Yogurt can be a part of a healthy diet, but how do you know what else you are getting in your flavorful yogurt and yogurt drinks when you buy them pre-flavored? You can start with the ingredients list, and usually that list includes High fructose corn syrup, which is a toxic sugar. You should not consume this ingredient and should do as much as you can to remove it from your diet. It is difficult because it seems to be in almost everything. Well, you can avoid it in many things if you get off the "convenience train" and take some minor effort to put your own ingredients together. Many people do not realize how easy it is to flavor their own yogurt and yogurt drinks. I will take a quick aside here to say that you can buy plain unsweetened yogurt as well as plain unsweetened kefir (a thinner yogurt like drink with many times the healthful properties and beneficial bacterial cultures and friendly yeasts than in regular old yogurt), or unsalted buttermilk, and you can mix in whatever you want.
You can use fresh fruit and a natural non-sugar sweetener like Stevia, or a five carbon sugar, which does not get metabolized like regular sugar, in the form of Xylitol. (xylitol can be fatal to dogs but is quite safe for humans, in the same way that birds can eat berries that are toxic to humans) You can use real cane sugar as well, which is not the same as high fructose corn syrup. Volumes have been written on this elsewhere, but search it out if you must. My point is that you can use frozen fruit, or other organic and healthier fruit alternatives to sweeten your own yogurt or cultured milk drink.
If you are using a natural corn syrup free fruit spread, or pie filling, you can just stir it in. Another tasty option is to use Goya brand fruit nectars, which as of this writing are made with real cane sugar, and mix them into your drink. My son loves Goya mango nectar mixed into buttermilk, which makes a tasty Indian style "Mango Lasse" type of drink. It is sweet and refreshing, and without the chemicals. You can make mango and other exotic flavor yogurts which you cannot find in the grocery store. Your options are almost limitless in this regard, and you are better off. You can buy the best quality yogurt in the 1 quart or 1 liter tubs, and simply fruit them up as you wish, either the entire container or in small serving batches at the time of serving, by simply mixing in your desired flavor or fruit with or without sweetener in the serving bowl. If you are using frozen fruit, like frozen berries bought by the bag, then you can use a blender, although cleanup will be a bit more. If you wait until the frozen berries thaw, you can stir them in because they will be soft enough to smash with a spoon.
I hope that this short article has given you some useful ideas to not only eliminate some harmful chemicals from your diet, but also to add some healthy cultured dairy products into your daily diet. Your body will thank you many times over.
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