Kefir Milk

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Also, orally ingested "probiotics" are essentially sham science at this point. It's not clear at all that they replenish anything.

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What makes you say that?

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In any case, has anyone had any experience with Kefiring Milk or can provide any general info, tips or pointers??

Much appreciated.

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I did kefir for roughly 18 months, then was gone for 3 weeks and haven't re-started the grains again. It got a little tedious as the grains grow and went to multiple jars, have to strain and refrigerate kefir, re-load the grains, etc. I would say it is probably best to start with whole milk for best initial fermentation with the grains, then cut down to 2%, but if you are already having success keep doing what you are doing. I definitely believe milk kefir contains more active probiotics than capsules or tablets. Some people don't want to consume dairy, so would be better with the capsules if they think they need additional probiotics. I don't add any sweetners or other,use 2% organic, not sure if it would ferment with skim or 1%. The kefir is a little fizzy, reminds me most of what would be slightly carbonated buttermilk in taste and mouthfeel, 6-8 oz was the max I drank per day. The consistency is quite different from brands I have tried from grocery stores, I assume they include emulsifiers. My dogs love it.

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What makes you say that?

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I've read a lot of stuff about how all these "probiotic" products simply don't do what they say they do. It's roughly analogous to thinking so-called "fortified" foods (or even just vitamin pills) are the same thing as eating a real food just because the nutrient count mathematically lines up. It doesn't account for bio-availability.

Yeah the guy antibiotic research is basically in its early stage of development. From the treatment of all sorts of diseases, by changing intestinal floura. We've seen huge success rates in treating C. Difficile infections by both direct flours seeding of different strains of intestinal floura( Intestinal Transplants) to oral seeding by oral infestations. Just had some lectures in Phoenix about studies going on in other diseases using these same methods for a host of disease states like Ulcerative colitis, to even other organ diseases like Alzheimers. Actual treatment centers are springing up all over the world, not in USA( strict FDA) treating a host of diseases and cancers with intestinal transplants, both oral and anally seeded. Whether any benefit of changing the substrates and byproducts of their metabolism changes our reaction to other disease processes is still unknown, it's still early to call certain probiotics junk science at present. Early indications are that there is something there...

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it's still early to call certain probiotics junk science at present. Early indications are that there is something there...

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I'd rather wait and see what the science actually says than just buying blatant claims on every single package.

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offer any real benefits to healthy individuals.

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This is what I'm interested in for myself. Even though I now essentially refuse to take antibiotics unless it's life-threatening, I wonder how decimated my microbiome has been by the various antibiotic courses I've had in my life. And is it really even possible to restore it to how it needs to be?

My introduction to this topic was from this article almost 5 years ago. It made it seem as if we aren't even in the 1st inning yet of understanding this. How much has changed since then? (e.g. the claim that 99% of probiotic products are just marketing and not science.)