Most people in today’s day in age- that is of course aside from the vegan preachers of the world- believe Greek yogurt to be one of the healthiest and most nutritious forms of protein due to its natural probiotic content as well as the assistance it provides in the digestion track. However, there is much more to greek yogurt than you’d think that makes it not nearly as healthy as it is made out to be…
First off, it totally depends on the brand of yogurt that you are consuming, as well as the flavor and amount. So I am going to focus specifically on Chobani’s No Flavor Greek Yogurt. This article discusses the positives of Chobani’s Greek yogurt, such as the avoidance of using artificial sweeteners, as well as the fact that it has almost double the amount of protein compared to any other brand. Another claim made by Chobani is that, “its ingredients are “all natural,” and while not organic, Chobani also says none of the dairy used comes from cows fed rBST—the controversial growth hormone common in conventional dairy” (Shireen 1). (When a label says rBST Free, it means that antibiotics/genetically modified organisms were not used in the process of it being made). Click here to read about how BPA has been linked to both prostate cancer as well as birth defects in an experiment done with mice. Another benefit of Chobani’s Greek yogurt is that it is only 100 calories per serving- boy they know just how to lure all dieters, calorie counters, and weight conscious customers! It is important to realize that correlation does not equal causation, meaning just because you eat this lower calorie option, does not necessarily mean that you will lose weight. However, it is definitely a lower calorie snack and quite satisfying. So, if it is so low in calorie content, and it claims to use natural sweeteners, where is the downfall?
G. M. O. ‘s and the yogurt industry have quite a steamy relationship, to say the least . GMO’s are genetically modified organisms that are used for the preservation of foods such as vegetables, dairy products, fruits, meats, etc… Although Chobani’s brand claims that their products are GMO free, they fail to mention the fact that the, “yogurt could be made with milk from cows that were given GMOs in their feed — a disclaimer that isn’t currently listed on its packaging” (The Verge). In fact, grocery stores such as Whole Foods, has stopped selling Chobani’s products due to this hidden information presented to the public. GMO’s long term affects continue to be controversial. Aside from the use of GMO’s in their products, they are also guilty of high, yet hidden sugar content and mislabeling.
“I thought Greek Yogurt helped in digestion…?” You may ask. Well, within that statement lies a bit of exaggeration. A recent experiment done in NPR examined yogurt’s affect on both mice and the human body. Each were examined before being fed the yogurt, specifically their digestive tracks and whether or not the yogurt had an affect on them. After being given yogurt for a period of time, there proved to be no positive affect on their digestive systems, both in mice and the humans. In fact, the amount of microbes and bacteria found in yogurt that are responsible for assisting digestion, are a teeny tiny portion of that of which is found in the stomach. The affect is little to none if anything. That being said, this study did not give a specific time period of how long the mice and humans were fed yogurt for and the type of yogurt is not mentioned; all of which could have affected the outcome of the experiment. Therefore, the evidence could’ve been stronger and more direct.
An experiment that would better prove the affect Chobani has on the body, would be looking closer at digestion in relation to consumption. One group would be fed yogurt 3 times a day, one group only twice a day, and one group only once a day, and lastly a group who does not consume any at all (control). It is important that the two groups maintain the same diet outside of the yogurt to make sure it is not other foods that are responsible for the mutation, like organic fruits and vegetables. Then, over the course of a week, we take a look at the digestive tracks of those who consumed more vs those who did not consume at all. This way, the experiment would be more controlled with a much lesser chance of confounding variables impacting the results.
Another critique of Chobani’s yogurt is that it is not a whole food, it is processed a hundred times over, and although it claims to remove all sugars, it adds plenty of additives in doing so. When you see 0 g of sugar, shouldn’t there actually be 0 g of sugar? Well a
ccording to this article published in the HuffingtonPost, Chobani products use “Evaporated cane juice” which is ultimately the same thing as sugar. However, when reading the nutrition labeling information, they fail to list sugar as one of its ingredients, displaying “0%” instead. Chobani knows just how to avoid dieters biggest concerns through the mislabeling and indirect answers presented to consumers (Spiegel 1). The mislabeling on Chobani products skims over the fact that other sugars are involved in the process of the making, and may be named otherwise.
