Welcome to the Nutrition Diva Podcast. I'm Monica Reinagle and today I want to answer some great questions I received from a longtime listener Anne Marie who wanted to

know more about making Kefir and how its benefits compared to yogurt.

Fermented foods like Kefir and yogurt have been gaining popularity in large part due to the explosion of research on the human

microbiome, the community of microorganisms living in and on our bodies and the benefits of probiotic foods.

Probiotic foods contain beneficial microorganisms which can inhibit the growth of harmful pathogens,

enhanced digestion, and synthesize valuable nutrients such as B12 and vitamin K.

There are thousands of different strains of probiotic bacteria

and eating lots of different kinds of fermented foods will give you exposure to a wider array of benefits.

Besides Kefir, fermented foods include, of course, yogurt,

but also sourcrowd, kimchi, miso, Tempe, and kambucia, and each of these brings its own unique benefits, bacteria, and

flavors to our diet.

I also want to take a moment to distinguish between the bacteria that we find in probiotic foods

and the resident bacteria that live in our gut because this is often misunderstood. Probiotic foods do help to maintain a healthy balance in

our digestive system, but those bacteria that they contain don't necessarily become permanent

residents of our microbiome.

Instead, they pass through our system helping out along the way.

If you're interested in fostering that resident population of microbes,

then your best play is to eat plenty of fiber

from a variety of sources, beans, legumes, whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and so on.

The fiber in these foods provides a food source for those resident bacterial

a diet we feed them, the healthier and more varied that population will be.

With that context, let's talk a little bit more about Kefir in particular.

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