Yo! Frozen Yogurt Lounge has crossed the unspoken advertisement barrier. The stand propped outside the storefront as well as the in-store screen reads, “Let’s do lunch. Make Yo! Frozen Yogurt your new healthy, low-cost lunch alternative.”
Not only is it incorrect to call skipping an actual lunch healthy, but it’s also manipulative to advertise in this manner with the realization that an overwhelming amount of women students on campus suffer from body-weight issues.
The company is conscious that its primary income stems from TCU female students, including many who constantly try to cut calorie corners.
Yo! is encouraging this unhealthy mindset by suggesting students eat its non-fat yogurt and skip lunch altogether.
Registered dietitian Becky Hoskins said that skipping a full lunch for yogurt is an unhealthy idea.
“Frozen yogurt is a good snack, with some amounts of carbohydrates and proteins, but it shouldn’t be replacing any meal,” she said.
Hoskins said that advertisements like these most likely won’t severely worsen someone’s eating disorder, because those suffering from diseases such as anorexia are generally knowledgeable regarding their caloric intake. The students suffering most from advertisements like these are the ones looking for more “quick-fix diets” that don’t prove successful.
As far as why eating yogurt for lunch isn’t healthy, Hoskins said the answer lies in the fact that once a meal is skipped or replaced by a significantly less filling one, we simply gorge on the next meal because of intensified hunger.
Junior early childhood education major Amy Cooper is also frustrated by this advertisement.
Cooper said, “Considering the statistics regarding the weight issues girls at TCU have, Yo!suggesting a cup of yogurt in place of a meal is only going to add to the numbers.”
Many of my friends already eat like malnourished birds. It’s hurtful to see restaurants near campus recognizing this weak spot and trying to make it into a “healthy new idea” to gain more profits.
Let’s keep labeling yogurt as a snack, not my dinner, Yo!, and take down that sign.
Sammy Key is a junior English and Spanish double major from Tulsa, Okla.
