Kefir

PAST

In 2011 a movie came out called Forks Over Knives. The movie examines the profound claim that most, if not all, of the degenerative diseases that afflict us can be controlled, or even reversed, by rejecting our present menu of animal-based and processed foods. Having lost my father to renal cell cancer in 2000, at the young age of 58 years old, I was very motivated to prevent cancer in my own body. About halfway through the movie, I turned to my wife Kerrie and said, “That’s it, I’m done with dairy and meat.” More fully, the movie suggests that one should also avoid refined oils of any sort, including olive oil, but that was a much more demanding proposition.

For the next decade, we endeavored to eat vegan. It wasn’t easy, and honestly, it wasn’t as flavorful as I would have liked. We bought and borrowed many cookbooks, and spent a lot of time in the kitchen preparing meals without meat and dairy products. We ate a lot of vegan foods which are highly processed in an attempt to mimic the mouth feel and flavor of meat and dairy. I learned that many vegans have no problem eating sugar and drinking alcohol, which have their own health hazards.

When the pandemic arrived and we were both injured by the Covid shots, mine Pfizer and hers Moderna, we began to question many of our assumptions. I also started to lose weight, and being a small and skinny guy, there wasn’t much to lose. Dr Paul Marik and the FLCCC Alliance drove home the teaching that meat and dairy were not the enemy, but agreed that we should avoid highly processed foods and refined oils, other than olive oil.

PRESENT

The agenda of RFK’s MAHA movement is much broader than Forks Over Knives, but there may be more Americans thinking about how to eat better than at any previous moment in American history. My co-workers and patients at the Leading Edge Clinic have led the way re: raw milk. It was just hard for me to buy into what they were telling me. I.e. even people who had dairy allergies in the past were able to tolerate raw milk, and that they found their gut health and immune system improved when they started drinking it. I didn’t overcome a decade of veganism in a week.

There is a website called www.getrawmilk.com, which helps people find sources. It turned out we didn’t have to look that hard, but it was a commitment, as we have to drive twenty minutes to the farm which produces the milk. They have a diverse herd of heirloom breeds of cows, and their milk is A2. I’m hoping to interview the farmers some day and post a video about their journey.

Despite the Baobab I drink on a daily basis, I was experiencing more constipation when we started to add meat back into our diet. Within a few days of drinking an 8oz glass of raw milk every morning, that resolved. The addition of this nutrient and fat rich beverage also helped to stabilize my weight, and over time, I have slowly put back on pounds that I lost.

I’ve always enjoyed yogurt, and during our decade of veganism, would eat yogurt made with soy milk, then coconut milk, and then cashew milk. I grew up near Seven Stars biodynamic farm in Chester County, Pennsylvania, and sometimes I just wanted a taste of home. They make a milk with whole milk that has a thick layer of cream on top. But, any time I tried to eat yogurt made with whole, but pasteurized milk, I would become very congested. The farm which we get our raw milk from makes a similar yogurt, and I have the same issues with it. This compelled me to increase our raw milk share and purchase some yogurt starter to start making yogurt with raw milk. I’m still working out the details, as it is sharper and not as creamy, but I tolerate it just fine.

Ithaca being a relatively small place, Kerrie and I know a young woman from our union organizing days whose father ended up being a patient of mine. He and his wife run Zena Farmstead in Kingston, NY. He has a longstanding interest in fermentation, and during a trip to Ithaca, gifted us with a Zena Farmstead bag filled with tasty ferments, maple syrup, and a book called The Art of Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz. I’ve been slowly making my way through the boo, and two months ago I purchased kefir grains to start making my own kefir from a source listed in the appendix. I also purchased Bulgarian yogurt culture starter from another source. These sources of heirloom cultures are GEM Cultures and Cultures for Health.

If you aren’t persuaded of the value of using raw milk and remain committed to your vegan ways, you can still benefit from making your own kefir. GEM Cultures has kefir grains which can be used to make water kefir. You use a sugar water to nourish the kefir grains, and are only limited by your imagination as you come up with wildly flavored fizzy beverages that are good for your microbiome.

Cheers!