We have a little bit of news for you today from the Nutrition Couch because we've known for some time that our product reviews are especially popular, so to kick us off in twenty twenty two, we've decided that because there are so many products out there that we can talk about and we get so many requests for product reviews, that we are going to release a second episode of
The Nutrition Couch each week just covering our products. So hi, I'm Cusiburrow and Emile and Wood, and we are two illustrators, leading dieticians bringing you the Nutrition Couch podcast bi weekly in twenty twenty two, and the first product on our
list to review is kefia. So today we have chosen two popular varieties of keffea to chat about now in case you are not familiar, Kefia is a fermented drink which is made traditionally using cow's milk or goat's milk, and they make it by adding a kefia grain to milk.
These are actually cereal grains as we traditionally think of grains, but colon Le's of east and lactic acid bacteria that are a little bit like a cauliflower in appearance, and over a period of time, the microorganisms in the keffea grains multiply and ferment the sugars in the milk, turning it into keffea. And the reason that we like it as dieticians so much is that we know that these probiotic microorganisms in the product are so so good for our gut health. So two of the brands that we've
chosen you will be very familiar with. The first is the Culture Company's Kefia, which is sold in a two hundred gram bottle in supermarket, and the ingredients Leanna pretty clean. It is basically just whole milk, skim milk, milk solids, Kefa cultures to make it, and then the specific culture that you find in it. Per two hundred grams serve, it comes in at one hundred and thirty eight calories or five hundred kilodules. Seven grams of protein, which is
actually pretty high for one of these products. Seven grams are fat, four point six which are saturated, and that's because it's a whole milk based product. Then naturally occurring carbohydrates seven point two grams. And often people, whenever we're talking about dairy foods, think that it's added sugar. We much absolutely stressed that in these probio kefeas, it is not added sugar, it's naturally occurring that gives us these
great gut healthy bugs. What I love to see lant it's got more than two hundred milligrams of calcium perserves or a great sauce, contains vitamin B twelve, very very important iodine important for thyroid function, potassium phosphorus, vitamin B two for energy production, and a fair whack of good bacteria. So I am when it comes to kefea a little bit torn because it's not a food that I would naturally go and buy myself and add into the diet.
But what I will say is that whenever I'm having clients who are working on their gut health or interested in optimizing immune function, or are already including kefea, absolutely I am a big fan of it. What's your experience with these fermented milk drinks.
Yeah, I'm a big fan. And I think a lot of people are like, I don't know, if they don't have gud health symptoms, they're like, oh, oh my god, how there's fine, I don't need to work on it. But that's absolutely not true. For ninety probably five percent of people because we know that our gut health has such strong links to not only our mood, but also
our mental health and our imm immunity as well. So I'm a big fan that everybody, even if you think your gut health estella, should still be actively consuming foods and drinks that are going to have positive nutritional benefits for your gut health. So I do like kafir, but I do I guess if you're new to it and you haven't had it before, As Zuzi said, the resemblance can sort of be like a little bit cauliflower like appearance.
The first time I had it, Susie, I nearly spat it out because I was like, oh, this is off, this is revolting, and I checked the use by data. I was like, huh, what's wrong? And I still poured it down the drain, went and bought some more and then was like, Okay, something's.
Not right here.
So it's just the fact that it's fermented milk. It does taste very very tart and almost like it's a little bit off. So where I use it with my clients is part of a recipe. I don't get them like shodding, you know. Two hundred meals of it in the morning or something like that, because it is a little bit hard to get down because it is very very tart, and the taste of it isn't I wouldn't
say it's exactly pleasant. So I love to use it in something like a Berchu musical, for example, So instead of soaking your oats and orange juice, I would soak it in something like a fermented milk, or I'll use it as part of a smoothie where we've got some fruit in there as well. We've got some extra natural sugars to balance out the flavor of that as well. But I really like it. I think from a nutritional perspective, it's quite strong. As you said, this brand, the culture
goes quite good. It doesn't add any extra sugars to it. Some of the brands out there are flavored, so you can get a blueberry flavor, or a mango flavor, or coconut flavor. We've chosen this one today is sort of just a plane or a natural flavor. As you said. The only real ingredients of sort of whole milks give milk, some cultures, and it's got three hundred billion c If you two hundred grams serving, which is, as you said,
a fair whack of good, healthy bacteria. It's got the calcium in there, so it sort of models like a cup of milk. We're actually getting the added gut health benefits and the added bacterial benefits as well from it, which I think is really important.
