Tuesday, November 07, 2006

MmmmMmmm Yoghurt

Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you who you are.—Brillat-Savarin

I woke up today feeling RAVENOUS at 2:30 pm. This is the problem with having so many shifts at work (5 different shifts) and then going to bed hungry when I come home at 7am after a long, long night. It's too late to eat before I go to bed, unless of course I don't care about how fat I get. So I kuai-kuai went to sleep and when I woke up...ROAR. My stomach demanded breakfast but the clock told me it was way past lunch and only a few hours to dinner. What to do?

For instances like this, I stock up on yoghurt. Not the wimpy kind that is watery, full of artificial flavoring and lotsa sugar. No, you're talking to a yoghurt connoisseur, having grown up as the daughter of a dairy distributor. Ok-lah, I am not that atas. It's just that I have a Greek friend who loves the stuff and picked up a few cartons of Fage Authentic Greek Yoghurt for me whenever she visits the Greek grocery store. I instantly fell in love with the creamy texture of strained yoghurt. It is unsweetened and comes with a small compartment of honey. Yummm. I love the tangy flavor of the unadulterated yoghurt, with it's milky aroma combined with the sweet golden honey. Some Greeks eat it with nuts (walnuts, pistachios) or fruit. I personally love it with honeydew melon.




Many people have expressed their doubts about the freshness of the product after being imported from Greece to the US but I have personally encountered not problems. After all, yoghurt is fermented milk la. The most it can do is get more fermented right? To my delight, the health foods store near my house started to stock this item so I no longer have to trek across Milwaukee to buy it at the Greek store.

The downside of this utterly delicious dairy product is its 110 fat calories. Many people are frightened off by the high fat content but this is FULL FAT MILK. And I eat it as a between meal snack or more often as a meal replacement. It also keeps you full for many hours due to the release of cholecystokinine by the gallbladder, triggered by the high fat content.

The USDA recommends 3 servings of dairy a day as part of a healthy diet. See http://www.mypyramid.gov/pyramid/milk_amount.aspx#
And the calcium in the dairy helps you burn fat and build strong bones, preventing osteoporosis.



The real bummer, its USD 1.99 per carton. Arrrggghhhh!!!

p/s I wonder what's for dinner.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Greek!

Anonymous said...

I buy greek yoghurt here too! Brand's jalna. Working in a company that REPRESENTS dairy really puts pressure on me to be good and try to reach the 3 serves of dairy each day. Isn't it odd how I'm now working in Dairy and you're in Med?????? it just hit me!!

Anonymous said...

Okay, I got some Greek yoghurt. Now I need to be in the mood to eat it! And brave. Mine is by Cascade Fresh, it's called Greek Style yogurt. 8 active cultures, no artificial ingredients or preservatives. Oh yes - and a one cup serving has TWO HUNDRED AND TEN fat calories.