Exciting (and Important) Yogurt News!

While flipping through the coupons that came with today's New York Times, I noticed that Stoneyfield Farm now makes Oikos Greek Yogurt! This is fantastic news because I stopped enjoying the super thick delightfulness of Greek yogurt when I realized that none of the brands sold around me were free of growth hormones like rGBH. (rGBH and the like may cause breast cancer.) Stoneyfield Farm is organic and hormone free, and I know that my local store sells Oikos. Yay!

Speaking of rGBH in yogurt, Breast Cancer Action is asking Yoplait to put a lid on rGBH. Here's why:

Yoplait yogurt is made with milk from cows that have been injected with a synthetic hormone called recombinant bovine growth hormone (called rBGH or rBST). There are numerous health concerns surrounding rBGH, and breast cancer is one of them.

rBGH is unsafe and unnecessary. Mega-corporations like Wal-Mart and Starbucks are already making their dairy products rBGH-free. If these companies can do it, Yoplait can too.

This October, ask the company to do the right thing for women's lives: tell Yoplait to put a lid on rBGH.

Eating yogurt to fund breast cancer research while ingesting hormones that may cause breast cancer is perverse. Say no to rGBH and Yoplait's twisted efforts to make women buy their products by advertising that they are contributing to the fight against breast cancer.

Buffalo Milk Yogurt

Yes, it has been months since I last posted on the yogurt blog. I didn't try very many new yogurts this summer. There was an Israeli leben that was so awful that I didn't want to think about it, let alone write it up. It was very runny and tasted like chemicals. (Supposedly, it was strawberry flavored.)

Fortunately, I noticed a buffalo milk yogurt, Bufala di Vermont at Whole Foods* yesterday. It was $1.99, which is a little pricey, but still more than $1 less than Icelandic yogurts and 20 cents cheaper than my favorite sheep milk yogurt, Old Chatham Farms. I figured that I enjoy bufala mozzarella, so why not give it a try? I bought the plain, although it comes in a few different flavors.

This yogurt makes Greek yogurt look like its water. It's so thick it is nearly a solid block, which makes it hard to stir. I found it very tangy, so I added some Equal to sweeten it up. In some ways, the consistency reminded me of ricotta. Overall, I enjoyed it immensely.

There's a decent amount of calcium (25% RDA) and it is very low on carbs (only 6 grams!). As a full fat yogurt, I thought that 8 grams of fat and 120 calories were not bad. (Almost all the calories are from fat, though.) Next time I am at Whole Foods, I'll buy this again.

*Which, incidentally, sells my beloved sheep milk yogurt for 60 cents less per container than Fairway, my bargain neighborhood grocer!