The new Froyo machines in the Bison have started a type of revolution on campus making Froyo one of the trendiest things this semester. I think it is safe to assume that the majority of us feel that since yogurt is in the name Froyo is essentially healthy. Well, I hate to break it to you, but that it is not necessarily the case.
Luckily for us, the Bison’s Froyo is from Honey Hills Farm and “contains viable counts of live active cultures.” These live cultures in the Froyo make it a true yogurt instead of just a low-fat ice cream. Kudos to Dining Services for serving us true Frozen Yogurt. But we can’t forget that Froyo is a dessert and desserts are not typically known for their nutritional value, especially when your adding on a plethora of toppings – and let’s be real most people don’t just eat the Froyo plain. We have those geniuses that take their Froyo over to the candy machines for more options because the cookie dough bites or jumbo chocolate chips aren’t enough. Then we have those who add the strawberries and granola because fruit makes it so much healthier, right? As much as we all don’t want to accept it the Froyo in the Bison is a lot less healthy than we all may think.
Lets use Dreamy, Dark Chocolate as our example.  A serving size is 120 calories, not too bad right? Wrong, when you take into consideration what a serving size actually is. A serving size is approximately 3.14 ounces, a little less than half of a cup.  The Bison offers one size of bowl for Froyo and this bowl is a whopping 16 ounces. If you were to fill the whole bowl you would be eating 5 serving sizes. Realistically you are not filling a whole bowl, but even filling up half of the bowl is 2.5 serving sizes, about 300 calories of only the Froyo! Putting on toppings can easily add 100-300 calories if you consider that just a tablespoon of chocolate chips can be about 70 calories. On occasion, Froyo for dessert is totally fine but when you are getting it multiple nights a week (I know I’m not the only one) it is a problem.
In no way am I advocating for everyone to start boycotting the Bison’s Froyo. I think it is important to indulge and treat yourself and lets be honest I’m still going to be eating plenty of Froyo. But it is important to be smart about it and realize that it is not a healthy option. For example, Sophomore Julia Pilzer has an amazing alternative to avoid eating Froyo everyday and that is she buys a yogurt and then adds the fruit, nuts and granola from the toppings section to her yogurt. You can also try to only take the serving size of 3 ounces, try to stick to the healthier toppings like fruit or take smaller amounts of the candy toppings. And as much as you may not want to accept it, remember that Froyo IS a dessert.
http://thehoneyhillfarms.com/our-story
http://www.hersheys.com/pure-products/details.aspx?id=3296&name=HERSHEYS
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