Sugar, honey or jam
The study was conducted on 199 French adults, regular consumers of plain yogurt with sweetening agent. At the end of a standardized meal, participants were asked to consume their usual plain yogurt type (set, stirred, health segment) and were free to use their usual type of sweetener: sugar, honey or jam. The added quantities of sweetening agent were measured indirectly by weighting the package before and after use. These quantities were converted into equivalence of added sugar quantities.
2 sugar cubes per cup
Participants added in average 13.6g of sugar equivalent per cup of yogurt, which is higher than industrialized pre-sweetened yogurts with 10.2g/cup. The quantity was higher, when consumers used jam (24.4g/cup), sugar (11.0g/cup) or honey (12.1g/ cup). Consumers sweetened also more at diner (15.5g/cup), compared to lunch (11.6g/cup).
Higher BMI, heavy user
Age and BMI were also positively correlated with higher quantities of sweeteners. People with a low consumption of sweeteners (6,1g/cup) tend to control their food better, whereas heavy users (19,9g/cup) rather seek immediate satisfaction. But the most surprising fact is that consumers completely underestimate the amount of added sugar, which is twice the quantity they estimate (6,85g/cup). Although they were able to correctly estimate, whether they were sweetening more or less than pre-sweetened commercial yogurts.