I made taco lettuce cups last night and I wanted to add to the usual topping choices, salsa and guac, with some greek yogurt.  I had to make a special trip to the store because greek yogurt isn’t something I keep on hand (I usually don’t eat dairy).  I wanted to be in and out so I went to the refrigerated dairy section, got my usual organic brand, and I also picked up a brand I have been hearing so much about.

When I got home, I realized I picked up Vanilla Greek yogurt instead of plain!  I know some of you have done the same thing lol.  Not only did I pick up the wrong flavor, I also picked up a fake!!

Ingredients: Cultured Pasteurized Organic Nonfat Milk, Organic Cane Sugar, Non-GMO Corn Starch, Organic Natural Vanilla Flavor, Organic Carob Bean Gum, Organic Vanilla Bean Specks, Gellan Gum. Live Active Cultures.                                                                

Why is it a fake? Because real Greek Yogurt has two ingredients, milk and live cultures.  Greek yogurt starts by warming up the milk, adding in live cultures (good bacteria) and then straining the milk to remove the whey.  What is left is a thick, dense, protein rich yogurt.  This process usually takes a lot more milk (4x’s the amount of regular yogurt) and is more time-consuming.  We all know the saying “Time is Money” so that is why most companies skip the straining process and choose to add in these thickeners instead because it saves time and money; but you’re paying more for an inferior product.  Since there is no government labeling requirement for Greek yogurt, companies can simply add these thickeners to regular yogurt and call it “Greek”.

Let’s breakdown the ingredients listed above in bold:

1. Non-GMO Corn Starch– is the middle part of the corn kernel that is ground into a fine white powder typically used as a thickener.  It is a highly processed starch/carbohydrate, rapidly absorbed into your bloodstream, and has 7 grams of carbs per tablespoon.  It has no nutritional value (no vitamins or minerals) and it is one of the first five ingredients so it may contain a good amount of starch.
2. Organic Carob Bean Gum– comes from the pods or beans of the carob tree and acts as a stabilizer so the whey doesn’t separate from the yogurt.  The verdict is still up in air about this ingredient being a gastrointestinal irritant and slowing down the elimination process.
3. Gellan Gum– is a powder made from “the microbial fermentation of sugar and is used as an anti-settling agent, thickener or stabilizer” (source).  In this case, it would keep the vanilla specks suspended throughout the yogurt and not settle to the bottom.  The verdict is still up in air about this ingredient being a gastrointestinal irritant and slowing down the elimination process.

Now, let’s look at the other brand I picked up…

4 ingredients!

Pasteurized Skim Milk, Organic Agave Nectar, Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla, and Live Active Cultures.

No rBGH (recombinant bovine growth hormone)

Milk from grass-fed cows

No aspartame

No sucralose

No gelatin

No artificial colorings

No preservatives

No high fructose corn syrup

This yogurt is the real deal.  It’s icelandic-style skyr which is simply strained non-fat yogurt; the same as Greek yogurt but the recipe is from Iceland.  This brand is not yet certified USDA organic but the milk comes from grass-fed cows so it contains more favorable fatty acids- more omega 3’s,  alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) and less omega 6’s- than conventional milk.

Want to see if your yogurt stakes up to its claims?  Check the Cornucopia Institute’s Yogurt Scorecard rating:  http://www.cornucopia.org/yogurt-scorecard/

Check out this link for a 20% off coupon for icelandic-style skyr:  Target Cartwheel

Bottom line: always read the label, the fewer ingredients the better, and organic doesn’t always mean it’s a superior product

My recommendation: buy plain and just add in the ingredients you want, especially if dairy or gastrointestinal irritation is already an issue for you