Trying out kefir
Several years ago, Mark
came down with Lyme disease. Local doctors didn't believe he had
it since the disease wasn't supposed to have hit our area yet, but my
sister had recently finished med school and her mind was wide open to
possibilities. She felt Mark's swollen knee and told him he had
one of two things --- Lyme disease or gout. It wasn't gout.
Months of hard-core
antibiotics later, Mark was healed, and he still says my sister saved
his life. Unfortunately, the antibiotics came with a price.
Mark's stomach was already less durable than mine, presumably because he
wasn't breastfed* and ate less dirt as a kid, but post-Lyme-disease,
his intestinal flora was even easier to wipe out.
Mark has suffered through
two tooth problems since then, each of which was treated with mandatory
rounds of antibiotics, and after each, his digestion dipped back down
into sub-par territory. I dosed him with yogurt, which didn't seem
to help, and with Accu Flora Pro-Biotic Acidophilus, which was handy but not the long-term silver bullet.
When
we saw my doctor sister at Thanksgiving, she took one look at Mark and
knew he needed some intestinal support. So she prescribed kefir,
which she drinks daily and swears by. Another friend kindly sent me a starter culture, which I rinsed and started brewing last night on top of the fridge.
Mark and I are both
borderline lactose-intolerant, so I'm not 100% certain kefir will be the
ticket. I'm also a little concerned it might not brew well in our
cool house, and my Puritan tendencies make me a little leery of the
alcohol content (up to 2%). Mark's more concerned that he won't
like the taste since he's not a fan of yogurt, but I suspect I can
doctor the kefir so that it's Mark friendly.
Despite our hesitations, we're both excited about the possibility of a
natural solution to Mark's poor digestion. Maybe kefir as an adult
is nearly as good as being breastfed as an infant?
*
Mark's mom was relatively young when she had Mark, and she bowed to
authority. At the time, doctors were telling mothers that their
breast milk wasn't as nutritious as formula, and my mother-in-law wanted
the best for her baby!
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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In place of milk kefir try flavored kefir waters. The taste combinations are almost endless, no concerns re lactose and full of beneficial probiotics. See for example: http://nourishedkitchen.com/water-kefir/
Kefir is quite common here in Hungary; you can buy several brands in the store.
We've been making our own for years. In season we use our own goat milk (and next year we hope to have milk from our own cow too).
We generally let it ferment for 24 hours at about 22°C. Any longer, or too hot, and it'll start to get too yeasty for my taste. As long as you don't let it ferment too long, I wouldn't worry about the alcohol. I'm not much of a drinker myself, and can definitely notice the alcohol from one glass of beer or wine. But I never feel any effect from the kefir. And I eat about half a liter daily, so I'd definitely know. It's great with muesli and a spoonful of honey btw.
I can't say anything from my own experience about lactose intolerance, or health benefits. I just really like it
My son is allergic to milk, likely the lactos since he is good with fermented milk products (meaning yogurt, cheese, etc) he also has a number of food allergies and often gets rashes due to them. As long as he gets some Keifer every day the rashes stay away, even when he eats foods that he is allergic to.
So if you are good with yogurt etc Keifer should be fine for you. If you are worried about the lactose let it sit a bit longer When the milk is (near) the consistency of store bought yogurt it is done. This can be 8 house if warm and lots of starter or 1 week if in the fridge.
Hope this helps
BW
My husband has a small amount of difficulty with dairy, but doesn't appear to be full-on lactose intolerant. Mostly he's on about a dozen medications for three serious diseases, and their actions and interactions mess up his digestive system something fierce. We discovered that drinking a cup or two of kefir everyday makes a huge difference for him. It didn't cure all his digestive woes, but for him, it was a do-able little bit of effort that made a worthwhile chunk of change. I started a kefir culture about four months ago. It seemed to be doing well, just chugging along, until about a month ago, when it started getting seriously sour (beyond the mostly-pleasant sour like yogurt gets), and we couldn't figure out how to save it. So for now we're back to store-bought. When the weather in our area warms up a little bit more, I'll start another culture. We're having issues with our sourdough starter too, and we're thinking it's the temperature-plus-humidity levels in our kitchen changing season to season.
Oh, and my favorite way to drink milk kefir is to stir about a quarter cup of thick kefir with about 3/4 cup of milk and a teaspoon or so of homemade almond-flavored vodka (just chopped toasted almonds sitting in a jar of vodka for a month or two, then strained off). We also made a ton of fruit smoothies with the kefir.
Maybe you should look into fecal microbiota transplantation?
That procedure is used to to completely restore the colonic flora.