OK… So now that I know Chobani products may contain genetically modified organisms, as well as artificial sugars, where do I go from here? Well, if you are unwilling to give up yogurt as a whole, maybe just limit consumption to once a day, or 4-5 times a week. Although it may contain GMO’s, any other brand type is guaranteed to also, as well as just about any food not labeled organic will, because that is just the society in which we live in. That being said, there are numerous other ways to get protein such as tofu, tempeh, beans, lentils, meats, etc…Thankfully, yogurt is not your only answer!
I am a fan of Greek yogurt and I think the same way that Greek yogurt helps digestion as it was written in your research. Every time after I eat too much, I will eat a Greek yogurt to help me digest and I did find out that it does not help much with digestion sometimes. But I wonder if this has to deal with diary products or different flavors of Greek yogurt. Is there any relationship with different brands? Since there are situations that I feel better after I eat the Greek yogurt, this condition could be due to chance. For me, Chobani and Siggis are my favorite two brands for Greek yogurt. Since your research is mostly based on Chobani, whether there could exist another result when it mostly focused on another brand of Greek yogurt? Since people nowadays still have the idea that Greek yogurt is beneficial, in order to prove that Greek yogurt is not as healthy as what we think, people need further researches and studies to be pursued.
I’ve always been a big fan of greek yogurt for it’s protein, so I found this post very interesting. An important aspect to consider is that the GMOs and other added substances from Chobani’s production could lead to more digestion issues than benefit from the actual yogurt. Here’s an article about GMOs and digestion problems http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/could-gmos-be-behind-your-digestive-problems.
This post caught my eye because I eat Chobani greek yogurt all the time. I know tons of nutritionist that say greek yogurt is one of the best foods you can eat. One of the questions I had when reading this was, will this prevent people from buying greek yogurt? I am going to assume not because I think in order to make a decision on whether or not to eat greek yogurt needs to be determined from a few more tests. I also wonder whether or not certain flavor that has more artificial ingredients and contain more GMO’s? Maybe we need to stay away from certain flavors rather than the whole brand.
I thought that this post was very interesting, especially because I love Greek yogurt. I think that something that would be interesting to add however would be the comparison of Chobani to other brands. You mention that Chobani is healthier at the end of your piece, but you do not go into detail. Comparing the amount of GMOs and giving specific numbers of calories for other brands of yogurt would have been beneficial to see. Fitness Magazine http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/blogs/fitstop/2011/12/01/healthy-eating/food-fight-the-greek-yogurt-debate/ reported interesting research regarding the calorie and ingredient spectrum of individual brands of Greek yogurts. One ingredient in particular it discusses is sugar. I thought that it was very interesting that you showed how while Chobani claims they have 0% sugar in their yogurts, they use artificial sweeteners. This advertising can be very misleading, and unless extensive research is done on the yogurt, the average person would not be aware of these hoaxes. Even though the data you provided is credible, I do not think current studies are enough to stop the Greek yogurt craze!
Your post was very informational and I liked it a lot! On question I have is does this only refer to Greek yogurt specifically? If so, which is better, regular yogurt or Greek yogurt? Lastly, the experiment done on both mice and humans on whether or not the yogurt helped with digestion, seemed to have other lurking variables that you didn’t mention. For example the health of the mice and/or humans before the experiment (what did their digestive system look like before hand. I know mine is terrible and I wouldn’t be of any help in this experiment). Also, what other kinds of foods were the subjects eating during the experiment? Could they have played a role in the lack of benefit to digestion? I definitely think that meta-analyses would help readers in their decision of eating Greek yogurt or not. Luckily, I hate it so I don’t have to worry. 🙂
I was very interested when I saw this blog post because I eat Chobani yogurt a few times each week. I love it and it seems like a healthy alternative to many other snack options. The question I asked myself while reading your post was: should change my behavior based on the research you’ve found? While I do think your post would’ve benefitted from a quote from Chobani defending their product so that readers understood why they false advertise their product, the research you did provide was convincing, interesting, and relevant. I especially like how you wrapped up your thoughts at the end. It was very similar to how our TA Abby suggested we wrap up blog posts with a “final take away.” Your final takeaway is that even though Chobani products may contain genetically modified organisms and artificial sugars it is still the healthiest of the greek yogurts. Based on your takeaway, I’m going to make the decision to keep eating Chobani yogurt, but, of course, with caution of the false advertising.