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What Is This Ingredient Doing In My Stonyfield Yogurt?

July 31, 2012   47 Comments

Hey, she should not be wearing a cape. Only Snack Girl gets to wear a cape!

Stonyfield Yogurt Review

Stonyfield has stolen my idea. Oh well. I guess that lady can wear a cape (but mine is nicer).

The top of this organic Stonyfield indicates that you don’t need to read their label because they are superheroes which save our families and the planet. Wow!

Now, I get to tell you that in 2003 Stonyfield Farm was acquired by Groupe Danone (Dannon Yogurt) the makers of this lovely stuff: This Yogurt Has More Grams of Sugar Per Ounce Than In Coca Cola.

Why would that matter? Well, I think that being purchased by another company can affect the quality of the products. The hippy, organic, earthy vision that is Stonyfield is a far cry from the multinational corporation with people in suits and tall glass buildings that own it.

Here is the label from that package:

Ahem, this is your family recipe??? What kind of family is this? A robot family?

And the ingredient that I don’t like is that “Stevia Extract”. I just don’t like the taste and I am surprised to find it in Stonyfield yogurt.

From Elena:

I've been eating Stonyfield's 0% fat french vanilla for many years. When I tasted the one I bought recently, I thought it had gone bad! Then I realized it was the new ingredient...stevia. I don't care if it's still organic...it tastes awful!

I spent forever in the yogurt aisle yesterday looking for a new alternative and found Siggi's. So far so good...

I asked a few of my friends if they knew that Stonyfield was adding stevia to their yogurt and they said, "What's stevia?"

I think I wouldn't write this post if Stonyfield didn't have a "holier than thou" image of purity. Yes, their stevia is organic - but many parents still wouldn't want to give this sweetener to their children.

Why did Stonyfield add stevia? Probably to get the amount of calories down to 100 per serving. If they just stuck with sugar, it might not be sweet enough at 100 calories for their customers.

My family recipe is to buy plain yogurt and mix in any fruit or sweetener that you prefer. This way, YOU control the amount of added sugar and you don’t have to wear a cape.

For more information on Stevia - here is my post: Is Stevia/Truvia/PureVia A Safe Sweetener?

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First 20 Comments: ( See all 47 )

I agree with you, I always just buy plain yogurt and add my own ingredients like honey or fruit.

I did not realize that Stonyfield was purchased. It does seem like whenever a small organic company is purchased by a larger food manufacturer strange ingredients start to creep in...Don't give up your cape just yet.

I'm a big fan of buyin plain and adding mix ins at home too, but sometimes the flavored yogurts are good on the go. Personally, I don't mind stevia, and since I'm on their mailing list I got an email when they reformulated some of their products. This sums up the change http://www.stonyfield.com/stonyfield-fat-free-yogurt-faqper… believe that organic stevia is better than aspartame or acesulafame k. I worked in fast food in High school and could not believe how many parents ordered diet coke to go with their kids' meals.

I love plain yogurt and add anything I want to it, thats what makes plain so great! I rarely buy flavored yogurts, I may for a quick afternoon snack when I can't make my own. Great post!! Personally I have never been a fan of Dannon or Stoneyfield Yogurt. I like Trader Joe's or Chobani!

Snack Girl, there's another weird thing Stonyfield does, I wrote to them way back, 06 or 07, to question their use of imported POWDERED NF milk instead of real milk; the response was a very looong email denying it until the last paragraph which confirmed it, probably thought I wouldn't read all the way down! I switched to org yogurt brands that my local health grocer carries. Stevia is an acquired taste I'm still trying to acquire, LOL! I don't trust big corps either.And I'm with buying it plain and flavoring my own too, plus plain is sorta a sour cream alternative.

This is so annoying. I will never understand reformulating a product that sells well!

and I do wonder if this is why I have been having a hard time finishing my yogurt.

Yogurt is so easy to make at home, I don't buy it anymore. We use my homemade jams and jellies to add flavor/sweetening. It's much cheaper, and I know exactly what the ingredients are.

