Over 600 yogurts studied Fruit yoghurts are great sugar bombs

Nutritionists reveal: All fruit yoghurt varieties sugared too high
Researchers find tons of sugar in fruit yoghurt. The German University of Hohenheim examined in a study 600 fruit yoghurt varieties on their sugar content. It was found that all varieties from different suppliers contained approximately the same amount of sugar. Terrifyingly, Paulina Schnur and Anja Schöner came to the conclusion that all types of fruit yoghurt were sweetened much higher than it would actually be necessary. The results of their study "Market Check: Sugar in Dairy Products" will be presented in October at the annual meeting of the reform project "Humboldt Reloaded".
Shocking results: A fruit yoghurt covers the sugar needs of the day
It was found that an average of 14.1 grams of sugar are contained in 100 grams of fruit yoghurt. A single cup covers almost the entire daily requirement. "Actually, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), you should only get five percent of the daily energy requirement from sugar," warns Professor Dr. Lutz Graeve from the Department of Biochemistry of Nutrition at the University of Hohenheim. "People now receive 10 to 20 percent of the daily energy requirement from industrial sugar," says Prof. Dr. med. Graeve. This is much more than is necessary and good for the body. It would therefore be appropriate nowadays to use less sugar in products.

Fruit yoghurts have a much too high sugar content. (Image: tunedin / fotolia.com)

Norway and Switzerland are changing their minds and showing healthier alternatives
Experiments prove that nine grams of sugar in a fruit yoghurt sufficient so that it appears pleasantly sweet. Prof. Dr. Lutz Graeve, Paulina Schnur and Anja Schöner are now calling on the German food industry to rethink and react. Norway and Switzerland show that there is another way. In Norway, fruit yoghurts are offered in six different sweetening levels. The added sugar fluctuates between 0 and 13 grams. In Switzerland, one manufacturer even reduced the sugar content by 45 percent. Many people find that normal fruit yoghurt varieties are too sweet, according to a Swiss study from 2009. These examples from Switzerland and Norway show that consumers are happy to buy less sweetened products. (As)