60 calories in a serving of yogurt. How does one do that?

[Skidmore]

Drag a teaspoon of lowfat milk through a cup of gelatin and emulsifiers and put a couple of drops of "natural flavoring" and squeezed bug juice to give it color to get it to pass for being fruit yogurt. They then add artificial sweeteners and vitamins because it has none otherwise. It is marketed to people who don't bother to read the labels for 70 cents a pop. This makes 7 days of one "dairy" serving a day of this fake food $5 of one's grocery budget. Perfect "food" for the anorexic. Perfect "food" for a corporations coffers.

Step up and check out the 100 calorie yogurts and you read the same combinations. Out of an entire cooler in the dairy aisle in our market, I could only find one yogurt that actually made with milk and had real fruit in it, and it was from a local dairy.

Just a comment.

[rucky]

1. ...

http://www.quirky.com/products/19-product-0019

[hlthe2b]

2. I buy quarts of plain yogurt and add fresh or frozen fruit myself

Much cheaper and infinitely more nutritious... I like the remaining tartness,even with the fruit... but you can add sugar or honey, vanilla, etc. Want to make it even more healthy (and add a little texture), add wheat germ or ground flax seed, or bran buds, nuts or granola

And yes, I agree... these single serve fake food cups are an abysmal exploitative, non-nutritional waste of money...

[Pab Sungenis]

You're just a couple steps away from making your own.

Google "Alton Brown homemade yogurt" for the recipe and technique I prefer.

I've started making a lot of my own "processed" foods at home by hand. Better quality control and cheaper.

[hlthe2b]

8. yes... I've thought about doing that...

I'll check it out...

[Nikki Stone1]

23. Do you have links for the different things you make?

Just wondered.

[Pab Sungenis]

26. Not really. Just Google.

There are lots of great recipes out there for homemade mayonnaise, ketchup, peanut butter, just about anything that you'd usually buy in a jar.

I found an old pickling crock in my grandmother's attic and started making my own pickles. I've always believed in making my own tomato sauce. I bought a bread machine to ease the process of making dough for bread, pastries, and pizza crust. The best thing is that I can control exactly what goes into everything.

[Nikki Stone1]

29. Wow. That's great.

Do you use organic flour for your bread?

And have you seen this?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091102/hl_afp/lifestylebritainhealthresearch

[wolfgangmo]

37. Yes I do and I teach cooking classes.

I recommend the book How to Bake Artisian Bread in 5 minutes a day. They are not kidding. I can do a loaf with only 5 minutes in hand time ( as opposed to in oven time) including clean up.

This is a great book. I save a ton of money on high end bread by doing it myself and this method saves TONS of time as well.

[Nikki Stone1]

44. Thank you (and bookmarking)

:)

[SoCalDem]

45. I still treasure my old HP Make-a-Mix cookbooks

Every so often they show up on ebay..People with families should rally try to find these.. I used to make my own cake mixes, bread mixes, pancake mixes, pastry mixes..and lots more:)

I make a killer french bread :) When my kids were small, I never bought "store bread"..and it makes such yummy home made croutons too:)

[DainBramaged]

6. I do too, it's just healthier and cheaper in the end

[get the red out]

11. Same here

This is quite economical and very good! A bit of real maple syrup is a nice addition to plain yogurt as well.

I also really hate those commercials with the woman seemingly going mad from starvation in the grocery store and attacking the low cal single serving pack and sucking it out in one motion then looking around to see if anyone saw her. What I get from that commercial is that here is a food item that she, as a mere woman, is permitted to eat because it has basically NO calories (or nutritional value, but who cares? She's a mere female and her only purpose is to stay bone skinny anyway). I find this kind of advertising absolutely insulting.

If a normal, healthy person eats real food without overindulging and gets exercise they don't need expensive fake food gimmicks to stay healthy and in a normal weight range; barring other health problems and various medications that cause weight gain.

[Pab Sungenis]

3. There are natural sugars created during the processing of yogurt.

There's leftover lactose, plus galactose and sucrose created by the bacteria culture. Even if you don't add flavoring to completely natural yogurt it's going to have sugars. Plus, because the body can process galactose and glucose easier than it can lactose, the resulting sugars are going to have more calories than the milk that you started out with.

[Hannah Bell]

32. milk has sugar already.

[Pab Sungenis]

43. Yes. Lactose.

And the fermentation process breaks the difficult-to-digest lactose into much easier to digest galactose and glucose, which (because the body can metabolize them easier) yield more calories than the milk you started with.

[Hannah Bell]

49. you're telling me galactose & glucose net more calories than lactose?

cite?

[LynneSin]

4. Shame on me for wanting to count calories and enjoy a treat

and no, I'm hardly anorexic. Sorry my lifestyle is a bother to you. I'll let my registered dietician know of your complaint.

