Have you ever noticed that when you buy yogurt it’s loaded with sugar. I compared a Dove “Rich Dark Chocolate” candy bar (one of my favorites!) to a carton of yogurt. Guess what…the candy bar has 17 grams of sugar, and the yogurt has 27 grams of sugar. Some people would say to buy the “light” yogurt with no sugar, but two of my doctors have told me to stay away from all artificial sweeteners. I know some people need the artificial sweeteners if they have a health problem such as diabetes, but artificial sweeteners are not good for hormones, fibromyalgia, and a host of other ailments. Anyway, back to the yogurt. I found a good way to get good tasting yogurt without a ton of sugar and without any artificial sweeteners is to make my own. Now I don’t start from scratch, I use plain yogurt as my base and then go from there. Here’s the simple recipe:

*1/2 cup plain, nonfat yogurt (sometimes I use Nonfat White Mountain Bulgarian Yogurt which I buy at Central Market)

*1 tbsp of your favorite fruit preserves or 1/2 – 1 tbsp Hershey’s Syrup (5-10 grams of sugar)

*a little dash of Stevia for added sweetness (I use KAL Pure Stevia Extract which has no aftertaste)

You can add a little vanilla flavoring and Stevia to make vanilla yogurt.

I think you could add a little bit of frozen lemonade, lime,or orange concentrate to make those flavors, just watch out for the sugar in the lemonade.