DENVER (CBS4) – Last week I was snacking on yogurt when the nutritional facts caught my eye. The abundant sugar was shocking.

Could there really be seven grams in this little cup of probiotics? I mean that many sugar cubes would take up so much room in my tiny bowl of yogurt!

Well a new study may help answer my question. It turns out the health benefits of yogurt and previous push to include it in your diet may not be as well founded as we all thought. Remember it wasn’t that long ago when everyone was raving about yogurt as a healthy replacement for ice cream, followed by the Greek yogurt obsession.

New research claims yogurt provides no significant health benefits, physical or mental.

A study from the Autonomous University of Madrid followed 4,445 adults and their yogurt consumption for up to four years. They were assessed alongside non-consumers and the researchers concluded that “habitual yogurt consumption did not show an association with improved health-related quality of life.”

Then why does the American Heart Association recommend getting your daily yogurt serving? A study released by the institution stated long-term yogurt eaters were less likely to develop high blood pressure than those who don’t eat yogurt.

And another study highlighted the importance of including yogurt as part of a healthy diet when research found that it is associated with a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

The list of benefits is long, so what’s the deal? Well, the truth lies in the sugar.

Plain, unsweetened yogurt is one of the healthiest foods we can eat. It contains potassium and calcium, as well as probiotics — beneficial bacteria that keeps the digestive system healthy.

But that’s the catch: unsweetened. It’s important to scrutinize those labels and make sure the yogurt you’re considering isn’t packed full of sugar.

The artificially flavored ones typically have more sugar, so if you want some flavor the best way is to do it yourself. Add berries, honey, or cinnamon to plain yogurt and enjoy creating your own healthy concoction.

Scientists recognize that more research needs to be done before they tell people to toss their yogurt. More specific measurements would better indicate which aspects of a person’s health are helped or hindered by yogurt consumption.