:grr:

*** enjoys her 100 calorie yogurt which the first ingrediant is Skim Milk ***

[imdjh]

14. I like the sugar free banana creme, oh and the cheesecake 38¢/ea

[LynneSin]

15. which would be nice if I liked bananas

Point is, I like my yogurt and I like that they have 100 calories or less. Who is someone else to judge what one likes to eat when the food in question is still healthier than just ODing on junk food.

[bobbolink]

46. "Who is someone else to judge what one likes to eat "

It's the DU way. Just look at so many of the posts here, and look aat the judgments... then you'll understand why the term "elitist" comes out.

When people are on the receiving end of this judgmental attitude, then maybe they will begin to understand how others feel.

Read through this thread as if you were a very poor person, and note how it would make you feel.

[Indenturedebtor]

47. Pffft if it doesn't have beer in it it's not nutritious

Unless it has a little "green" in it. You gotta get your greens somewhere.

[pipi_k]

5. I won't even touch that crap

My yogurt has 140 calories, is made from real milk, contains live active cultures and real fruit, and has beet juice for color.

That "diet" stuff sucks

:puke:

[NYC_SKP]

7. I can only find one brand that doesn't have HFCS, and only two flavors of that.

Alternative, buy organic vanilla or plain yogurt, add preserved fruit, check fruit for contents.

[SPedigrees]

9. Ditto here. We buy the unflavored organic version w/ active cultures too.

We often mix it with fruit or organic HFCS-free jam or jelly. Most of the homogenized pre-mixed yogurt is loaded with HFCS, and as a result has landed on our "do not buy" list.

(Oh and the "diet" yogurts contain aspertame or one of the other artificial sweeteners brought to you by Mansanto, the same folks that brought you high fructose corn syrup.)

[LynneSin]

16. I get mine from Trader Joe's

and I love the stuff.

[BonnieJW]

10. Stoneyfield is great.

So is Fage.

[SPedigrees]

12. Stonyfield is our brand, made right here in Vermont. nt

[Skidmore]

13. I love Fage, but it is difficult to consistently find in this area.

[Atman]

25. Stonyfield sold out long ago, although Gary Hirschfeld is still CEO.

But they've been called out several times for shady practices, such as importing powdered milk from other countries and using it in place of the "all natural" ingredients they advertise. It's just tip of it, Google Stoneyfield for the info. They play on an image that they don't live up to behind the scenes.

.

[Toucano]

17. Make your own?

It isn't that complicated.

http://www.makeyourownyogurt.com/

[Kali]

18. packaging

the smaller, more convenient, more plastic, tastefully decorated, and more health claims a package has the less it is likely to be a real food.

(exchange bright colors for tasteful in the case of crap marketed to kids)

[wolfgangmo]

39. Here's an oxymoron for you.

Food that is actually healthy, like organic fruit and veggies etc., does not have a label on it that says "healthy" but unhealthy overprocessed "food" does have a label touting it's "health benefits?"

[Dorian Gray]

19. I despise yogurt....

the flavor is too much for me, but my husband eats it every day. He has either Siggy's Icelandic yogurt. I believe it's the real deal.

I, however, am guilty of eating the Cozy Shack sugar free 70 calorie rice pudding. I'm sure it's all fake stuff. (It's my nightly dessert. Helps with my sweet tooth.) I don't count it as dairy, though.

[Extend a Hand]

20. I loathe it too.

It's the texture. blech.

[Godhumor]

21. I've made my own ever since I became addicted to mango lassis

Asked a chef at one of my local Indian places for the yogurt recipe a few years ago and haven't had to buy yogurt since. Good, good stuff.

[hlthe2b]

50. Any chance you'd post that recipe? I haven't had one since

a visit to India several years back...

[Skidmore]

22. I'm finding it fascinating that a thread intended as commentary

on the duplicity of the food industry in America is getting unrecs. Absolutely fascinating.

[gristy]

24. ingredients on mine look good to me

low fat milk
sugar
blueberries
pectin
natural flavor
blueberry juice concentrate
vitamin D3

[Lars39]

27. I've been making mine for a while now...in a crockpot.

You have to be on the spot to do what's needed, but if you're home on the weekends you can make enough for the week this way. I'll be glad to post the how-to's if anybody's interested.

[Skidmore]

28. Please post.

I'm interested. Especially since you can use a crockpot.

[Lars39]

31. How to Make Yogurt in a Crock Pot

I bought a little crockpot that is just right to make 4 cups of yogurt, and I don't use the crockpot for anything else.

How to Make Yogurt in a Crock Pot

I wouldn't start this any later than noon, or you'll have to get up in the night to do some of it.

If you start it after breakfast, the yogurt will be done by bedtime and it will have time to get cold by the next morning.

The yogurt is good for 5 days. I try to mark it or write down the date somewhere.

