Before we moved to Omaha, I made all my own yogurt; greek style from milk I picked up at a local farm. I used raw milk and often times, I was lucky to get enough goat milk to make a batch or two. People thought I was crazy and that I spent way too much time on it. But, the truth is, it only took about 30 minutes of hands-on time for 4 large ball jars of yogurt.
Then everything in my life changed. We moved away from Austin and I lost my raw milk source. The kids went off to college. David took a new job. We moved into a flat in the downtown area… So, I decided to buy yogurt instead. Plus, with the amount that we travel and our goal to simplify our new lifestyle, this is just better.
People are always asking why I use whole milk. Isn’t it too fattening? So, I decided to explain why I made the decision to feed my family whole milk organic greek yogurt and here are my reasons:
- It’s organic. With so many fake foods in the world and so many chemicals floating around everywhere, I feel that by providing clean food at home I can at least help there. Yes, we eat out, and yes, there are things we love to eat we shouldn’t. We’re not extremists in any way, but I try as hard as I can to keep it organic at home.
- It’s whole milk. I have done so much reading about whole milk and I in no way am an expert. But, I am my family’s number one advocate and will make the best educated decisions that I can. This goes back to clean foods, real foods; foods that have not had things taken out of them or put in them. Thus, whole milk yogurt is yogurt in its cleanest form as I see it. Studies that I have read say that whole milk yogurt also has proven to make you feel fuller faster, thus you eat less. We are not trying to diet. We just like a well-balanced diet.
- Honestly, we all like the consistency. We use it for breakfast, snacks, dessert, in cooking, on potatoes, in baking; I could go on and on, but will save that for another day. It is a thinker yogurt made that way by the whey (some call it casein just the water part left over) being strained away. This also allows my daughter to enjoy it with the local lactose with the whey removed.
- Plain Greek yogurt is also often lower in sugar than other yogurts. We only eat plain, so there is nothing else added. We add our own fresh ingredients if we choose.
- It is loaded with protein, not calories. Protein fills us up, not causing us to get hungry as quickly.
Again, I am in no way an expert, except for what I advocate for my family. I believe from the reading I have done, that Greek yogurt helps the gut with the natural probiotics it provides. Probiotics are naturally occurring in our digestive tract and help move food through your gut. They are live “good” bacteria that can reduce the amount of bad bacteria. I have also read that they aid the immune system when needed and with two in my family with struggling immune systems, we take all we can get! My husband was taking probiotic pills for his triathlon training. Instead, we increased his Greek yogurt and removed the pills and he has seen no change, which is perfect!
At the end of the day, you need to make the decisions in your food intake (I hate to use the word diet) that best work for you and your family. I made the change to whole milk organic Greek yogurt based on the above. It works for us. If nothing else, give it a try just because it is so darn good!
I am a home cook that does things my way. In my kitchen, I make breakfast, pack lunches, prepare snacks, and cook dinner. During the week, we eat real food that is homemade, organic, and local. On the weekends we do explore more of our local restaurants. I bake my own bread, juice fresh oranges every other day, and make my own kombucha and other weekly favorites.
