Dairy kefir and sourdough are my two favorite ferments for gut health because they're so easy to maintain–I'll show you everything in the video!
My friend Melissa stopped over the other day and we decided to just record what I was showing her so you could see too. I can't believe how much easier this is than I used to think!
You can watch the video below (or jump here) and also find links to the blog posts with exact recipes and back stories too, but first, how do these foods help with gut health?
So many struggle with issues related to the health of their gut, because this is where our immune system resides–our digestive system is crucial to the health of our whole body, and when that's not right it leads to all sorts of problems:
- Digestive system ailments
- Autoimmune conditions
- Frequent illnesses
- Anxiety and depression
- And more, because everything is tied to gut health!
How do dairy kefir and sourdough help our gut?
Dairy kefir is much better for our gut than regular yogurt, and here's why:
Milk kefir is quite different from yogurt in that the strains contained colonize the intestinal tract and don’t just pass through with temporary benefit. Some of the strains in kefir are aggressive in nature too, which means they attack and destroy pathogens reasserting dominance and control of the intestinal environment.
This is why eating a ton of kefir when you have gut imbalance issues can sometimes trigger a temporary healing crisis from pathogen die-off in the gut. Eating lot of yogurt rarely causes this type of reaction as the effect on digestive health is much milder. In addition, kefir contains a lot larger range of bacteria, as well as beneficial yeasts which combat Candida problems. (Source)
See the comments where I answer Jan's questions:
- What store milk can I use for the kefir if I don’t have access to raw milk?
- How do you flavor it. I know you use yours for smoothies, but what if I wanted to just drink it?
- Where can I get kefir grains?
As for sourdough bread compared to regular bread…
(Copying here from my sourdough post.)
I learned many years ago that sourdough bread is the most nutritious bread in the world, and here are some of the reasons why:
- The fermentation process (longer rise times with a starter and no yeast) unlocks more nutrition:
- Mixing flour in an acidic medium (your starter) at warm temperatures, as you do in the sourdough process, activates phytase and reduces or even eliminates phytic acid, which is a mineral blocker. Another study showed almost complete elimination of phytic acid in whole wheat bread after eight hours of sourdough fermentation. (Source)
- Many who can't tolerate grains are able to eat sourdough bread with no problems because of the longer rise and more time for the gluten to be broken down, so it's easier to digest. (Note that I'm not talking about those who have Celiac disease, although often they can eat einkorn and/or sourdough with no symptoms, but most experts say that they still should not do that. Read more about that here from my friend Sarah: Can Celiacs Eat True Sourdough?)
- Side note: the same is true about einkorn flour. Einkorn is the original wheat that has never been hybridized, so many who can't tolerate regular wheat, even organic, can eat Einkorn with no problems, and this wheat is also higher in nutrients.
- Sourdough lowers the glycemic index of the bread, meaning it doesn't cause the same blood sugar spikes as other breads do.
- A big bonus is that you're not dependent on yeast, in case it's out of stock everywhere again like it was at the height of the Covid craziness.
- More of the benefits of sourdough are listed here.
- Sourdough is the most traditional food: this is the way bread was made for thousands of years!
So as you can see, there's no comparison between sourdough and other breads!
Now watch this video showing you my easy methods for dairy kefir and sourdough–and see recipe links further below: (Video will play after the ad.)
Links to dairy kefir and sourdough recipes and back stories:
- How to make dairy kefir–very simple! Also find out there how to store it, how to flavor it, how else to use it and more!
- Now a couple recipes that I make with my sourdough: Sourdough Calzones
Jan Schaefer says
What store milk can I use for the kefir if I don’t have access to raw milk and how do you flavor it. I know you use yours for smoothies, but what if I wanted to just drink it. Where can I get kefir grains.
KitchenKop says
Hi Jan!
In this post is the link to my main dairy kefir post and there it tells where to get kefir grains (Or just go here: https://kellythekitchenkop.com/dairy-kefir-grains). Or get some from a local friend!
You don’t *have* to use raw milk, just use the best milk you can find. Around here, if I didn’t have access to raw milk, the only other milk I’d be okay with my family drinking is a kind that I can find at our local health food store. It’s in glass jars, it’s low-temp pasteurized but not homogonized, and it’s from grassfed cows. Hopefully you could find something like that near you. Just be sure never to use UHT pasteurized milk (ultra-high temp pasteurized), because that’s so dead it doesn’t even need to be refrigerated!
As far as flavoring, you don’t even have to flavor it, you can drink it straight. Some people flavor it with a little honey or maple syrup, or others use blended fruit, a little vanilla, or even some organic fruit juice. I like to make smoothies because everyone loves them and I can slip in so many other superfoods with it with no taste except yumminess. 🙂
Hope that helps,
Kelly