The Cold Truth
When it comes to late-night snacks, frozen yogurt and ice cream are my favorite. Some people swear there is a huge difference in taste, but I can barely tell. The only factor that weighs in when I’m deciding between fro-yo and ice cream is how heavy of a treat I’m looking for. If I feel like I want a lighter snack, I go for fro-yo. This led to me wondering is fro-yo is the right choice? Is there much of a difference between the two snacks?
Many people think Frozen Yogurt is the more natural option of the two. According to the Huffington Post, this is incorrect. In the article The Sad, Sad Truth About Frozen Yogurt, Laura Schocker states, [y]ogurt, by definition, only needs to include curdled milk and cultures, but the cold, hard truth is that many fro yo brands are loaded with hard-to-pronounce ingredients and sugar.” These ingredients include: guar gum, maltodextrin, sodium citrate, cellulose gum, disodium phosphate and propylene glycol monoesters. These are seen regularly in all processed foods, so they do not make frozen yogurt unhealthy; however, they do compromise the natural taste and feel of the product. So the next time someone tells you that your ice cream has more additives than their frozen yogurt, show them the truth.
The other factor that makes me choose frozen yogurt over ice cream is that it seems like a lighter snack. I also found this to be incorrect. I made a table according to this article by Kay Makkieh:
As you can see, ice cream and frozen yogurt are not too different. Since both treats contain the same amount of protein, this can be taken out as a factor of your decision. Frozen Yogurt has less calories (221 vs. 275) and saturated fat (4 grams vs. 9 grams), which are important parts of diet. However, the carbohydrates it contains (38 grams) are far above ice cream (31 grams). Excess carbohydrates are stored in your body as fat. I don’t regard this as a reason to consider frozen yogurt unhealthy all together. There has not been any research or news articles claiming people are dying from eating frozen yogurt. One also cannot solely blame moderate ingestion of Frozen Yogurt as a reason for their weight gain or obesity without examining confounding variables. The take-away from this article is that if you do want to eat Frozen Yogurt or Ice Cream, go for it! They both are equally delicious and pretty even on how unhealthy they are. Just make sure to eat them in moderation.
I am an avid ice cream lover. I find that there is a huge taste in difference between ice cream and frozen yogurt and to the point where frozen yogurt makes me sick. In addition I always assumed that frozen yogurt was more unhealthy because it wasn’t as pure a version of the ice cream. I am surprised to learn this isn’t the case. I knew frozen yogurt was always advertised as being healthier, which was why many people gravitated towards it, but I thought this was a simple hoax by popular media. However there is one factor I think that should be mentioned. Purchasers of ice cream are less likely to add toppings due to the belief that it is unhealthy. Because frozen yogurt is believed to be more healthy purchasers are more likely to add toppings, reducing the health value of the dessert.
Here is a link that talks further about the topic and the difference between the two.
http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/nutrition-frozen-yogurt-vs-ice-cream-1525.html
What an interesting post! Also, the title is very creative! I love to eat frozen yogurt. While many automatically consider frozen yogurt to be healthy, it may be true that this is not always the case. This article explores some of the myths about frozen yogurt: http://www.shape.com/healthy-eating/meal-ideas/healthy-snacks-5-myths-about-frozen-yogurt