And this company is really reputable when it comes to gut health products. They do some scientific work in this area. They work with a well known UK dietitian who is a specialist in gut health. And it has one of the strains, so it's got thirteen actual different strains. And my understanding is that the greater the variety of strains the better, including one that has some scientific data around it, because definitely land we see products that claim gut health
benefits but not necessarily proven. It's sort of someone's throwing together a random a mix of cultures and we don't know if the evidence is Therefore, then whereas this is
a proven one. It's not inexpensive, you know, it is a commitment financially at six dollars eighty it will work for a liter or five serves, so it is a reasonably costly commitment for gut health I think it's really important to talk about the stability of these products because you do see kefas referred to in baking, and what I want to stress is that cooking them is not going to get the benefits that a raw product does.
You're going to destroy some of that bacteria. So whilst you're absolutely right to use it in a smoothie drink as you described, and indeed I do as well with my own clients or a smoothie bowl to mix it with some other flavors, I wouldn't encourage you to use that kind of product in baking. You're going to basically destroy the benefits that you're getting from that live culture.
But yeah, on all accounts, it's a very nutritious addition, and particularly for people who are looking for those extra benefits and to see if it specifically aids in their digestive comfort, I would absolutely recommend, and I would absolutely recommend this is one of the key brands because of the cleanness of the ingredient list. Now, the other product I've chosen out of interest is I've chosen the table
of plenty lactose free KEFEA. Now this one is a little bit more difficult to find leanne It only sells in coals, and they have both a regular and a lactose free. But the reason I like it is that there's a number of people who have gut issues who can't have dairy food, and they may not be able to have dairy food because of the lactose load. So for that group of people, this is one of the few lactose free varieties of Kefia. So I think that has a real group of people that that can be
a big benefit for. As I said, it's only available in coals. It's again not inexpensive at seven dollars eighty per bottle. Certainly it has a very distinct smell and flavor to it as you describe, so mixing it in very clean ingredient list. It only has the milk again, the cultures probitic cultures, ten different strain and snowmilk powders. It's an Australian company, so that's another one to really look out for, particularly if you're a bit more sensitive
to lactose. I actually can't find the nutritionals, but it will be very similar. Kefia is like a whole milk product in the sense that it will have very similar profile with some protein, a small amount of naturally occurring
a good amount of micro nutrients through it. But yeah, overall, I think that for anyone who's particularly committed to their gut health, using that a couple of times a week as part of your diet to give you that range of bacterias, particularly if you're not a yogurt consumer and perhaps would prefer something like this in a smoothie and can tolerate it and are getting those benefits, I think
it's a great addition. But yeah, you basically with this kind of product, pay for what you get for so it is an investment, but a quick scan of ingredient lists will make sure that you're getting something without added sugars and different additives and something clean like this. Whether it's the Culture Club Company or a Table of Plenty, are two very reputable brands in the gut health space, and we will say none of these are sponsored. If we do do a sponsored version, we will very clearly
share that with you. These are just our independent opinion on a couple of the main kefia brands out there and our thoughts on their nutritional profiles.
Put a Table of Plenty is listening would like to sponsor a sushi, we'd be more than dude. What I will say, just from as you mentioned, it is quite a I would say probably a high cost product compared to something like a liter of milk, right, this is a lot more expensive. But again you are getting some really great benefits from a gut health perspective. But this is probably something where you don't necessarily have to consume
the whole serving size as well. Like three billion c a few is a lot you could just consume maybe you know, fifty to one hundred meals of that and still be getting some benefit as well. So don't feel like you need to consume an entire serve like a whole what was the serving size two hundred grams or
two hundred meals of it? You could split that down and really just use fifty mills of the kafir and one hundred and fifty meals of you know, normal skim milk or normal lactose free milk or sowy milk or whatever you normally do as well. There are I guess vgan or dairy free varieties. You can actually get water based kafa as well, if dairy isn't something that you
choose to consume or you can't consume. Well, the other option is a lot of people don't realize that they're actually lactose free tablets as well SUSI, which you can just pick up from the pharmacy. So if you were just wanting to consume, say, for example, a table of plenty Bland which did have lactosein and dairy in it, so some people may struggle with that, you can simply take something like a lactase tablet beforehand and be you know, probably quite easily able to tolerate like a couple of
dairy or something like that. So just a few points from that perspective.
