Diabetics... beware Yoplait Light Smoothies!

I was in the store today and came across something slightly alarming.

When I was diagnosed Type II Diabetic two and a half years ago, one of the first things I learned was that 90% of the “food” I had been eating for most of my life was now off-limits. I also learned very quickly (at the suggestion of my doctor) to look for the “Splenda” logo, as that was usually a sign that a product is safe for me. And I discovered how to read those “Nutrition Facts” on the back of the package that I had been ignoring all those years.

In any event, I had a craving for yogurt today. Generally, yogurt is high in sugar content, but there are some varieties made with Splenda instead. After several minutes scanning the yogurt section at my local supermarket, I was starting to feel frustrated that my search for a sugar-free variant would be fruitless… then I spotted a Yoplait Light Smoothie sporting the “Splenda” logo for which I was looking. And on the front of the bottle, in addition to the logo, Yoplait has added the words “sweetened with” to further entice the shopper’s interest.

Then I turned the bottle around to look at the “Nutrition Facts”. To my dismay, I discovered that this 8 oz bottle of oh so tempting peach-flavored yogurt smoothie possessed a whopping 9 grams of sugar! WHAT?! How could this be? I scanned the ingredients list. Second after “cultured pasteurized grade A nonfat milk”, FRUCTOSE is listed (of all things… during my early education as a newly diagnosed diabetic, I had also discovered that most ingredients whose name ends with “ose” is off limits as well… glucose, fructose, lactose, etc. etc.). The Splenda (sucralose, to be precise) came second from the bottom of the ingredient list.

It seems to me that it is at the very least slightly misleading to label a product "Sweetened with Splenda" on the front and then pack it full of fructose. One would like to think that even diabetics take the time to read the nutrition facts. Were it not for a nasty episode that I once had with sugar alcohols (another story), I am generally diligent about reading them. But I’ll also confess that the Splenda logo has been enough to satisfy me on more than one occasion.