This recipe can be cut in half to only make 4 cups of yogurt.

I sweeten it a bowl at a time with a tsp or so of honey, or I sweeten all of it while still warm.

Skim milk, 2% or powdered milk can be used.

INGREDIENTS:

1/4 cup of store bought, natural, active/live culture, full fat(not low fat or fat free)plain yogurt.
(This will be your starter. After your first batch of yogurt, you can use 1/2 cup of some of your homemade yogurt as a starter instead.)
8 cups of whole milk. Pasteurized and Homogenized is fine,but do not use ultra-pasteurized.

How to Make Yogurt

1. Pour the milk into a crock pot, and turn the crock pot on low.
Leave it alone for 2.5 hours, cooking on low.

2. Turn the crock pot off, leave the cover on, and let the milk sit for 3 hours.

3. Take a cup or two of the warm milk from the crock pot, and put it in a small mixing bowl.
Mix in 1/4 cup of store-bought yogurt, or 1/2 cup of homemade yogurt as your starter.

4. Mix the yogurt/warm milk mixture into the milk that's sitting in your crock pot.

5. Put the lid on the crock pot, then fold and put a heavy bath towel over the crock pot
to insulate the leftover heat (leave the crock pot turned off), and go to bed.

6. The next morning, you'll have yogurt waiting for you in the crock pot. :-)
Home made yogurt is thinner than store-bought.

7. Pour the yogurt into a container, cover it, and put it into the fridge.
Let the yogurt fully cool down to the fridge temp.

8. Then, if you'd like to add fruit to your yogurt, put a few cups of chopped fruit
into a blender, and blend. Mix the blended fruit into the yogurt and return to the
fridge to cool some more.

[Gwendolyn]

30. I use the crockpot to make mine too now. Genius idea I picked up on the DU cooking forum. n/t

[Lars39]

34. lol...that was me. Glad someone was brave enough to try it. :^)

On edit: I can't take credit for the genius...I have fine-tuned it a bit and added my insights, though. :)

[Gwendolyn]

38. Well it's a brill idea and I thank you!

:)

Homemade yogurt is delicious and isn't as tangy as store bought. I hated turning on the stove for hours on end. The crockpot is tidy and you can leave it tucked away in a corner... and best of all, it's no fail!

I make homemade butter too. I just pour fresh 35% cream and a little salt into a mixer and mix away past the whipped cream stage until the whey separates. Squeeze out the rest of the moisture and you have the yummiest, freshest butter in about 5 minutes. It's amazing with herbs and garlic smooshed in too. Homemade is best made. :)

[Lars39]

40. Oooh, I'll have to try that!

I'd love to be able to control the salt. :) Honey butter. <drool>

[Gwendolyn]

41. Oh do, it's so easy. Mmmm... honey butter with cinnamon!

Yumm! Time for lunch I think.

(What's amazing is realizing that real, fresh butter isn't yellow at all, it's practically white. And making it yourself, yes you can control the salt to taste.)

[Lex]

33. Mine has 80 calories, no HFCS, real milk, and live cultures. What's the problem?

And it's a "store brand" not brand name.

I don't care for the high-calorie, highly sugared fruit ones.

[Johonny]

42. As far as I can tell

Some people have limited shopping opportunities where they live and assume the rest of the country is like that too. Really never had a problem with finding good yogart, must be a regional thing?

[JackRiddler]

35. See if "Total" Greek yogurt is available in your area...

Yogurt of the revolution!



That ain't no 60 calorie "serving," you can be sure. That's live culture, brought to you by our good friend R.Bulgaricus!

Mix it with whatever fresh fruit you like.

Read about its success here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/13/magazine/13food-t.html?_r=1

[yellowwood]

36. Make Your Own

Go to Ebay and get an out-of-production West Bend yogurt maker. It makes a quart at a time. I boil the skim milk, COOL--(so as to not kill the culture) and add a tablespoon of pure yogurt such as Dannon's. Plug in overnight and Voila! Great yogurt. Put in your own frozen fruit to taste. You can use your own culture thereafter.

[Jennicut]

48. Yogurt makes me gag...must be the consistency. But I like fruit smoothies and have made my own.

Good way to avoid high fructose corn syrup. And cover up the yogurt consistency. I do it with oatmeal too...gagging reflex. Have no idea why.
I love the strawberry smoothies:

6 large strawberries
1/2 cup vanilla yogurt (I like the plain vanilla low fat yogurt from Stonyfield Farms).
1 cup of whole milk (or lower fat if you prefer).
Just blend it all in a blender. Delicious and my kids like them too.

[Le Taz Hot]

51. I fell in love with all of Yoplait's flavored yogurts.

Then I read the label: HFC's! Now I buy just regular yogurt and add in my own homemade preserves -- I know what's in those.