Culturing probiotics for gut health has great benefits !

[Happyflowerlady]

Many doctors and health experts have written about the importance of our gut health and I think it is pretty well known now that this is important. We have all learned about probiotics, prebiotics, and eating cultured foods like yogurt, sauerkraut, kefir, or kimchi.
Dr. William Davis and Dr. Gundry both have several books out about taking care of ourselves by having foods that nourish our gut health.

One of the things that is explained is about getting the good bacteria into our bodies, and now you can buy bottles of probiotic capsules that help give you livening probiotics.
However, a capsule can only contain so many probiotic bacteria, and since they have been dehydrated and stuffed into a capsule, most of them are already half dead when you swallow them.
This is why people make probiotic cultures that are similar to yogurt, but cultured a lot longer.

I was making the l.Reuteri yogurt that Dr. Davis recommends, and then I just stopped, but I am now making it again. You have to have a yogurt maker that can control both time and temperature for the l.Reuteri because it cultures for 36 hours at 100F; so I ordered a new yogurt maker and some of the reuteri starter packets to culture it with.
This yogurt culture has a lot of health benefits, especially for seniors because it has anti-aging properties. This short video explains some of the benefits of l.Reuteri yogurt culture.
It only takes a half cup a day for the benefits, so it is not like you have to eat lot of it.

 

[hearlady]

I plan to try that.....someday.
I definitely do want to make kim-chee. I made sauerkraut but wasn't a fan, at least of that ferment recipe.

 

[dusty]

I agree with him and I drink a probiotic every day for my gut. I drink Kifer, it comes in several flavors and does the job. I like blueberry the best. It's got a good refirig life and isn't expensive since one bottle can last several days.

 

[Happyflowerlady]

I agree with him and I drink a probiotic every day for my gut. I drink Kifer, it comes in several flavors and does the job. I like blueberry the best. It's got a good refirig life and isn't expensive since one bottle can last several days.

Kefir is one of the easiest things to make at home and has a LOT more probiotics when you make it at home, just like yogurt does. Commercially cultured products are only cultured for a few hours, not 12-24 like we do with homemade kefir, and each hour it is cultured, the probiotics will double in numbers, so those last few hours are the most important ones. Plus, everything you buy has also been pasteurized to stop the culture from fermenting further, so most of the probiotics in store bought kefir are already dead when you drink it.

All you need to make kefir is 2 quart jars, some regular milk (or half and half if you want it thicker), and starter packets.
Mix it all up and let it sit out on the counter for 12-24 hours, depending on the temperature of the room, and you will have fresh kefir with lots more probiotics.
I like to add a scoop of protein powder and some frozen berries and blend it into a nice kefir smoothie.

Amazon has several kinds of kefir starter, including some with the l.Reuteri bacteria in it, which is especially healthy. I add a packet to some of the milk, shake it to dissolve the starter culture, and then fill up the quart jars with milk, put on a plastic lid, and leave it on the counter until I see it starting to thicken.
Then, pour all except about 1/2 cup into the second quart jars and refrigerate that to drink. Add more milk to the starter you have in the first jar and set it back out on the counter to culture. You can reuse the starter culture several times before you need to start over with a new packet, so the starter packets will last a long time.
This is the one that I use.