Imagine a creamy yogurt or a smooth delicious cheese that makes your mouth water. A common complaint is that healthy food is boring. Not true. Fermented milk products prepared on full-fat milk or cream are nutritious and tasty. But not all fermented dairy products are good choices.
Fermented milk products
Below are a few popular fermented diary products. Some are excellent choices, but may products are also loaded with sugar and additives.
Yogurt
Most supermarkets have a dazzling array of yogurt products for all tastes. But most contain loads of sugar and additives. This includes most frozen yogurt. Sorry!
Recommended: Plain, unflavored, full-fat, unsweetened yogurt like Greek yogurt with live microorganisms is great. Try yogurt made from raw milk. It has a creamy, full taste and contains many more nutrients. Homemade yogurt is simple and fun.
Aged cheese
Much commercial hard cheese is low in nutrients and will just pile on calories. And low-fat cheese has little taste and low nutritional value.
Recommended: Cultured yeast and bacteria are added to certain cheeses to complete the process of fermentation making them richer in vitamins, enzymes, and other nutrients.
Blue cheese and other hard, aged cheeses are good. Some top cheeses are made from raw, unpasteurized milk from grass-fed animals (like Roquefort). They are incredibly good, creamy and smooth!
Such cheese contains…
- a good balance of omega-3 and omega-6 fats
- vitamins A, D, E and beta carotene
- Spermidine (induces autophagy)
- good bacteria and yeast
- calcium and proteins
- much more
Kefir
Kefir is one of the oldest fermented milk products and is produced by adding a yeast and bacteria culture to milk (cow, goat, sheep, coconut). The yeast and bacteria consume the sugar in the milk creating the a tangy, fresh flavor.
Kefir is easy to make at home. All you need is a kefir culture and some milk. Over-ripe kefir contains very high levels of the potent folic acid.
Cultured buttermilk
Buttermilk it what is left when making butter. It’s lighter than milk but contains many nutrients. Buttermilk is refreshing, nutritious and can be used in smoothies or when baking.
In addition, fermented buttermilk contains enzymes, B12, phosphorous, potassium, is high in protein and calcium. The beneficial bacteria promote a healthy digestive tract.
Cultured butter
A definite favorite. Fermented butter has a creamy, very buttery taste and when making it yourself you can make it just the way you love it. Try making cultured butter from raw cream.
Lassi
Lassi is an Asian raw yogurt drink traditionally enjoyed before dinner. There are many varieties of lassi, but you should choose the unsweetened kind to avoid excess sugar. It is better to add fruit, berries or herbs to enhance the flavor—mango, strawberries, saffron are superb additions.
In Turkey we were offered a similar drink called ayran or laban. It is yogurt mixed with cold water and sometimes a little salt, very refreshing in the summer.
Not recommended
The unhealthy options contain much sugar, artificial coloring or other unhealthy substances.
Danone (or Dannon): Offer a wide array of probiotic dairy products as yogurt in the Activia series. Such products may be tasty but they often loaded with sugar and/or other unhealthy additives. Such food giants could easily develop excellent and healthy fermented milk products if they wanted.
In any case, these products are not your healthiest choice. Some research claims these products have some health benefits. However, be aware that much research is funded by the companies themselves and will not be objective.
Yakult: In Japan and in some countries in Europe, the Yakult brand is popular. While Yakult contains some living, beneficial bacteria, it also contains much sugar and other additives. Standard Yakult has 18% sugar contents. As long as they insist all that sugar is needed, it is not a good alternative.
Consuming fermented milk products
Wherever you live, you can probably find fermented dairy without too many additives.
Probiotic bacteria create a suitable gut environment for bacteria to thrive in. Consuming fermented milk products is a great way to promote and support the digestive tract.
In one study, subjects consumed fermented milk products for 12 weeks (containing Lactobacillus). Participants reduced abdominal fat with 4.6 percent on the average.
Frank says
Almond milk cheaper than what you recommend and healthier (cleaner) than standard dairy-fat.
Can yogurt, etc., b made w/said?
Thanks!!!
Ken Silvers says
Hello Frank.
Raw almonds milk is beneficial and delicious, especially of you are lactose intolerant. You can easily make it yourself at home. I’ve seen some who add a starter and ferment raw almond milk. You can also mix almond milk with raw milk when preparing kefir or yogurt. This should be OK for those who are lactose intolerant.
