Getting dairy in a low-carb diet

Well, it finally happened. Safeway stopped carrying the Hood Carb Countdown milk. I actually noticed this a few weeks back but haven't talked about it yet. I tried to find the Hood site, but it appears it's not being made anymore. All the Carb Countdown pages have been pulled down. It sucks because CC was the only milk I could drink, so it appears I won't be drinking milk anymore. I didn't use it much, but it sucks that I can't ever have cereal again. :-p

Safeway also no longer carries Dannon Carb & Sugar Control yogurt. I got the last one and they confirmed they won't be getting any more. Dannon still has the old page up - before the name change - so I assume they aren't making this any more and just haven't pulled the page down.

I thought this meant that as well as never having milk again, I'd never get yogurt again either. Thankfully, I was wrong, as this article from Low Carb Luxury explains:

The problem with the stated carbohydrate content on the packages of fermented food products arises because the government makes manufacturers count the carbohydrates of food "by difference." That means they measure everything else including water and ash and fats and proteins. Then "by difference," they assume everything else is carbohydrate. This works quite well for most foods including milk. However, to make yogurt, buttermilk and kefir, the milk is inoculated with the lactic acid bacteria. These bacteria use up almost all the milk sugar called "lactose" and convert it into lactic acid. It is this lactic acid which curds the milk and gives the taste to the product. Since these bacteria have "eaten" most of the milk sugar by the time you buy it (or make it yourself), at the time you eat it, how can there be much carbohydrate left? It is the lactic acid which is counted as carbohydrate. Therefore, you can eat up to a half cup of plain yogurt, buttermilk, or kefir and only count 2 grams of carbohydrates (Dr. Goldberg has measured this in his own laboratory.) One cup will contain about 4 grams of carbohydrates.

This means I can eat yogurt without fear of my blood sugar getting out of control. I can have plain yogurt, which I haven't had in almost two years. I just can't add Grape Nuts to it like I used to do as an afterschool snack when I was a kid. (If you are not on low-carb you should mix Grape Nuts into plain yogurt; it's quite good.) And if I want flavors, those yogurts are okay too as long as they are sweetened with Splenda, or I can toss fresh berries and Splenda into it and make my own.

This also means I can drink buttermilk. I never drank it much, but it was sometimes put in my baby bottle as a child so I have always liked it. I've never had kefir; perhaps I should look for it and try it.

So the bad news is, no more milk. The good news is I can still have yogurt and just ingore the carbohydrate count on the nutrition label. Of course, I still eat cheese and cottage cheese. (Most cheese is only 1 gram carbohydrate per ounce, and the lowfat cottage cheese I eat is 8 grams carbohydrate per 8 ounce cup.)

Update on the Carb Countdown: I got a response back from Hood and here is what they said.

Although we make Carb Countdown products available to our retailers, it is up to each individual retailer to decide which of our products to carry in each particular store. According to my records, this product is available at Albertson's in Southern California and Raley's, SaveMart, C&S, and Unified Western in Northern California. If you are unable to locate it, we suggest you speak with the dairy manager and ask if it can be ordered in.

I don't have access to any of the Northern California stores listed, so I really am SOL when it comes to milk. :-p