Plant Based Yogurt: The 411
Yoplait, Chobani, and Stonyfield move on over - plant based yogurts are here to stay. These products are rapidly emerging as a substantial threat to big yogurt companies, so much so that many of them have developed their own lines of dairy-free yogurts to capture some of the market share. Brand loyalty aside, there are plant based yogurts that are giving these conglomerates a run for their money. Yogurt, which contains dairy from cows, has a substantial carbon footprint. The NDRC noted that while meat consumption has fallen, dairy has skyrocketed. “After all, meat and dairy have a common source. “It takes a lot of energy input to raise cows,” says Sujatha Jahagirdar Bergen, a policy specialist with NRDC’s Food and Agriculture program. For starters, “you need to grow the feed [mostly grain], which takes lots of pesticides and fertilizer”—a significant source of global warming pollution. Then there are the smellier factors. “After the cows eat that feed, they release methane through their digestive systems, and then their manure also produces lots of greenhouse gases,” Bergen says. NRDC has documented high levels of methane emissions from the “lagoons” where factory farms dispose of animal waste. Another particularly nasty by-product of cow dung is nitrous oxide, a climate-warming pollutant 298 times more powerful than carbon dioxide.”
The carbon footprint of dairy is well documented, but yogurt lovers have no fear! Take Culina - founded within the past five years - has somehow managed to be entirely plant based and just as appealing to taste buds as conventional yogurt.
Coconut based yogurt - very very easy to make at home - involves just two ingredients! Coconut milk and probiotics. We love this guide from Minimalist Baker on how to make your very own coconut milk yogurt at home, just make sure you leave 24-48 hours to let it sit in the fridge. Cashew milk based yogurt alternatives, also quite easy to make at home, have emerged as the fan favorite.
Why even eat yogurt? Yogurt has long been advertised as a healthy snack, when in fact this dairy laden snack is healthy insofar as the amount of probiotics it contains. Fermented foods contain probiotics which have benefits for the digestive tract, and may increase the good bacteria in your gut. But as evidenced in a multitude of studies, one states “restriction of milk consumption or generation of less insulinotropic milk will have an enormous impact on the prevention of epidemic western diseases like obesity, diabetes mellitus, cancer, neurodegenerative diseases and acne.”, we have a ways to go. So while we should seek out probiotics, there is no reason for us to ingest a substance that actively causes acne, and modern diseases such as diabetes, cancer, and neurodegenerative diseases.” Here is where cashew and coconut milk yogurt come in.
It doesn’t hurt that Culina encourages their glass jars to be repurposed ^
Cashews have revealed themselves to be incredibly adaptive, and wildly popular in the plant based community. Low in sugar, and high in fiber, health fats, and plant protein - this miraculous little nut packs a huge punch. It is commonly used to make plant based cheeses, along as a variety of other dairy product substitutes, like yogurt.
Forager, another brand worth mentioning, has made significant advances in the plant based yogurt “field” - and have by far the tastiest yogurt drinks on the market. I recommend their “Organic Dairy Free Mango Probiotic Cashew Milk” that I have been hounding my local Whole Foods to start stocking.
Lava yogurts are now sold in the vast majority of grocery stores, and are a standout in the dairy free yogurt selection because they are made from the Pili nut. They are the most “low carb nut on the planet” and they taste quite good. They contain zero added sugars, along with the healthy fats that everyone’s body so desperately needs.
Below you will find a small selection of what Trader Joes offers - they are in plastic cups and I much recommend the cashew yogurt over the coconut yogurt (unless you put them in smoothies/recipes in which case I’m sure they are both fine).
For those questioning the benefits of making the switch, do your research! This bodybuilder changed his life by eliminating dairy, and freed himself form cystic acne resulting from his Whey protein and regular dairy intake. There are thousands of stories available online of the positive changes that occurred in an individual’s body after reducing and eliminating dairy products from their diets. Feeling good and doing good is an unbeatable feeling.
