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Is Froyo a Healthy Ice Cream Alternative?

By
By
Becca Ludlum
Monday, November 28, 2011 - 11:48
We like our yogurt frozen. Fro yo is a healthy alternative to ice cream.

I don’t know if it’s the same for you, but I like my yogurt frozen and the good news is -- frozen yogurt ("fro yo") shops are popping up all over my small town. These pay-by-the-ounce retail stores are brightly colored, carry several yummy (and sometimes seasonal!) flavors of soft serve yogurt, and offer a plentiful assortment of fruits and candies as toppings. 

Recipe for Yogurt Frozen with Your Favorite Fruit Flavor
Peach Fro Yo Recipe
Basic Vanilla Frozen Yogurt Recipe

Some of the frozen yogurt shops have couches and lounge chairs in them, making them a very inviting place to relax for a few minutes before running that last errand. But as tempting as it is to stop and get a bowl of frozen yogurt with strawberries and raspberries, is frozen yogurt really a healthy ice cream alternative, or treat, for that matter?

Yogurt is well known for its live and active cultures (called probiotics), which refer to the organisms that convert pasteurized milk into yogurt. Probiotics have high amounts of calcium and help regulate the bacterial balance in the intestine. Most frozen yogurt contains active and live cultures, but you can be sure that your local frozen yogurt shop uses yogurt that contains active and live cultures by looking for the National Yogurt Association’s Active and Live Cultures Seal. If you’re going to go out of your way to choose frozen yogurt, don’t you want to make sure you’re getting all the benefits of it?

With regard to nutritional content, here’s how yogurt frozen compares to other sweet treats:

My Fro Yo Journey - a Comparison Chart

Fro yo, vanilla yogurt frozen
Serving size: 5-ounce serving
Location: my favorite fro yo shop
Nutrition: 120 calories, 0 grams of fat, 3 grams of protein

vs.

Soft serve vanilla ice cream
Serving size: 5-ounce serving
Location: some restaurant
Nutrition: 230 calories, 7 grams of fat, 6 grams of protein

vs.

Traditional vanilla ice cream
Serving size: 5-ounce serving
Location: leading ice cream shop
Nutrition: 330 calories, 19 grams of fat, 5 grams of protein

Fro yo wins!
 
I think one of the appeals of frozen yogurt is the self-serving. Pulling down on the handle of the machine, filling your own cup – it’s fun for kids. Ok, it’s fun for adults, too. But at the end of that long line of yogurt machines, there’s a big choice to be made. Strawberries? Cookie crumbles? Candy bar pieces? Chocolate syrup? Making the choice to go light on the toppings is just as important as the one you made to eat frozen yogurt instead of ice cream.  
 
If you’re going to dish out a reasonable amount of non-fat or low-fat frozen yogurt (8 ounces) and add a minimal amount of sweet toppings (less than ¼ cup), frozen yogurt is definitely a healthier choice than other frozen treats.
 
What’s your favorite frozen yogurt flavor/topping combination? Do you prefer the taste of fro yo over ice cream?

Becca Ludlum headshotBecca Ludlum was born and raised in upstate New York and currently lives in Arizona with her amazing husband and two sons, Michael and Jack. You can find her in a middle school classroom two days a week, and in her kitchen the other five. She’s a master recipe-tweaker and can often be found re-baking a recipe multiple times while trying to reach perfection, which is just fine with her co-workers and neighbors who reap the benefits. Read her personal blog at http://ourcrazyboys.com.

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