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| Kefir Drinks |
I have been trying to fight it with pills that you can chew or swallow like Lact-aid, but it doesn't always seem to work. Soy milk is awesome for cereal and is a terrific substitute to traditional milk. The brand I use is Silk. It's terrible for adding things like Quik powder to it, to try and make chocolate milk out of, and Silk's chocolate milk is not acceptable. It tastes a bit watered down to me. I'm still working on finding a way to drink chocolate milk without regretting it later.
Talking to my doctor about it, he says, we are the only creatures to continue to drink milk after being weened. We are the only species that does this simply because we can. I took this to mean, it's unnatural, which makes me feel a bit better about not being able to digest it. My body isn't supposed to.
And even though I hate milk (unless it's chocolate milk), I do LOVE milk byproducts. Ice cream, sour cream, milkshakes, and cheese.
I found out about Kefir on the internet a few years ago and now it's in a lot more grocery stores than it used to be. If you don't like yogurt for lots of reasons - the taste, the texture, the fact that the most popular brands have so much high fructose corn syrup in them they aren't good for you anymore, or greek yogurt is just too sour, but really good for you - you should try this product. It has probiotics, which has been in the news lately. Probiotics are supposed to be really good for you. They are live cultures that provide beneficial nutrition beyond what a lot of basic nutrition can. Kefir is gluten and alcohol free, in case you were wondering.
Things that Kefir can help you with:
Preventing Traveler's diarrhea, viral diarrhea in children and Irritable Bowel Syndrome or IBS
Prevent vaginal yeast infections
Boost the immune system
Reduce the risk of heart disease
Reduce the symptoms of food allergies such as lactose intolerance
Straight from the products website,"
With 7 to 10 million CFU's of 10 strains of bacteria, plus ProBoost, our exclusive pair of clinically proven probiotics, Lifeway Lowfat Kefir balances your body’s ecosystem and supports digestive health and immunity – that’s 12 live and active cultures per cup. Plus, it's an excellent source of calcium, protein and it’s 99% lactose free. Lifeway Kefir is a creamy and delicious yogurt-like smoothie the whole family will enjoy."
CFU = colony forming unit. It just means the measurement of how many active cultures are in the drink; it's good for you. Very much the way live active cultures in yogurt are good for your digestive tract. The good thing about this product is it's similar to a smoothie or milkshake TEXTURE not flavor. The flavor's not bad (depending on which one you buy).
I personally get the low fat (20 calories less than the regular version about 160 calories) strawberry-banana, raspberry, or blueberry. Those I think are the very best for flavor. I cannot recommend the chocolate truffle, strawberry, or pomegranate as I have not enjoyed the taste of those. There are several other flavors: original, vanilla, peach, cappuccino, and cherry (though not all of those come in the low fat version). I haven't tried these so I can't help you out there but some of you might really like them.
For a bottle of 32 oz. you get about a weeks worth of 1 conservative cup servings (meaning pretty small). I only have one glass a day with breakfast, and it seems to help a lot with my digestion all the way around.
This product is 99% lactose free, so it does have a tiny bit of milk it in. They get it from farms that treat their cows humanely and do not feed them rBGH (bovine growth hormone).
One warning - there is an expiration date - whether you have opened the product or NOT you shouldn't drink it after the expiration date. It can still go bad, usually when you pick it up at the store though, the expiration is about 2 months out. Plenty of time to finish off a whole bottle.
One last thing - when you try this, you might find a bit of carbonation/bubbly/acidic/bite to it. That's just the fermentation process at work with all the little bacteria doing their thing. There is nothing wrong, it hasn't gone bad, there's nothing dangerous about it. It just means the fermentation process is a little farther along then maybe another bottle on the shelf or in the refrigerator at home. It does take some getting used to, I will say that. At first when I tried this I thought, ohh no way can I drink this. Granted, I had a bad flavor (strawberry) but with giving myself time to feel the positive health benefits and finding a flavor I truly enjoy (strawberry-banana and I don't even LIKE bananas!) it's been a real pleasure to be healthy.
A large bottle (the only size I've been able to find, though the website has a smaller bottle to take with you) will set you back about $2.50-3.00. Give it a shot and tell me what you think!
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