Hey Cleanish Squad! We compared the labels on four popular “healthy” yogurts and two “unhealthy” desserts. One yogurt had more added sugar than both desserts, and the chocolate pudding tied for the least. We also found six yogurts we'd actually buy. Also, in this issue, we cover the FDA-proposed sugar label, and four frozen yogurt recipes you can make at home. Plus: there's a homemade ranch dressing recipe for you that you'll love.

Let's get into it!

— Lacey Baier, Dustin Baier

I'm a huge fan of Greek yogurt. It's in my fridge every single week, and I use it for everything, from smoothies to ranch dressing.

But the yogurt aisle can be a confusing place.

At first glance, it seems like all the options are pretty healthy, except for the obvious ones that include cookie crumbles to add as a topping. Marketers add the protein, probiotics, and a photo of fruit on the front. I mean…it’s yogurt, right? How bad can it be?

Well, we compared the labels on four popular yogurts and two actual desserts (ice cream and chocolate pudding), and one yogurt had more added sugar than both desserts.

Plain yogurt is literally just milk and live cultures. That's it! The cultures eat some of the natural sugar in the milk, which is what makes it thick and tangy, and what's left behind is protein, calcium, and bacteria that are great for your gut.

The sugar shows up when the manufacturer flavors it for you.

Here's what we found when we compared the labels:

An 8 oz noosa had 18 grams of added sugar.

Two thirds of a cup of Breyers vanilla ice cream had 14g.

Yoplait Original had 13g, Chobani Flip had 13g, and Dannon fruit on the bottom had 12g. A Snack Pack chocolate pudding also had 12g.

The yogurt had more added sugar than the ice cream, and the chocolate pudding tied for the least.

Even unsweetened yogurt will have some sugar, but total sugar and added sugar are very different. On a plain yogurt label, you'll see 4 to 6 grams of total sugar. That's total sugar is lactose, the sugar that's naturally in milk. Right underneath it is a separate line that says added sugars: 0g.

So plain yogurt isn't sugar free. It's zero added sugar. That second line is what we want to avoid because it’s often sweetened with corn syrup or other refined sugars.

Not exactly, and this is important to understand. A cup can have 12 grams of protein and 13 grams of added sugar at the same time. Those two numbers have nothing to do with each other. Having protein is great, but not if it also comes with a ton of added sugar.

Consumer Reports suggests 8 grams or less per serving. For daily context, the American Heart Association limit is 25 grams for women and 36 grams for men.

So one 18-gram cup of yogurt uses most of a woman's day.

Personally, I try to avoid all added sugar, if possible. This is how I recommend doing it:

1. Buy plain

Not vanilla, not light, not fruit on the bottom, not honey flavored. Almost every brand makes one, and it's usually sitting right next to the flavored version at the same price.

2. Add your own fruit and sweetness

Half a cup of blueberries, a chopped peach, or frozen cherries straight out of the bag. A drizzle of raw honey or pure maple syrup is totally fine. You'll use way less than the factory did, and you get to decide how sweet it is. Plus you can use less refined options.

3. Skip the fruit-on-the-bottom cups

The fruit in those is often sitting in syrup, which is how they land at 12 grams. You're paying someone else to add sugar to your fruit and then add your fruit to your yogurt! Do it yourself and you skip the junk they also add in.

4. Read the back, not the front

The front of the container is purely marketing. The added sugars line on the back is what you should look for. This is also where you’ll see how much protein is in it.

We verified all of these, and every one is zero grams added sugar.

You don't have to give up yogurt, and you don't have to memorize any of this. Just look at the nutrition label, find the added sugars line, and put it back if it's over 5 grams. Do that a couple of times and you'll get the hang of it.

Right now, the nutrition info on every packaged food, like added sugar and total fat, is printed on the back of the container.

In January 2025, the FDA proposed moving a version of this number to the front of the label. It's a small box called Nutrition Info, and it would rate saturated fat, sodium, and added sugars as Low, Med, or High.

Unfortunately, it's still only a proposal.

The comment period closed in July 2025 after tens of thousands of people wrote in. A final rule was expected in spring 2026 and it didn't happen. Even if it were finalized tomorrow, companies with $10 million or more in annual food sales would get three years to comply, and smaller ones four. So the earliest you'd see these boxes is around 2030.

See what the box looks like →

Store-bought frozen yogurt can carry as much added sugar as ice cream. These four get blended at home from frozen fruit and plain Greek yogurt. The peanut butter one is our favorite. Watch on YouTube →

17 teaspoons

The average American's added sugar intake in a day. This includes adults, kids, and teens. That’s just over ⅓ cup or 71 grams.

Source: CDC, "Added Sugars," NHANES 2017 to 2018

😴 Too much or too little sleep may make your body age faster

Columbia researchers looked at signs of aging in about 500,000 UK adults. Sleeping under six hours a night, or over eight, went with faster aging. Interesting study, though it only shows a correlation, not a cause.

💉 Common medications may change your gut for years

Researchers studied more than 2,500 people in the Estonian Biobank, a national health database that links people's DNA to their actual medical and prescription records. Five common drug types, including antibiotics, were each tied to changes in gut bacteria. The changes lasted for years after people stopped the drug.

🩸 Mindfulness may lower blood pressure in just 8 weeks

An Illinois research team pooled 18 trials of mindfulness and gratitude training. The programs lowered blood pressure within 8 to 12 weeks. Each trial had only 50 to 200 adults in it.

🥛 USDA and HHS release the 2025 to 2030 Dietary Guidelines

In January, HHS and USDA put out new Dietary Guidelines for Americans that runs through 2030. The guidance says to limit added sugars and processed foods. It also says to choose full-fat dairy with no added sugars.

Most ketchup starts with sugar. Primal Kitchen's doesn't. No high fructose corn syrup, no cane sugar, no agave, no honey. Just organic tomatoes and spices, and that's about it.

The same goes for the whole shelf: Organic Unsweetened Ketchup, Spicy Ketchup, and Organic Spicy Brown Mustard. USDA Organic, Whole30 Approved, paleo friendly, non-GMO.

Use code CLEANISH for 10% off your next order.

We read the labels on six products you can buy at almost any grocery store. Four of them were yogurt, and two of them were desserts. If you’ve gotten this far in this newsletter, you might be able to guess the findings lol.

From the graph, you can see that one popular yogurt has more added sugar than everything else, while pudding tied for the least in this comparison.

This is once again showing that it pays to read labels and make sure you’re getting what you want, not what the label tricks you into believing.

One note: these are added sugars per servings.

Sources: nutrition panels read 1 September 2026 on Yoplait, noosa, Chobani Flip, Dannon, Breyers and Snack Pack. The 50 g Daily Value for added sugars is printed on those same panels.

I logged my food for twenty years, and got really good at it…too good. This is the day I stopped, and why. Read it →

I've spent years helping women live healthier while quietly hiding who I actually was. Proving Her Wrong is the part I kept quiet. New essays every Monday. Start with Sorry Doesn't Mean Much or subscribe free.

Bottled ranch is mostly oil and a long ingredient list you'd never assemble yourself. This one starts with plain full fat Greek yogurt, takes about ten minutes, and keeps in the fridge for a week. Get the recipe →

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