Greek Yogurt Talk

If you read my blog often, you may have noticed that when I chat about my eats, a Greek yogurt is usually in the mix. I eat one on most days and top them with all sorts of yumminess – fresh and dried fruit, nuts, muffins, nut butters, you name it. I love them not only for their tastiness, but for the amount of protein they offer while being low in calories and fat.

Last month, my love for Greek yogurt was temporarily hindered when I got sick from eating Chobani yogurts contaminated with mold. It was weird because I didn’t even consider that the yogurt was making me sick since I eat them all the time. Two days in a row I felt really nauseous, which is a rare occasion for me. I couldn’t figure out what the heck was going on, and I hadn’t heard of the recall yet. Looking back, both times I got sick after eating a Chobani, and I had a ton of yogurts in my fridge with the matching code for the mold recall.

I know that there has been some debate about whether that particular string of mold spoilage is capable of causing nauseousness, especially in people whose immune systems are healthy like mine was, but I know my body. I had never experienced nausea quite like that before, and there’s not a doubt in my mind that it was caused by food poisoning.

I’ve been a longtime fan of Chobani products, as well as their marketing and social media communications, and have reviewed new flavors on the blog before…but this put a bad taste in my mouth after the nausea in my stomach was gone.

Some of you may be thinking that it’s not that big of a deal. So what, some mold got in a few yogurts right? Well let’s put it this way: I’m a person who became a vegetarian at the age of 10 in a family full of meat-eaters – not knowing most of the things I know now about the meat industry – because I simply thought the idea of eating the flesh of animals was icky. I suppose I just get grossed out easily. No, I didn’t write off Chobani or Greek yogurt in its entirety for the rest of my life, but I did take a hiatus from eating it for a bit.

So I waited a couple weeks after my free Chobani recall coupons came in the mail to buy any new yogurt. I also had been sitting on free yogurt coupons from Yoplait that were sent to me after I tweeted this:

Post mold incident, the irony of that statement is not lost on me.

I don’t eat foods with gelatin, and I don’t appreciate it when they’re snuck into products where you don’t expect it, like yogurts. I don’t eat meat, so why would I want to eat the collagen extracted from the skin, bones, and connective tissues of animals? No thanks.

Yoplait contacted me after that tweet to inform me that they recently came out with a line of Greek yogurts free from gelatin and gluten, offering a few coupons to try them for free.

My Verdict: I tried the strawberry raspberry and vanilla flavors, and I noticed that both had this artificial sweetener sort of taste to them. I must have checked the labels 3 times looking for a word like “sucralose” in there, though it wasn’t there. While I appreciate that they’ve come out with a new line that is gelatin-free, I wasn’t crazy about the taste.

I recently also picked up a few yogurts to try from Open Nature, the Safeway brand that uses all natural ingredients in its products. I like some of their other products and am a fan of what their yogurts DON’T contain: milk from cows treated with rBST, high fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners, flavors or preservatives.

My Verdict: LOVED them. Oh my gosh, their honey flavor is the best!

And speaking of yumminess, I also recently tried Chobani’s mint with dark chocolate chips Greek yogurt bite….

….hello new favorite snack. Okay, I think I’ve now forgiven them. I try to only eat products from companies that operate in safe, health-conscious ways, but mistakes happen and I still like Chobani. Besides, everyone deserves a second chance, and their yogurt is just delicious!

And so that’s my spiel with Greek yogurt lately. You should know by now that I take my food pretty seriously, and am always on the hunt to find the tastiness healthy food out there. So tell me, are you a Greek yogurt fan? If so, share your favorite brand!