Greek yogurt takes over the world

Once reserved primarily for Greek people, Greek yogurt has seen a huge surge in popularity. I finally gave in and tried some last week, and I have to say, I was reasonably impressed.

The whole deal with Greek yogurt, in case you have been watching its popularity with befuddlement, is that it's not as weirdly liquid as regular yogurt. To make Greek yogurt, you basically take regular yogurt and strain out a lot of the fluid. This leaves you with a much firmer yogurt, something more along the lines of a well-set custard, like flan. Given that most people's objection to yogurt (including myself) is the texture, Greek yogurt is a huge improvement.

Although there are a lot of health claims attached to Greek yogurt, you have to keep a sharp eye on the ingredients list. By default, Greek yogurt has more protein and less sugar than regular yogurt. But that's before the food scientists get their hands on it. I was able to find a fat-free yogurt without a lot of weird chemicals and sweeteners, but many brands of Greek yogurt are just as bad as regular yogurt when it comes to calories and chemicals.

Not to be cynical, but I suspect that the biggest factor in the rise of Greek yogurt is a phenomenon called "brand extension." Let's say you are Dannon. Grocery stores will stock X number of Dannon products, usually one row of each flavor. You want more shelf space, both because it improves your own sales, and because shelf space is a zero-sum game: every inch of shelf space you gain is an inch that some other yogurt brand loses.

The only real way to increase your amount of shelf space is to come out with a new product. Then the store will stock X number of your original yogurt, plus X number of your Greek yogurt, and boom: you've doubled your shelf space. In fact, this situation is getting so out of hand that my local grocery store recently expanded the yogurt case because they were running out of room.

Bottom line? It's not bad, and if you hate regular yogurt, you might like Greek yogurt. But it's OK to not eat yogurt.

Image courtesy Flickr/anali02170