Get Your THREE Free eBooks!

See the food category for more articles about food.

26 Mar 2010 17:47

Strength and bodybuilding trainees may have a new friend in the dairy industry. Well it's not new but it has only begun to be widely marketed in the US in the last few years. Greek Yogurt.

It's thicker and creamier than the yogurt we're used to. It's nonfat. Oh yeah, and it has twice, if not more than twice the amount of protein of regular yogurt. For instance, a 5.3 ounce container of Stonyfield Farms "Oikos" Greek Yogurt has 15 grams of protein. Yeah, dude, that is a lot. Compare that to 6 ounces of their regular yogurt which is eight grams of protein. But Stonyfield's regular yogurt is high on the protein scale. Typical yogurt products contain 6 grams or less per serving.

However consider the carbohydrates in Stonyfield Smooth and Creamy versus Oikos. All of the carbohydrates, in the case of yogurt, are considered also "sugars" on food labels since the sugars are all "simple sugars" whether added or the native carbohydrate in milk, which is lactose.

Stonyfield Plain Yogurt Creamy and Smooth Versus Oikos Greek

The Greek is tipped toward the protein end. This is just the kind of thing strength and bodybuilding trainees love. It is difficult to ensure enough protein intake without supplementing with protein powders sometimes. But this Greek yogurt is a bit tastier than cottage cheese, I tell ya. Let's not worry about the whole casein, whey nonsense for once, okay? It's milk protein from a product made from nonfat milk. Cottage cheese contains a higher proportion of casein although some whey remains (the liquid part) since cottage cheese is drained but not pressed.

Greek yogurt has the full complement of milk proteins, both whey and casein but it is highly tilted toward casesin as much of the whey will run off during straining. However, some will have more than others because some "Greek" yogurts use a protein concentrate to up the protein conent. There seems to be a greater protein digestibility of yogurt protein than of milk which may be due to the finer coagulation of casein protein during fermentation. The digestibility of the whey portion (which varies) could hardly be improved as whey protein is one of the most digestible proteins of all. The proteins share the same attributes as that of milk proteins being great sources of all the essential amino acids and these proteins are well preserved during fermentation. Also,many lactose sensitive people can handle yogurt quite well, including yours truly.

As far as what Greek protein is I don't know much but I believe one of the big differences is that it is strained so that basically you are getting a more concentrated product.

Most of the brands don't have ingredients that are any different than the yogurt you're used to. But watch out for some that may be padding the protein and creaminess factor with additives rather than using an authentic Greek recipe. Yoplait Greek for example which adds milk protein concentrate (casein and whey) and additional thickeners yet still comes up short on the protein compared to other brands. Yoplait may be a bit cheaper though. The point is something like milk protein concentrate is probably cheaper to add than to produce a more concentrated product which would require simply more milk to create a given amount. Nutritionally there is probably little difference though so let's not make a federal case out of it.

You will pay more for it. You are getting more from it. While a cheap store brand might cost as little as 50 cents a carton you will pay at least a dollar or more for a carton of Greek. I haven't done an indepth price comparison, though. I'm not a shopper I'm a strength trainer. Sorry.

Some of the brands I've seen available are Chobani, Fage (both strained I think) StonyField's Oikos (straining unknown), Yoplait Greek (straining questionable). Trader Joe has a Greek yogurt as well that comes in whole and low fat varieties. I've heard less than stellar reports of it's texture though. Chobani has been my favorite so far.

Obviously the flavored varieties will have more sugar. Plain Greek yogrut mixed with berries and heatlhy nuts would be perfect strength training food. So much is made of drinking milk for bodybuilders and strength trainees yet yogurt has many advantageous over milk. Even regular yogurt contains more protein, pound for pound than milk.

Some trainees like to buy overpriced so-called "predigested" whey protein or casein. We find "amino acid" pills which are basically whey or protein casein put in a pill. Sometimes these products claim to be pancreatic (enzymatic) digests and some, like Twinlab even go so far to call it "pharmaceutical grade" pancreatic (enzymatic) digests. Well yogurt contains predigested proteins along with the live cultures that made it so. As a matter of fact it is not unheard of for those with casein allergies to tolerate yogurt well. Greek yogurt, hopefully, should end the stigma of yogurt as "diet food".

Comments

Share Site		Follow Us!