Greek Yogurt Showdown

I feel bad.  It's been two weeks since I posted anything.  A lot of it is that there just hasn't been a lot to report.  Things have been going well - kind of hitting a bit of a plateau right now.  Well, that and I've been out of town almost non stop for two weeks now.  I've been experimenting with allowing rice cakes into my diet.  But I am eliminating them because they have had an adverse reaction on my weight loss efforts.  I was actually debating something - which is why I tested them.  Is it better to snack on cashews or rice cakes?  Here's why I wonder.  Cashews have 160 calories, 14 grams of fat, 8 carbs, and 5 protein per serving.  The Quaker Quakes have between 60 and 90 calories, 0 grams of fat, 13 carbs, and 1 protein per serving.  So is it better to have higher calories and fat or higher carbs?  Turns out, for me at least, it is better to stick with the cashews.  The rice cakes are almost empty calories - offering little other benefit.  They don't fill me up like the cashews can.  So I end up eating more of them, or adding a glass of milk, or even grabbing some cashews.  So they kind of end up being pointless.

The other big food decision I have made is to switch my yogurt of choice - again.  When I first started out on this, I was very strict with my yogurt consumption.  I had Fat Free, Plain yogurt with berries in it.  Slowly, I allowed myself to move to Fat Free Vanilla yogurt with berries in it.  Eventually, I compared those yogurt choices to eating a small container of regular flavored yogurt and realized that I wasn't really saving myself much by being so strict.  There was maybe a 20 calorie difference.  So I was eating either vanilla or flavored yogurt in the morning, then I would use Greek yogurt for sauces or dips or sour cream substitution.  But I never actually ate Greek yogurt for my breakfast.  I had tried the plain Oikos stuff and it was pretty bad - like eating a spoonful of sour cream.  And one time I tried Dannon's Greek blueberry yogurt and it was horrible.

One day, though, Winn Dixie was running a sale on Chobani Greek yogurt.  So I went out on a limb and tried a peach one.  I was pretty surprised to discover that it actually was very good.  It was a lot thicker, so it took some getting used to.  But, after a while, it became my normal breakfast food.  Switching to Greek yogurt is a huge benefit to me.  Here's why:

Stonyfield Fat Free Blueberry Yogurt - 120 calories, 0 grams of fat, 22 carbs, 6 protein
Stonyfield Fat Free Oikos Blueberry - 120 calories, 0 grams of fat, 16 carbs, 13 protein

You catch that?  Same calories, same fat, less carbs, twice the protein.  Basically, one 5.3 ounce Greek yogurt will carry me all the way from breakfast to lunch with little to no snacking - maybe a few cashews at 11am.  After I started eating Greek yogurt, I basically abandoned regular yogurt.  I would still get it to make peanut butter yogurt dip, but once I lost peanut butter - well, it seems silly to get it.  I still had this differentiation in my head - Oikos was the best for dips, Chobani for eating.  Well, I decided to just go ahead and try the different variations and compare them.  Here's what I found.

OIKOS (by Stonyfield)

PLAIN:  This is the original type that I used.  My mom had it and I tried it at her house.  It is a great product - especially as a replacement for sour cream or mayo in salads, dips, etc.  I use it on chili, in tuna salad and chicken salad, as veggie dip.  It has a thicker consistency so it really holds up well in recipes.  That is its greatest benefit - and greatest drawback.  Just like you wouldn't want to eat sour cream or mayo straight, you would not want to eat this straight.  I would rank it first in the plain category for recipes, third for eating.

FLAVORED:  Right off the bat, the vanilla flavor is awful.  Imagine vanilla sour cream.  There you have it.  I was very hesitant to try the other flavors, but I have been surprised.  The strawberry and blueberry are actually very good.  This is Heather's favorite brand of flavored yogurt.  I still am not sold on it.  It is not very creamy - still has that solidness to it.  It works in a pinch.  It is the biggest brand of Greek yogurt, so it is the only one you can find at Walmart - if they have any at all (some of them don't carry Greek yogurt).  The one we visited on our trip to Orlando only had the 4 ounce containers.  I rank it third in the flavored category.

CHOBANI

PLAIN: The first time I ever had Chobani, my mother in law had bought a big container at BJ's.  I used it half and half with regular vanilla with fruit - back before I started eating Greek yogurt for breakfast.  I was surprised at how creamy and not gross it was.  That is one of the biggest selling points for Chobani - its creaminess.  While this may not be a big benefit for dips, it can be good for creamier salads.  The other big benefit is for baked potatoes.  It makes a super replacement for sour cream - and the creamier nature really is a benefit.  For recipes, it is second best.  For eating, it is also second best.

FLAVORED: There are two big advantages for Chobani in the flavored category - and neither of them have anything to do with taste.  The first is availability and the second is variety.  Sam's, BJ's, and Costco warehouse clubs all sell Chobani.  BJ's even sells both variety packs of the flavored kind and big containers of the plain.  That drops the price under a dollar per small container.  Chobani also has twice the flavor options of Oikos.  In addition to the normal strawberry, blueberry, peach, and honey - they also have pomegranate, pineapple, raspberry, and strawberry/banana.  Their flavored yogurt is very creamy and good.  It is a great option - but it is only second best.

FAGE

PLAIN: As I was buying my Greek yogurt at Publix, I noticed that they had the same setup in every store.  The Oikos was on the third shelf - right at eye level, befitting the most popular brand.  Chobani was on the second shelf.  And then there was this weird brand with a stupid name and goofy looking cup on the top shelf.  I ignored it.  Well, then we went through this stretch of like two weeks where Publix had absolutely no Chobani available - and they had no Oikos either for like a week.  I never figured out why.  I needed something, so I tried this other brad - Fage (pronounced fah-yah).  They had cherry flavored, which is my favorite flavor and one no other company had.  By the time Chobani restocked the shelves, the damage was done.  Fage is the creamiest of them all.  It is ridiculously good.  Even the plain is good - like I could actually imagine eating the plain.  And I used it on a baked potato the other day.  It was amazing.  Plus, they have both 2% and Fat Free varieties of their plain.  It ranks number one.

FLAVORED: Fage has containers that keeps the fruit and yogurt separate - instead of keeping the fruit on the bottom like the other brands.  I don't know if that makes a difference or not.  It is a little annoying to have to either dip into both containers each bit or scoop all the fruit into the yogurt and mixing it.  But it is worth it.  And, the fact that they have a cherry flavor - well that clinched it.  But, to be fair, I did try the blueberry and strawberry and they are better also.  (The peach is not.  Chobani wins on that flavor.)  The one caveat is that Fage is a 2% yogurt instead of a 0%.  Oikos is fat free.  Chobani is mostly fat free - but they have some 2% kinds.  That adds like 10 calories to Fage.  It also is the most expensive brand - $1.60 per container.  And it is the least common - I haven't found it at any other store than Publix.  But it wins the flavored competition anyway.

DANNON
FLAVORED: Awful.  It is gritty and gross.  I actually threw most of the container away.  As a result, I have avoided it and the Yoplait brand just to be safe.  Leave it to the experts, guys.

That's my humble assessment of the different Greek yogurt flavors.  I really cannot recommend switching to Greek yogurt enough.  It is a huge benefit to your weight and diet efforts.  It provides a ton of protein without a lot of negative calories or fat.  It gives you active healthy bacteria - which has done wonders for my family's digestive systems.  And, there have been studies that have shown yogurt actually helps in weight loss.  (Of course, there are studies that show lots of things.)  My next showdown is going to be comparing frozen yogurt brands.