Many fruit-flavored yogurts contain more sugar than a chocolate-frosted donut.

The American Heart Association recommends a daily limit of 25 grams of added sugar for women and 36 grams for men. A typical 6-ounce container of commercial fruit yogurt often meets or exceeds this entire daily limit in one sitting. While some of the sugar is naturally occurring lactose, the majority in flavored varieties is added sucrose or high-fructose corn syrup used to enhance palatability.In contrast, a standard Dunkin' chocolate-frosted donut contains approximately 13 grams of sugar. This means some 'healthy' yogurts contain more than double the sugar of a fried pastry. The discrepancy exists because yogurt is a dense medium that requires significant sweetening to overcome the acidic pH levels produced during the fermentation of Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus.Research published in the journal BMJ Open in 2018 analyzed over 900 yogurt products in UK supermarkets and found that organic and child-targeted yogurts were among the highest in sugar content. Only 9 percent of the products surveyed were classified as low in sugar. This marketing phenomenon is known as the 'health halo' effect, where consumers perceive a food as healthy based on one attribute while ignoring high levels of less healthy ingredients like refined sugar.