Greek Yogurt...Greek Style Yogurt

AnsiStar

So I usually get the fat free Greek yogurt from Asda in the UK and I use it in cooking or as a snack - usally with a scoop of whey. I was scooping some out the tub the other day and I noticed the label said Greek STYLE yogurt.

This is probably a really stupid question, but is there a difference between fat free Greek yogurt and far free Greek style yogurt? Have I fallen into one of those traps like the "it's fat free but loaded with sugar" or "it's multigrain so it must be good for me"?

Athena53

Check the ingredients list. I believe that Greek yougurt is just denser because it's filtered to remove some of the water. DH once picked up "Greek-style" yogurt at the store and, despite my request that he not buy it if it had anything other than milk and yogurt cultures in the ingredient list, I found that it included some thickeners such as cornstarch. Not fatal, but a cheap way to get the dense texture.

WhiteGirlWasted13

I'm still searching for this answer myself. But, what I suspect is that products labeled "Greek style" have added thickeners to achieve the consistency of traditional Greek yogurt, which is made by straining out the majority of the whey. I could be wrong, but it makes sense to me. I had to switch products because I thought I was buying Greek, but it was really Greek style and I just wasn't paying attention.

crista_b

http://www.mnn.com/food/healthy-eating/blogs/what-is-greek-yogurt

“Greek-style” yogurt is usually traditional yogurt with thickening agents added. True Greek yogurt is made differently.

- Both traditional and Greek yogurts start out the same — by fermenting milk with live bacteria cultures.
- Greek yogurt is created when the yogurt is strained so that the liquid whey is removed. When the whey is gone, the yogurt takes on a thicker, cheesier texture than traditional yogurt.
- For traditional yogurt, if a cup of milk is used to make the yogurt, one cup of yogurt is produced. In Greek yogurt, it takes more milk to create one cup of yogurt, sometimes up to four cups of milk. This is why true Greek yogurts can be more expensive.

AnsiStar

Ahhhhh I see!

So ideally I should spend the extra monies and buy some Total Fage Greek Yogurt? I can't find the ingredients of my Asda brand online (which is significantly cheaper) but I'd put money on it being loaded with stuff. Then again I wouldn't know what half the ingredients are anyway..

crista_b

I think it would depend on why you want Greek yogurt over regular yogurt. If you're trying to get the protein from it, pay a little more for real Greek yogurt. If you like the taste of what you have and it fits your macros, stick with that.

I don't know much about Greek vs. regular yogurt because I don't like them, and I only use Greek yogurt in cooking to replace heavy cream or the vanilla Greek yogurt cups with some agave syrup and chocolate chips as a snack. YUM!

AnsiStar

Regular yogurt's okay but because I add whey or use greek in cooking the flavour's not much of an issue to me. It's more for nutritional benefits - protein being the macro I pay most attention to

crista_b

Then I'd go with the the real Greek yogurt even though you add whey.