Making the healthiest home-made Kefir? Using probiotics?

To all those of you that make homemade kefir and to CS, Prague and jdp.

I've been researching making homemade kefir (using cow or goat milk). All the info I found talks about using a "Kefir Grain" that I need to get from someone.

I wonder, if I popped open a couple probiotic capsules into milk and let it ferment, would this milk:
1- turn into kefir
2- create a "kefir grain" that I could reuse in the future?

If this doesnt work, then how did the first-ever kefir grain come to be?

Why I ask?
I want the kefir grain to have the best probiotics, I am sure not all kefir grains are made equal, some may have different organisms (i am just speculating this). While the fermentation is a good thing, I am sure that the kefir itself contains living probiotics that we ingest when drinking it, it would be nice if we had "good" probiotics to drink .. But I am sure that many kinds of bacteria would do the fermentation job, but i know we dont want to drink any kind of bacteria ... we want good bacteria (probiotics) + fermentation.

What do you think guys?

I don't think that can be done, at least without a lot of knowledge and without controlled conditions; you can't create kefir-like grains.

When you use a multi-strain probiotic to make yogurt, and reuse a small amount to make new batches, eventually some or maybe just one single strain will dominate the culture and you will have yogurt of just one strain. So that's why I recommend in most cases when making yogurt to get therapeutic strains inside you to use single-strain probiotic capsules.

This is due to normal competition between probiotic organisms, some are more efficient, quicker, stronger, and those will eventually dominate.

Natural, REAL Kefir (the one you make with grains) is different, because organisms in the grains live in perfect SYMBIOSIS, and every batch you make will come with little varations in their bacterial composition, and you can reuse the grains for ever.

Also you need at least some organism in charge of producing the polysaccharide that holds the other organisms (the grains)...

Kefir is amazing for those that can tolerate it!

For those with digestive problems (I've heard some people complaining of brain fog and other things related to the gut), my humble recommendation is to use certain probiotics and regimen, and then switch to or try Kefir if they want.

Little Fighter, thanks.

What's are the best therapeutic "single-strain probiotic" out there (strain name, product name, etc..)?

Do you advise against using the multi-strain probiotics (Dr.Ohhira, Jarrow EPS, )??

teacup wrote:Little Fighter, thanks.

What's are the best therapeutic "single-strain probiotic" out there (strain name, product name, etc..)?

Do you advise against using the multi-strain probiotics (Dr.Ohhira, Jarrow EPS, )??

Like I've been saying, I recommend Lactobacillus GG (Culturelle, avaiable in iherb and many stores).

I'm not against multi-strain probiotics... it's just that:

- *Some* folks might no tolerate them in the beginning (in simple terms, mainly due to die-off, leaky gut, etc)
- Some formulas have not highly researched, beneficial strains, like Lactobacillus GG; sometimes you just see "Lactobacillus Acidophilus" instead of "Lactobacillus Acidophilus LA1" (a well researched beneficial strain). So probably an unidentified version of LA is of little benefit
-

Probiotics for people with bad gut/systemic symptoms:

-Start slow, asses your symptoms as you progress
-Start with highly beneficial and researched probiotics, once again, like Lactobacillus GG
-Add new stuff slowly and asses how you feel.

This way you will start fixing up things, building beneficial biofilms, reducing pathogens, etc.

Jarrow EPS is good, Ohira's is expensive as hell. You might try them... just asses your symptoms when on them.

TeaCup, do you have any particular gut problems?

answer: yes, mostly constupation .. but i have been the the IH regimen for 1 week, and on iodine for 4 days and have been having a lot of noises in my belly, sometime diarrhea, gas .. so not stable.
I am taking Jarrow's EPS and also avoiding many foods that i used to eat, eating much more veggies and fruits, so a lot of factors here causing this,, plus this bowl movement may be a detoxification. nothing serious IMHO, waiting to see how things progress.

teacup - On this regimen the first few weeks will move things rather quickly, per stimulation of bile flow and various detoxification processes. The Gi-tract should begin to normalize (in most cases) within a month.

teacup wrote:answer: yes, mostly constupation .. but i have been the the IH regimen for 1 week, and on iodine for 4 days and have been having a lot of noises in my belly, sometime diarrhea, gas .. so not stable.
I am taking Jarrow's EPS and also avoiding many foods that i used to eat, eating much more veggies and fruits, so a lot of factors here causing this,, plus this bowl movement may be a detoxification. nothing serious IMHO, waiting to see how things progress.

teacup, I would attribute those effects not to IH top 6 but to Jarrow's EPS.

Do the following, drop EPS for a while and switch to Culturelle only... and see the difference

LittleFighter, why do you need to use probiotics before using kefir? Can you use both at the same time?

LittleFighter wrote:
teacup, I would attribute those effects not to IH top 6 but to Jarrow's EPS.

Do the following, drop EPS for a while and switch to Culturelle only... and see the difference

I just ordered Culturelle , stopped EPS now and waiting to get Culturelle. Should I follow the instructions or should i take higher dosage initially (for a few days or a week) ?

A customer left this comment on Iherb

Lactobacillus GG is pretty pricey anywhere you get it, but IHerb has about the best price around and this particular brand has great quality. If you're looking for "GG", then you won't go wrong with this one. If the price for "GG" just seems too high for you, then your next best bet would be to go with Lactobacillus Sporogenes (much less expensive and perhaps just as effective... the Sporogenes can survive even high stomach acidity, which helps to ensure that it's still active by the time it reaches your gut.

What do you think about Lactobacillus Sporogenes?

KefirLady.com will give you superb kefir grains. I highly recommend it!!