Kefir Learning Curve

[Guest guest]

I believe taste issues surrounding Kefir are somewhat exaggerated. Since the Lactose has been fermented, Kefir will not be naturally sweet. I suspect raw plain yogurt is likewise un-appealing.

When you add fresh fruit and some sucralose, Kefir is comparable to if not better tasting than yogurt.

I recall experimenting with making my own yogurt years ago, making Kefir with a floater is soooo much easier.

I have replaced my one a day 8oz yogurt snack with one 8 oz Kefir snack. Besides costing 1/2 the store bought yogurt, my kefir doesn't contain any, "modified food starch, gelatin, locust bean gum, carrageenan, aspartame, FD & C red-40 and Blue 1." Admittedly I wasn't buying premium yogurt but then the cost delta would be even higher.

There are many health claims made for kefir which I can't confirm. One that I feel pretty confident about is as a natural source of calcium. I see it as an incremental improvement over the yogurt I was consuming.

JR

-----Original Message-----From: Francesca Skelton [mailto:fskelton@...]Sent: Monday, August 12, 2002 7:42 AMsupport groupSubject: [ ] Kefir Learning CurveSuz (or death by Kefir survivor) wrote:"When I'm making every calorie count, it's psychologically difficult toinclude any calories in my diet for a food that I really don't like, unlessthe health benefits are immediate and obvious. Fortunately, that is thecase with kefir. "Suz and/or other kefir eaters: could you please summarize what kefir doeshealthwise that we can't get from easier to obtain/learn- to- like foodslike yogurt? Perhaps we've discussed it before, but since it's been such amajor topic of discussion lately, wouldn't hurt to remind us why one wouldgo to such lengths to learn to love this stuff.

[Guest guest]

has asked me to forward this:

From: rlr101@...

Date: Tue, 13 Aug 2002 22:36:29 +0000

Subject: Kefir Learning Curve

OK, call me weird. I have ABSOLUTELY NO sweet tooth. I

was not raised with sweets and have never made an

effort to develop the taste for such things. My wife is

(I think a pitiful) chocoholic who must have some of

the stuff every day. Not feeding the habit on a given

day results in (psychologically induced?) headaches and

all amnner of trauma.

Anyway, I am extremely fond of my own homemade ff

yogurt and my own homemade kefir. I use reconstituted

nonfat dry milk. The yogurt is made and in the yogurt

maker in 6 minutes and the kefir takes me about 10

minutes to start a batch. Both involve a 24 hr.

gestation period. I enjoy both without the benefit of

fruit or sweetener, although I eat raw fruit throughout

the day (each and every day).

In my opinion, those of you who seem to have difficulty

consuming either of these really just need to take them

as is once a day for a couple of months until your

taste buds are acclimated and VOILA it will be just

hunky dory. And you will have gotten another monkey off

your back.