹	210	25
Dannon Light Duets*²	90	20
Yoplait Light Fat Free*²	90	20
Stonyfield Farm Organic Nonfat²	120	20
Dannon Fat Free Chunky Fruit²	160	20
Dannon Double Delights, fruit toppings²	170	20
Yoplait Original, French Vanilla	180	20
Yoplait Original 99% Fat Free²	180	20
Yoplait Custard Style²	190	20
Yoplait Trix²	190	20
Yoplait Original, Coconut Cream Pie	200	20
SnackWell’s Nonfat#²	170	15
Yoplait Original, Café au Lait	170	15
Yogurt (4.4-oz. containers, unless otherwise noted)	Calories	Calcium (%DV)
Dannon Danimals²	130	20
Dannon Blended Nonfat²	110	15
Dannon Sprinkl’ins Magic Crystals (4 oz.)²	110	15
Dannon Sprinkl’ins Rainbow Sprinkles (4 oz.)²	130	15
Light n’ Lively Free Nonfat*²	70	10
Breyers Blended²	130	10
Jell-O Kid Pack²	130	10
Light n’ Lively²	130	10

Best Bite.

Honorable Mention.
¹ Average of the flavors listed.
² Average of the entire line.
* Contains the artificial sweetener aspartame (NutraSweet).
# Heat-treated (does not contain active bacterial cultures).
Daily Value (DV) for calcium: 1,000 mg.

Source: Manufacturers.
The use of information from this article for commercial purposes is strictly prohibited without written permission from CSPI.


April 1998 — U.S. Edition