Which flavored Greek yogurts have no added sugar?

Greek yogurt earns its place on my plate for one reason: it is the highest protein-per-calorie dairy there is, roughly double the protein of regular yogurt for the same volume. The fat-free plain kind is always fine. Any brand qualifies, store brands included, and the few grams of sugar on its label are the milk’s own, not something added.

Flavored is different, and the question I get asked is whether there are flavored tubs that are not, in effect, dessert. There are a few. Finding them takes the label, not the front of the package, and four things have to be true at once.

First, no fat. The fat in dairy is mostly saturated, and the whole point of choosing Greek yogurt over cheese is to get the protein without it. Second, zero grams of added sugars, the line on the Nutrition Facts panel that reads “Includes 0g Added Sugars.” Total sugars will not be zero, because milk has its own, and that is fine. Third, at least twelve grams of protein in a single-serve tub. Some flavored yogurts are thinned out with fruit preparation until the protein is not worth the calories. Fourth, none of these three words in the ingredients: sugar, fructose, erythritol.

Sugar and fructose are on the list for the obvious reason. Erythritol is there for a less settled one. In 2023 a group at the Cleveland Clinic found that people with the highest blood levels of erythritol had more heart attacks and strokes over the following three years than people with the lowest, and that erythritol made platelets, the cells that start a clot, more reactive in the laboratory. A follow-up in healthy volunteers found the same platelet effect after a single 30 gram drink. That is an association in people who were already under cardiac evaluation, plus a small study of one large dose. It is not proof that the amount in a yogurt does anything. But I have spent forty years watching open questions about the heart resolve in unwelcome directions, and stevia, monk fruit and allulose do the same job without it. Sweeteners in general are worth a caution of their own: the World Health Organization now advises against relying on them to control weight or lower disease risk, on evidence it rates as low certainty.

At the time of writing, only a couple of flavored Greek yogurts sold nationally pass all four tests. I have not named them in the book, because formulations change and a rule you can check on the label outlasts any list of brands. If a tub in your hand shows no fat, zero added sugars, twelve grams of protein or more, and none of the three words in the ingredients, it is acceptable. Most flavored tubs fail on the second test alone.

And the better bowl is still the plain one. Fat-free plain Greek yogurt with berries and cinnamon has more protein than any flavored tub, no sweetener question to think about, and fruit that arrives with its fiber. That is the breakfast on my plate most mornings, and the flavored exception is exactly that: an exception, for the days when plain is not going to happen.

The yogurt rule is one line on the food list in The LP3 Diet. The rest of the list is built the same way, each item there because of what it does for the arithmetic of protein against saturated fat.