Joe n says
Anyone know if homemade coconut milk kefir has the same amount of good bacteria as cows milk kefir . jjnese137@gmail.com
Ken Silvers says
Hello Joe.
This is probably hard to know for sure as each batch of fermented food is slightly different. The amount of friendly bacteria in any fermented food depends on factors like the quality of the culture starter and temperature. Fermented food can contain very high amounts of bacteria, up to several trillions in a few tablespoons. That’s more than you have in an entire bottle of probiotic supplemlent. The point is that with such large amounts of probiotics it may not be as important if the number of bacteria fluctuates with 20-50%, i.e. if there are one trillion or 1.2 trillion. And using the same starter for both I imagine a well fermented coconut juice or kefir will contain similar amounts of bacteria. In any case, the difference will most likely be negligible. Of course coconut juice and raw milk differ a lot in what kinds of vitamins, enzymes and other mictronutrients they contain. But that’s another question.
Joe n says
Ken,
Thanks so much for your comments. What you say makes so much sense
An analogy using your illustration would be ; why pull a go cart with a MAC truck
when your car will be good enough. In business this is called the ” The law of diminishing returns”. Or once you painted your wall 3 coats a 4th will not be of any benefit to how the wall
looks. I want to go to coconut kefir because I am diabetic. I see on the label of SO DELICIOUS
BRAND oRIGINAL NOT FLVORED coconut milk kefir that the sugar is listed as 3 grams per cup and most all sites I visit show cows milk kefir as 12 grams sugar per cup. For a diabetic this IS huge.
Thanks again Ken
Ken Silvers says
OK Joe, I understand your choice. Very sound reasoning. Enjoy the coconut milk!
Joe n says
Ken,
I am seeing an emphasis on grass fed raw goats and sheeps milk. Just a quart
of goats milk in my grocery stores is $3.99. I am drinking a quart of cows milk
Kefir a day. Do you have any ideas on where to purchase grass fed raw goats and sheeps milk in a less expensive way. Maybe from a farmer or wholsaler. I live on long island.
Thanks,
Joe
Ken Silvers says
Hi Joe.
Try this link where you can find raw milk producers:
http://www.realmilk.com/real-milk-finder/
I’ve also like http://www.OrganicPastures.com. They are based in California but I’ve seen their products in other states too. They also offer butter made from unpasteurized cream, really nice!
Lyla Cavanaugh says
I need probioitics. My mom was registered nurse R.N. and would never feed us raw milk because of the dangers. Did you read about the three children that almost died, lost kidney function and ran up over a million dollars in hospital bills by drinking unpasteurized milk? I recently recovered from a serious case of listeriosis caused by tainted unpasteurized cheese cake purchased from whole foods. I did not realize it was unpasteurized when I bought it. I had severe ataxia, almost died and had to crawl on the floor slowly to the bathroom. It was not pleasant. Almost died! Severe neck pain. It was weeks before I could resume my daily walks in the park without extreme dizziness. My husband was worried that I was done for. Gotta find another way to get my probiotics than raw milk unfortunately. Any ideas?
Ken Silvers says
Hello Lyla.
Terribly sorry to hear about your ordeal. Chocking to hear! As you know, people have consumed raw dairy for thousands of years, and many still do without any problems. In fact, the vast majority of food borne health problems are from factory farmed and highly processed foods. Raw foods rarely cause illness. In California, where many enjoy raw milk, there has been no deaths from raw milk in in 37 years. However, you should make sure that the raw milk comes from a safe source and it should be organic. Our family daily enjoys raw dairy from a few sources with a good reputation.
According to the Cornell study performed on CDC data, there were 1,100 illnesses caused by raw milk between 1973 and 2009. However, there were 422,000 illnesses caused by pasteurized milk. There were no deaths from raw milk but at least 50 deaths from pasteurized milk or pasteurized cheese. In addition, pasteurized milk contains large amounts of chemicals. At study done in 2011 revealed that cows milk is often contaminated with antibiotics, estrone hormones, steroid hormones and several other anti inflammatory drugs as niflumic acid, mefenamic acid, ketoprofen, diclofenac, phenylbutazone, naproxen, flunixin and diclofenac. Not a very pleasant cocktail.
If you need more probiotics, then fermented vegetables contain much more than raw milk. Same with yogurt, kefir, natto. It’s very simple and fast to make yogurt and kefir at home.