What used to be one of America's go-to foods for a quick, healthy snack has been hijacked by Big Food and replaced with a product containing so many unhealthy, synthetic ingredients that critics say it's lost its identity.

Yogurt in its traditional form is a rich source of essential minerals, vitamins and probiotics, and is thought to boost gastrointestinal health and aid with digestion. However, with today's food industry jumping on the organic bandwagon, there are now more unhealthy brands of yogurt (many of which probably shouldn't even be called yogurt) on store shelves than ever before.

Luckily for the consumer, Wisconsin-based food and farm policy research group The Cornucopia Institute has kept a close eye on the evolving market of yogurt, tracking and identifying which brands to buy and which ones to avoid.

Released in November, their latest project, entitled Culture Wars: How the Food Giants Turned Yogurt, a Health Food, into Junk Food, not only includes a comprehensive report^[PDF] on the yogurt industry but a scorecard rating 114 brands, separating the healthy and unhealthy choices.

The report "alleges that agribusiness, in their marketing approach, has capitalized on yogurt's historic, well-deserved healthful reputation while simultaneously adulterating the product, sometimes illegally, to gain competitive advantage and popular appeal."

Food giants like General Mills (Yoplait), Groupe Danone (Dannon), Walmart and PepsiCo have hijacked the healthy food industry through products like yogurt, marketing them as healthy when in reality they're anything but.

Carrageenan, artificial sweeteners, added sugars, added artificial coloring, added artificial flavors, synthetic nutrients and milk protein concentrate are just a few of the ingredients to watch out for when buying yogurt.