Beware of "greek style" yogurt

We've all heard at one time or another that Greek Yogurt is so much better for you than regular yogurt and this is actually very true. Most of commercially available yogurts are absolutely loaded with sugar and while you might be getting some of the beneficial bacteria that is in there as a normal process, it's really tough to tell with the tricky and deceptive marketing that these companies employ.

While I don't like government regulations for the most part, I am happy that since this is a food product, it is subjected to rigorous labeling practices and if you just look at the container you will see that most "greek yogurts" out there are not at all what they claim to be.

This brand is quite a big seller where I live and I was a bit suspicious when I was the word "Style" on there instead of just saying "greek yogurt". I suspected it was kind of like how the FDA and other food agencies forced Kraft and other companies to stop marketing the cheese slices as cheese, because it isn't cheese or something like that.

In the case of greek style yogurt though, this marketing is a lot more deceptive as we will soon see.

If you look at other legitimate Greek Yogurts you will notice two things. For one, they put the serving size at 100 grams normally but Farmer's Union has put it at 125 grams. Why? So that it has the appearance of being more protein heavy. But if you do the math you will discover that this "greek yogurt" has almost the exact same amount of protein as your run of the mill Yoplait regular yogurt. The Farmer's Union actually has MORE calories than regular yogurt and at least to me, Greek Yogurt does NOT taste good and the only reason why I was consuming it was for the high protein which it doesn't even have. I was also paying a premium for it at the shop as it costs about double the amount.

I did a bit of looking and there are many countries around the world that will not allow the attachment of "Greek Yogurt" to a product that was not produced in Greece using Greek ingredients and the process that made Greek Yogurt popular in the first place. It's like the "champagne" label only being allowed on sparkling wine that is made in that part of France.

They only managed to dupe me once because I was in a hurry and the store was out of the brand that I usually buy which is Chobani and it is the real deal.

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These guys are tricky with their nutrition label as well because they put the serving size up to 170g so that they can say "1 serving has 15 grams of protein!" and I don't like that they do that. But at the end of the day Chobani is real Greek Yogurt and it is high in protein and lower in calories.

we have to be careful out there though: That is the point of me writing this. The "greek style" yogurts are suspicious of being a scam and I will never purchase anything made by Farmer's Union ever again. They knew what they were doing with this intentional deception and I don't want to have anything to do with a company that would do that.

You have to check labels and also compare serving size because I guess it is up to them to decide how many servings are in one container. They do this with things like Doritos to try to make them look like they are low in calories by suggesting that a serving is 5 chips. Who the hell eats 5 Doritos?

Just be vigilant. The food manufacturers want only your money,not your health.