I used to be hooked on the high sugar versions of yogurt. I've been slowly weening myself down by buying plain chobani or faye (when I want to spluge!) And add my own sugar. Each time I add less and less sugar as I aquire the taste for it. I'm down to about 6g per serving compared to the 23+g in dannon and yoplait! Sadly, I quit eating stoneyfield about a year ago noticing changes to the yogurt since it was bought by the Dannong group.

I generally buy plain yogurt, but I would prefer Stevia as an artificial sweetener as opposed to the others. Of course, I need to get back to making my own, then I know exactly what it contains!

I don't eat anything but plain yogurt, but I don't think there's anything sinister about adding stevia to a product in order to reduce the sugar. As far as safety goes, stevia is probably much safer than sugar - it's been used forever. I get it that some people don't like the flavor, and I think you shouldn't eat it if you don't (I don't like the aftertaste myself), but I don't think there's anything "weird" about stevia as an ingredient, and it's a positive to me when companies try to cut sugar without chemically-based, carcinogenic sweeteners.

I like organic Stevia it is not an artifical sweetner. Why would you not want to give to children??

Not to change the subject but what are your thoughts on chia seed?

Thank you for this post. I give my son Stonyfield low fat vanilla yogurt (because the whole milk is usually hard to find) and I'm happy to see that they aren't adding stevia to that product (yet!). This is really sneaky and proves that you need to look at the labels of things all the time, even if you have been buying them for a while. Thanks SG!

One thing good about the caped lady, it draws attention to the label which may encourage more label-reading! I don't mind stevia but why have sugar too? And I don't trust the word natural, why the use of natural AND organic. I'll just pass on something that confuses plus comes from big corp.

I prefer plain greek yogurt and will add in fruit or mix ins if needed. But it took me awhile to get to that point, I started with Dannon, then went down to Yoplait and then after reading a blog, I switched over to greek yogurt. While I don't like the mislabeling or not behing honest about a product, when starting weight loss or healthier eating, eating a Dannon yogurt is probably better than what the person had been eating before. And like myself, it takes time to get used to yogurt and work your way down to the healthier stuff. Honestly, my husband still eats Yoplait off and on for the flavors, but I would prefer he do that then eat a whole candy bar.

I used to buy Stonyfield, but I only bought the plain, whole milk yogurt. Now I can get yogurt made locally and is grass-fed.

I agree that Stevia shouldn't be in their product, but sugar in ANY form should not be in yogurt if it wants to be considered a healthy snack/breakfast. Any parent that is worried about Stevia should also be worried about the organic sugar, too. The only way to get away from sweeteners in yogurt is to buy plain and mix in your own fruits, etc.

I take high blood pressure medication. It is known that Stevia in some people can lower blood pressure. If changing Stevia as your sugar substitute for all your sugar needs...be aware that it could have an interaction with your blood pressure medication. Your blood pressure could be too low. I am currently doing well losing weight & hope to one day be off my blood pressure medications. But in the mean time, to be on the safe side, I avoid Stevia during my weight loss journey.

I like the Stonyfield plain greek yogurt and I rarely buy the flavors. This week I did and happen to have it in my bag for lunch today. I have the Oikos 0% fat peach mango flavor. The ingredient list does not contain stevia. Is is possible that it is only in certain flavors? Or produced in only certain areas? I am in NY.

I had the same reaction! I checked the expiration date! We had eaten them for years. We've switched to greek yogurt. SO sad when awesome brands go mega-corporate.

home made is so good and easy, I love it

Thank you so much for the heads up on Stonyfield, so sad to see the changes and I believe it is always around the money. Changing the recipe so it is less expensive to produce and charge the same amount. I almost always make my own yogurt and only use commercially made yogurt for my starter if I don't hold any back as starter. I wrote a blog about how to make yogurt the link is below. I find that home made yogurt tastes so much better, is not as sour and less money too!! I use organic milk most of the time or raw milk whenever I can get it. It is so easy to make and you don't need a lot of fancy gear either!

http://www.helenshealthtips.blogspot.com/2012/04/make-your-…

I have been purchasing O fat plain yogurt for as long as I can remember. I add my own sweetner etc...Also, mixed with Cool Whip makes an xlnt lower fat lower sugar topping

I dearly miss the Nancy's Yogurt from the Pacific NW. Here it's either Dannon or Stonyfield. Some choice huh?

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