Yogurt has been a part of daily meals in the Middle East and India for decades, and is usually associated with phrases such as “homemade” and “healthy”. Only in the recent years have flavoured yogurts and frozen yogurts entered the market.
While the fascination with frozen yogurt started in the West years ago, outlets serving frozen yogurt have now sprung up all over India. Cocoberry, Fro Yo, Yogurtbay, and Pinkberry yogurt parlours have sprung up all over Mumbai, for example. With the increasing popularity of these establishments, the question is if frozen yogurt as a “dessert” is a healthy option as they claim to be? To answer this question, let’s first examine what exactly is frozen yogurt and how different it is from plain yogurt and ice-cream.
Before going into any further detail, let us compare the nutritional facts of frozen yogurt, plain yogurt and ice-cream. These results were scientifically obtained by testing samples of the above in the laboratory at Ramkrishna Bajaj Testing Centre at SNDT University, Mumbai.
The key difference between ice-cream and frozen yogurt, as mentioned earlier, is that ice-cream is made with heavy cream, while frozen yogurt is typically made with either non-fat or low-fat milk or plain yogurt. As far as fat is concerned, this does make frozen yogurt more attractive and healthier option compared to ice-cream. But, as seen in the above chart, frozen yogurt has very high sugar content as compared to plain yogurt, which shows that even though it is fat-free or made with low fat milk, the high amount of sugar greatly increases the calorific value of frozen yogurt. Therefore, it is likely to be more fattening than plain yogurt, but a healthier option than ice-cream.
In other words, frozen yogurt may be a healthier dessert, but it is by no means a “guilt-free” dessert.
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