CARBmaster…Ha! Actually the name implies low carb, but the ingredient list and food label lets us know it isn’t healthy or real food.

I hit the grocery store here in Texas yesterday and I came across a curious product — CARBmaster yogurt. Hmmmm…Could it be? An actual non-Greek yogurt that’s low in carbs and high in fat?

I do love yogurt and added it back into my diet in March. Granted, I eat it sparingly – once every few weeks with a quarter cup of berries and a splash of cinnamon.

In my neck of the woods you can’t find plain, full-fat yogurt – at grocery stores or the local creameries. The fear of fat is so ingrained in Northern Virginia it’s even difficult to find plain full fat Greek yogurt. Fage’s Total is the only product I can find at my local grocery stores. And the stores order so little of it and I have to visit 3-4 grocery stores before I can get my hands on it. Sigh…

With CARBmaster, I had a little hope that maybe some food makers were reading the science about saturated fat and started growing a pair. Well if something seems too good to be true, always read the food label.

Turns our CARBmaster isn’t that masterful. Of the 24 (!) ingredients, there are 3 sugars and skim rather than whole milk. Note to food companies: If you want to embrace low carb, then try learning what low carb means! Otherwise you are just lying to us. 

So rather than just blindly placing it in my basket I checked out the label and ingredient list. D’oh!

It’s amazing what food companies try to pass off as low carb, or food for that matter.

This particular brand of yogurt is 5g of carbs per serving. So far so good. I usually buy plain Greek yogurt, which has in the neighborhood of 15g of carbs listed (but that number is misleading). So you’d think a product called CARBmaster is another good option.

Not so fast.

Here’s a tip to all of you food makers out there: If you market something as low carb, that means the fat isn’t taken out nor is sugar (regardless of what you call it) added.

CARBmaster has just 2g of fat! So it’s low carb and low fat! Ugh!!!! That’s not very masterful to me. Plain Greek yogurt, depending on the brand, has 10-14g of fat.

Oh, then there was the ingredients list. I don’t know about you, but my yogurt has 3 ingredients – whole milk, cream and live cultures. Pretty simple, yet it’s real food.

CARBmaster includes 24 ingredients, including skim milk (instead of whole), modified cornstarch, dextrose (sugar), sucralose (sugar) and stuff I can’t even pronounce.

I promptly put CARBmaster back and found my Fage Total Greek Yogurt (at a different grocery store…grrrrr!!!!).

Technically, CARBmaster is low carb since it has 5g of carbs. But that doesn’t mean it’s a smart, healthy choice for those eating Low Carb, High Fat (LCHF). When you significantly cut one of the 3 macronutrients (fat/protein/carbs), another must go up. By eating LCHF, you cut carbs and increase your fat intake. Yet CARBmaster cuts both carbs and fat, yet adds a lot of chemicals to their product to make it taste good (I’m assuming). So here we have a food company, using a product name like CARBmaster, hoping to cash in on those people who hear about carbs and weight gain but don’t understand the science behind low carb eating. While technically its not considered lying, as a marketer it offends me greatly.

My advice: Don’t fall for the marketing crap. Cookies, ice cream, candies, breads, pastas, and yogurts that advertise as low-carb might come with a few surprises if you are ONLY looking at the carb count.

Always read the food label and ingredient list!