Culture shock

If you have been to a grocery store recently, you have likely been too distracted by the masks and the long lines and the general sense of existential dread to notice: We have hit peak yogurt. Even my small New York City grocery store has dozens of varieties in more dozens of flavors, and while I'm a plain Greek 2% gal, I'm always a little tempted to toss something involving coconut milk or protein granules into my basket, just for a thrill. The plethora of options has actually been available for a long time, as Priya Krishna writes in her [deep dive on the dairy product](, and is showing no signs of slowing down. What’s more, she argues, yogurt “tells a complete, compelling story about the American diet.” Each new development in yogurt’s long, complicated history (including an ad campaign that sort of implies you’ll live to be 100 if you eat it) traces a development in how we eat in this country, from fruit-at-the-bottom to keto. —[Alanna Okun](, deputy editor for The Goods From fruit-at-the-bottom to keto: How yogurt in America reflects its food trends [yogurt]( Getty Images/Tetra images RF Once upon a time, yogurt occupied a thin sliver of the dairy aisle. Now it’s an entirely separate section of the grocery store. There are at least a dozen brands of plain yogurt, but wait! There’s more! Yogurt comes with fruit on the bottom, sprinkles on top, M&Ms mixed in, and almond butter swirled over. The choice is overwhelming, but it’s also what consumers have come to expect. For many Americans, yogurt is a staple snack food. In other parts of the world, it’s a marinade, a dip, a base for a soup, a drink. Indians stir it with chickpea flour and turmeric to make a warming, bright yellow dish called kadhi. Persians use strained yogurt as an aromatic side dish called mast o khiar, with cucumbers, rose petals, raisins, herbs, and garlic. In Turkey and Lebanon, meat dumplings are bathed in a tangy yogurt sauce to make shish barak. In the US, in spite of all the years yogurt has been a fridge mainstay, we’re still stuck on fruit and granola. Go figure. But despite the more narrow American views of yogurt, it has managed to occupy a unique role in the country’s food culture — its evolution on grocery shelves has mirrored that of eating habits and cultural touchpoints. There have been distinct eras in yogurt tastes, from Greek to Icelandic to nondairy, and each one offers a glimpse into the ingredients, diets, and narratives people were buying into at the time. Sure, yogurt is just one product in a sea of groceries. But it tells a compelling, complete story about the American diet. [Read the full story on Vox ]( What is the point of dating now? 11 single people on looking for love in quarantine. [Read the full story ]( Money Talks: The mother and daughter trying to keep their dance school afloat Linda and Petra applied for the Paycheck Protection Program, but they haven’t heard back yet. [Read the full story ]( More good stuff to read today - [The stark loneliness of digital togetherness]( - [The coronavirus pandemic shut down live music. Now fans just want their money back.]( - [Is this the end of productivity?]( - [Getting a flight refund is even harder than you think]( - [A crash course in contact tracing: What it’s like to track Covid-19]( - [The inescapable pressure of being a woman on Zoom]( This email was sent to {EMAIL}. Manage your [email preferences](, or [unsubscribe]( to stop receiving all emails from Vox. If you value Vox’s unique explanatory journalism, support our work with a one-time or recurring [contribution](. View our [Privacy Policy]( and our [Terms of Service](. Vox Media, 1201 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20036. Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved.