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Cornucopia’s Yogurt Scorecard – Some Brands are Healthy, While Others aren’t Far from Junk Food

One misconception that the food industry would like us to believe is that ALL yogurt is healthy because of the beneficial bacteria (probiotics) that the product contains.

However, many of the largest food corporations have turned yogurt into quasi-junk food by adding ingredients such as artificial colors, chemical defoamers, milk from cows who have been raised on genetically-engineered feed, synthetic preservatives, carrageenan, high fructose corn syrup, aspartame, and excessive levels of sugar.

Some “fruit yogurts” don’t even contain fruit!

Other yogurts may be afoul of the FDA’s official definition of yogurt and may not even be legally qualified to market themselves as “yogurt”.

All of this is detailed in The Cornucopia Institute’s groundbreaking report on yogurt called Culture Wars: How the Food Giants Turned Yogurt, a Health Food, into Junk Food.

In its exhaustive research piece, Cornucopia breaks the report down into five main sections:

1) The human microbiome and how it impacts our health.

2) The benefits of organic yogurt vs. conventional yogurt.

3) A response to the marketing claims that “Greek” yogurt is better than other yogurt.

4) The most commonly-found ingredients in yogurt, other than milk and live cultures.

5) A cost comparison of organic vs. conventional yogurt that challenges the myth that organic yogurt is always more expensive.

For those who are unfamiliar with The Cornucopia Institute, it is one of the most important watchdog organizations that we have in the organic food industry. This non-profit does excellent work, not only with research such as this yogurt piece, but also in vigorously fighting to protect organic standards on behalf of consumers.

This is definitely an organization that you want to support.

To read Culture Wars – Executive Summary, click HERE.

To read Culture Wars – Full Report, click HERE.

To see how your favorite yogurt rates, click HERE to read the Yogurt Product Scorecard.