Eight things to love about Weight Watchers Yogurt

This is a compensated review by BlogHer and Weight Watchers.

Early on in my efforts to find a life-long eating style that suited my tastes and my life tempo, I realized that I would be permanent friends with yogurt. It is smooth and creamy, with a texture that instantly reminds me of more fattening desserts, but without all the guilt. Yogurt comes in a dizzying array of flavors, so you are not likely to get completely sick of it. Yogurt has a healthy dose of calcium, which most adults--particularly women--just don't get enough of. And even though it is dessert-like delicious, you are allowed to eat it for breakfast! What more could a girl want?!


A lot more, as it turns out. Because not all yogurts are created equal.


I've tried more brands of yogurt than I care to admit. Some of them are tasty but not very substantial, so they are not very useful for breakfast because an hour later I have the munchies and I'm rooting around in the office fridge looking for something with protein to keep me full. Others are loaded with aspartame, a fakey taste I have somewhat come to tolerate but never learned to like.


So I was pretty psyched when Weight Watchers asked me to review their line of yogurts. I tried five different flavors, and enlisted my two favorite taste-testers, my husband and toddler son. The tasting went something like this:


Me: Wow, this mixed berry is wickedly good. It actually tastes like fruit.
Toddler: I too! I 'ogurt.
Me: Okay, here's some mixed berry. What do you think?
Toddler: (mouth full of yogurt) Taaaaasty!


At this point I take, I would swear, just a minute to set up to photograph the yogurt, and suddenly it is the storming of the Bastille and I have toddler crawling all over me in a headlong siege to get to the cup of yogurt I'm trying to photograph.


Toddler: Me too! 'ogurt! More more.
Me: I just gave you some yogurt.
Toddler: Done. More 'ogurt. Pease pease?
Me: Wow, you're right. You ate it all already.


He goes on to eat, I kid you not, a serving and a half of yogurt as his afternoon snack. So my son has tried and approved of three different flavors. And because my toddler tried them, and got a little too enthusiastic with his eating, I can also report that they make a very nice yogurt face-mask, if you are into that sort of thing.


So I offer you Eight Things to Love about Weight Watchers Yogurt:


1. The Protein: Six full grams of protein in each six ounce serving cup. Protein helps sate your hunger, and According to the US Food and Drugs Administration, the Daily Reference Value of protein for adults in a 2000 calories diet is 50g and 60g for pregnant women.


2. The Fiber: Fiber is the new hip nutritional element. Suddenly everyone seems to be realizing that fiber is key to staying satisfied after a meal or snack is done. And we've always known fiber helps promote digestive health. Yet the vast majority of Americans do not get the recommended daily allowance of fiber.


3. The PointsPlus: Those who are counting PointsPlus will appreciate a tasty yogurt option that is only two PointsPlus per serving. Two PointsPlus is the perfect amount for a delicious splurge. Plus, for those counting PointsPlus it is so nice to have the freedom not to have to calculate the PointsPlus out, but to just be able to know at a glance that they are only two PointsPlus.


4. The Ingredients: Fruit! The "Berries 'n Cream" flavor boasts real blackberry, raspberry, black raspberry and boysenberry purees. Cherries are the second ingredient in the "Cherry Cheesecake" flavor, second only to skim milk. The second ingredient in the "Apple Pie a la Mode"? You guessed it: apples. In fact there are little chunks of soft apple stirred into the yogurt to give it a toothsome texture.


5. The Probiotics: Each cup is loaded with BB-12(R) Probiotic cultures. Scientists are still trying to unravel all the benefits of probiotics, but they are regularly associated with digestive health, regularity and microflora balance (good bacteria vs bad bacteria).


6. The Texture: Both my husband and I agreed that this was an unusually creamy and thick yogurt. It has a kind of silky texture that makes for great attentive eating, where you get a chance to actually slow down and taste your food.


7. What's not there: No aspartame. These yogurts are sweetened with a combination of crystalline fructose and sucralose.


8. The Taste: I thought the "Amaretto Cheesecake" would be my favorite, but then I tried the "Berries 'n Cream" and I liked it even better. That "Caramel Spice Cake" was surprisingly delish. Then I tried the "Apple Pie a la Mode" and it was even better still. My husband, a fanatical apple pie fan, liked the "Apple Pie a la Mode" flavor best. Though I was initially skeptical, I had to admit I agreed with him. I especially liked the little bits of apple in the yogurt. The cheesecake-based flavors were tasty in their own way, but did not particularly taste like cheesecakes, and my husband (a very sensitive taster) thought that the sucralose was more obvious in the cheesecake flavors. Everyone's tastes differ, but I'd say that the fruit-based flavors tasted the most realistically.


The Bottom Line: These creamy yogurts may taste like desserts, but they eat like a meal. Each individual sized serving cup has only 100 calories, but is packed with six grams of protein and three grams of fiber to keep you feeling full and satisfied.

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