The ketogenic diet, or keto, has experienced waves of popularity as people seek rapid weight loss. While low-carb trends come and go, the desire for palatable and convenient keto-friendly options remains. This article explores the role of yogurt in a ketogenic diet, with a particular focus on Chobani Zero Sugar yogurt and its suitability for keto lifestyles.
Understanding Keto and Yogurt
The question "Can you eat yogurt on keto?" is common among those starting the diet. Traditional plain Greek yogurt, with its high protein content and relatively low calorie count, has long been a diet staple. However, the keto diet shifts the focus from calories to carbohydrates. So, is yogurt keto-friendly?
The short answer is: it depends. Foods don't inherently fall into "keto" or "non-keto" categories. Instead, it depends on individual macronutrient targets and how a particular food fits into their plan. The only way to determine if a food like yogurt is keto-friendly for you is to test it out. The best way to do this is to learn your personalized macros. Then check the nutrition label to find out if the yogurt will fit into your plan.
The Sugar Content in Yogurt
Yogurt is created by introducing bacteria to milk. Milk naturally contains lactose, a type of sugar, meaning that yogurt will inherently contain some sugar. When you open most yogurts, there’s a liquid typically floating on top. This is mostly lactose. Technically you can drain the excess liquid instead of stirring it in, which will make the yogurt lower in carbs. There’s no way to know how much sugar you’re removing from the yogurt. If you’re someone who counts carbs, it will be hard to determine the amount of carbs to add to your daily total.
Health Benefits of Yogurt on a Low-Carb Diet
Despite the sugar content, yogurt can offer several health benefits even within a low-carb context:
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- Great for bones: The calcium found in yogurt helps with bone density.
- Great for your gut: If you want to keep the weight you lose off, it all comes down to the gut!
- Helps with heart health: According to this study, consuming fermented products 1-2 times per week can help reduce blood pressure.
Regular Yogurt vs. Greek Yogurt: Which is Better for Keto?
Both regular and Greek yogurt begin with the same process: heating milk, adding bacteria, and allowing fermentation. Greek yogurt undergoes an additional straining process to remove liquid whey and lactose.
The suitability of each type depends on your specific keto approach:
- High-Fat Keto: Regular yogurt might be more aligned with your macros since traditional yogurt typically has a higher fat content and less protein than its Greek counterpart.
- Moderate-Fat Keto: Greek yogurt might not fit into your macros since high fat keto keeps grams of protein moderate. Greek yogurt is a great source of protein, but doesn’t work well in a high-fat diet since most versions have nearly zero grams of fat. While you could add your own healthy fats by stirring in a little MCT oil, coconut oil, or by adding chopped nuts - you still need to be mindful of the amount of protein you consume when adding more fat into a keto diet.
Regardless of the type, monitoring carbohydrate content is crucial.
Chobani Zero Sugar: A Closer Look
Chobani Zero Sugar is marketed as a low-carb option sweetened with keto-friendly sweeteners. Beyond being low in calories (only 60 per container), it’s also the one of the lowest in carbs (5 grams), has zero fat, and contains 11 grams of protein.
One thing I don’t love about this brand is the sweetener Sucralose. While many can stay in ketosis while consuming Sucralose, it’s not a sweetener I recommend for healthy weight loss.
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Other Keto-Friendly Yogurt Options
Besides Chobani Zero Sugar, other brands cater to the low-carb market:
- Two Good: This Greek yogurt contains only 2 grams of sugar per serving, using stevia as a sweetener. The main ingredients in this brand are cultured reduced fat milk and water. That means there’s only a little bit of fat found in each container, so if your hope was to use this keto yogurt recipe to add more fat into your plan - you’re out of luck. But with so little calories and only 2 grams of net carbs, surely you can find other ways to add more fat if necessary. (Fat bombs.
- Siggi's: This skyr-style yogurt, similar to Greek yogurt, is thicker and higher in protein. The carbs are also higher, with 6 grams of carbohydrates in the plain version. While I like that they don’t use any sweeteners in the plain yogurt, I don’t love that they use skim milk.
- Ratio Strawberry Yogurt with Granola: It actually tastes like yogurt, and that alone make it the best keto yogurt. There’s no artificial aftertaste or chalky, dry mouthfeel. The yogurt is smooth and coconutty. The granola adds such a wonderful texture. The strawberry flavor is reminiscent of real strawberries.
Taste and Texture Considerations
When choosing a keto yogurt, taste and texture are also important factors. Some keto yogurts can have a chalky texture or artificial aftertaste.
- Two Good's vanilla keto yogurt satiated our craving for actual vanilla yogurt. It was sweet and creamy. It didn’t have a weird, fake sugar aftertaste like almost every other yogurt we tried.
- Before you get excited about a dessert-y, cookies-and-cream-flavored yogurt, let me be honest with you about Chobani Zero Sugar Milk & Cookies: It tastes more like peanut butter than any milk and cookies pairing I’ve ever had. That being said, it wasn’t bad. The product name is just a little misleading. Weirdly enough, there is no peanut butter in it according to the label.
Finding the Right Keto Plan for You
All of the chatter of which keto plan is the best doesn’t make a difference if it’s not the right keto plan for you! One thing to keep in mind is just because a product is marketed as keto-friendly, that doesn’t make it the best option.
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