Spotlight on food: greek yogurt

Greek yogurt is a food that has a lot of protein and can also have zero amounts of fats and low carbohydrates - more so than regular yogurt. In some cases you can also get a decent amount of fiber. The trick is to find greek yogurts that have very few carbs, very low fat but still taste good so that they can be used as part of a healthy diet.

I'm going to review three yogurts and go over their nutritional information.

• Dannon Greek Light & Fit
• Oikos Triple Zero
• Chobani "Fruit on the Bottom"

I've made this table comparing these three yogurts, which are all the same flavor/style (small pieces of peach sweeten the base yogurt) and are all easily found in supermarkets and warehouse stores.

Please note that depending on the flavor of the yogurth these values may change. I see this specially in Chobani or when choosing a flavor such as vanilla.

Analyzing, we see Chobani is the one with the most carbohydrates/sugar and thus is only suitable for diabetics when that energy will be used. Examples would be for an early morning snack or an hour before your workout. The good news is that Chobani uses normal sugar sources - the other two yogurts use "fake" sweeteners. It does not have fiber.

Dannon Greek light and fit has the least carbohydrates and a decent amount of protein but it does not have fiber. I find this is an excellent yogurt for dessert or a night craving. Perhaps thanks to using the most processed ingredients, it's also the one that tastes the best in my opinion (i'm being honest...). This is the best option if you are trying to lower your A1C.

Oikos triple zero has a medium amount of carbohydrates (note that the sugar amount specifically is the same as Dannon though) but it has the most protein and is the only one with the added benefit of having chicory root - which means it gives us fiber. Even though it's in the sweeter side, I find this a better option to Chobani because fiber goals can be difficult to attain. It's sweetened with Stevia as we can see in the ingredients list which is regarded to be more natural than sucralose.

The ones I will continue to buy are Oikos and Dannon. Dannon is my "craving" yogurt for when I'm hundry or want a nighttime dessert, and Oikos is my workout or early morning yogurt. Since protein is difficult to obtain I do plan on eating at least one daily, and if I work out I'm eating one of each.

Dannon has the added benefit that it's available in case presentation in Costco (strawberry, blueberry, peach, all having the same nutritional values). I have not found Oikos yet in a warehouse store but I wouldn't be surprised to find it in Sam's for example. Chobani is found in Costco as well but as you saw it's not the best option if you are diabetic and won't be doing exercise after eating it, and it doesn't win in the taste test either in my opinion (it's perfectly ok but not as good as Dannon).

I'll add one positive note for Chobani though - for savory cooking, I find their non fat plain yogurt to be the best tasting (the blue one). My wife makes a killer chipotle dip with it!