A friend was strolling through her local supermarket when she came upon the yogurt section. A mom was there with her kids, and she gave them choice of several yogurt flavors. They picked cotton candy Go-Gurt. Cotton candy ?!!?

As if all the stuff put into kids’ yogurts isn’t enough, now we’re encouraging them to look for spun sugar in their yogurt. Here is what Yoplait, the manufacturer, has to say:

Go-GURT® Portable Lowfat Yogurt, the first-ever yogurt in a tube, is the perfect snack for kids. Not only do kids love Go-GURT® yogurt’s fun tube and interactive promotions, but they can’t get enough of the smooth, creamy texture and wide variety of great, fun flavors like Strawberry Splash and Cool Cotton Candy.

Go-GURT® brings kids the wholesome goodness of real Yoplait® yogurt and unstoppable fun every day!

Lovely. Let’s take a look under the hood, shall we?

What you need to know:

Go-gurt are sold in 16 packs. Each serving is a tube that’s frozen beforehand and thaws by lunchtime. Each tube offers a small servings – just over 2 ounces, or 35% of a regular yogurt cup. Yet in this small serving you’ll find two and a half teaspoons of sugar.

Here’s the ingredient list:

Cultured Pasteurized Grade A Low Fat Milk, Sugar, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Modified Corn Starch, Kosher Gelatin, Tricalcium Phosphate, Potassium Sorbate Added To Maintain Freshness, Carrageenan, Natural And Artificial Flavor, Blue #1, Red #40, Vitamin A Acetate, Vitamin D3.

Wow. Ingredient #2 and #3 are sugars. The cotton candy flavor is added artificially. As are the colors. In Europe, products with Red #40 now come with warning labels!

The little nutritional value in this product is added through vitamins A, D3 and calcium (underlined), with 10% or less of the daily value each.

Oh well, at least the portion size is small.

Bottom line: this product should be in the snack aisles, not in the yogurt section.

What to do at the supermarket:

If you think of Go-gurts as an occasional treat, just like candy, then don’t look for any nutritional benefits and don’t let the word “yogurt” trick you into believing you are getting anything more than a snack.

Once you are in snack mode, Do consider the artificial colorings though when choosing sweets for your kids.

And if you were looking for yogurt, then best is to choose plain yogurt and sweeten it yourself at home. If you prefer to buy flavored yogurts, choose the ones with the least additives, low sugar, and definitely not one with artificial colors.

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