I would absolutely make that Lita last for ten serves and use max. One hundred million at a time, just based on the cost alone and also the intensity of the flavor with it. It will be much more palatable using a small amount and a mixed dish. But it's interesting you say that, because it's a live culture, you've got to have a good look at the use by date.
So the other trick at supermarket, and I use this all the time across foods, always go to the back because supermarkets stuck from the back, So you may pick something up from the front, and it may only have a couple of days on it, whereas if you go to the back, you're more likely to get something that's got a much longer use by date, and you'll get a lot longer out of it because it's that live product that will be quite unstable. And the same with salads.
You know, if you look at the fresh salads in bullies and coals, you may only get a day out of the ones at the ft. So always go to the back when you're looking at a product, particularly something like this, which you really want the freshest one that you can have to get the longest shelf life out of it when you're at home, because you won't be
able to freeze something like this. You need to be able to consume it fresh, and as such you want something that's got a reasonably long use by date, or the longest you can find in supermarket.
That's interesting because I was going to say, perhaps you could freeze something like this. I was thinking if you were someone that didn't smoothie as you could put it in with your fruit, in your cheesy's and that sort of thing and put it into container and dump the whole thing frozen into a blender and blend it. Do you not think it would freeze for a while? Do you think it would separate out of it?
It's not even that. I'm just wondering if the benefit of the life culture is preserved when it's frozen. Yeah, okay, I actually don't know, and that's completely transparent to a quick search now, But I don't know if probiotic type cultures freeze. Well, I would assume that they're alive, they're better fresh, But we will check. We will check, and at some point we will mention that again because we want to have the right science around it. So that's
just my hesitation with freezing it. But we will double check that and let you know in future episodes we will mention.
And the nutrition Couch, Facebook and Instagram pages because we will let you know. You know, Susy and I will not want to sugarcoat things, And this is just one of those questions where we don't actually know, so watch this space. But we do hope that you are happily able to include a little bit of keifer into your diet, whether you know it doesn't have to be in a daily basis, even you know, once every couple of weeks
I think would be beneficial. And make sure if you are going to go and buy the carton of it, make sure you get through it because as we said, you know, the cost is there, but it does have some great nutritional benefits. So spread it around with the family.
You know, the kids can have it, but make sure you're sweetening it with a bit of I don't know, honey or fruit or something like that, because I guarantee if you're going to give it to a five year old, they're probably going to split it down the sink because it is quite It is an unusual taste, isn't it, Susie, Just that fermented milk.
It's specific. You know. It's interesting though, because a lot of my European clients working in Bondie and Sydney, I see a lot of European people who are very used to products like quark and fermented dairy, so this is already on there. You know, they eat cottage cheese all the time, whereas I've got clients who are really offered. So I think a lot of it's got to do
with that programming and early experience with food. I know Scandinavian people Europeans are often much more familiar with fermented dairy. So yeah, it's an interesting point overall, but I think it's an option for many people and if you do like it or can incorporate, there's plenty of benefits. And we've shared with you today two of the products that we would absolutely recommend based on the nutritional profile. So that is the firstly and of our new Wednesday drop
on the Nutrition Couch podcast reviewing our products. We hope that you're going to enjoy hearing about new products each week, and again, if there's any that you would continue to like us to look at, feel free to dms on our social media and if you haven't already, please subscribe using the Purple Apple podcast box to have us delivered to your inbox every Sunday and now Wednesday morning. Have a great week.
Thank you guys. In the next episode,