Why kefir should be the first choice over yogurt as a fermented milk product for improving digestive health and combating autoimmune disease.
I was chatting with a neighbor recently about her first attempt at culturing a quart of yogurt on the counter at room temperature. This is tricky to pull off unlike kefir, which is easily cultured raw on the counter.
Not surprisingly, the end result was soupy. The culture didn’t seem to “take” like the heated yogurt she produced with her yogurt maker.
I explained that it usually takes several attempts at culturing yogurt at room temperature to determine the ideal scenario for a given home kitchen environment. Kefir, on the other hand, works nearly every single time like clockwork with a failure rate of basically zero no matter the temperature of the kitchen or the season of the year.
I encouraged her to give kefir a try instead of yogurt because ultimately, kefir is the healthier fermented milk product anyway (not to mention easier), for a couple of reasons.
Kefir is Easier than Yogurt to Culture Raw
In order to achieve success at culturing either yogurt or kefir, it’s very important to use the right type of starter.
Most people don’t realize that there are actually two types of yogurt starter:
- Mesophilic
- Thermophilic
Thermophilic is the type of yogurt starter ideal for a yogurt maker. It is heat-loving and cultures at around 110 F/43 C for 5 to 12 hours. The yogurt produced from thermophilic cultures is thicker than yogurt from a mesophilic culture.
A mesophilic yogurt starter, on the other hand, can be cultured at room temperature, around 70 – 77F/21 – 25C. When using a mesophilic culture, there is no need to preheat the milk.
The culture is added to cold milk right out of the refrigerator and cultured at room temperature for 12-18 hours. The yogurt that results from culturing with a mesophilic starter is more drinkable style than the thicker, spoonable yogurt made from a thermophilic culture.
Unlike yogurt starter, kefir is solely a mesophilic culture, which means that it is ideally cultured at room temperature.
Switching up the yogurt starter which has worked flawlessly with the yogurt maker and then using it to attempt raw yogurt cultured on the counter does not usually work. This is a big reason why culturing raw yogurt fails so often for newbies to the home fermentation process.
Ensuring that you have the right type of yogurt starter for the purpose you have in mind, either raw or heated yogurt, can make all the difference to success. With the pricey cost of a gallon of raw, pastured milk in many areas, minimizing mistakes is very important.
If you have little room in the budget for mistakes and want to opt for the easiest raw fermented milk product to make, kefir is the way to go in my experience.
Yogurt Only Contains Transient-Based Probiotics
While ease of fermentation is a big plus for kefir, the biggest reason of all to ferment kefir instead of yogurt is due to the differences in the bacterial cultures each contains.
Yogurt, for example, only contains 2-7 strains of beneficial bacteria, called probiotics. This is true even for 24-hour crockpot-style yogurt.
Yogurt also contains no beneficial yeasts.
What? Beneficial yeasts?
Yes, there is such a thing as yeasts that are helpful to health … they help keep pathogenic yeasts in the gut like Candida at bay.
A traditional yogurt starter contains the following strains of probiotics: Bifidobacterium lactis, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus bulgaricus, and Streptococcus thermophilus.
Greek yogurt, which has taken the healthfood community by storm, is ironically the least beneficial of all, usually containing only Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus. This is an important distinction as many folks wonder about Greek yogurt vs regular and which is actually healthier.
There is another shortcoming of the beneficial bacteria in yogurt: they are transitory in nature meaning they don’t colonize the digestive tract. Don’t get me wrong, yogurt-based probiotics are valuable in that they help keep the digestive tract clean and provide food for the beneficial bacteria that are already colonized in the gut.
The probiotic strains in yogurt, however, do not colonize the gut themselves, and just pass through which requires a constant infusion to maintain the same health benefit.
A word of warning concerning yogurt and Greek yogurt containing Streptococcus thermophilus from Jordin Rubin, author of Restoring Your Digestive Health:
Studies have shown that people who suffer from autoimmune diseases run the risk of aggravating the symptoms of their disease if they consume more than two cups of yogurt that contains Streptococcus thermophilus. What’s more, Streptococcus thermophilus can cause a shift in immune function known as a Th2-dominated immune system. People with Th2-mediated immune systems have higher incidences of allergies and other illnesses. People suffering from digestive problems usually have imbalanced or weak immune systems. For this reason, avoiding products that may contribute to immune system dysfunction is wise if you have an intestinal disease.
So if you are seeking the best fermented milk product for gut health, it’s probably not yogurt particularly not in excess of two cups per day if the yogurt starter contains the strain Streptococcus thermophilus.
Beneficial Microbes in Kefir Blow Yogurt Away by a Country Mile
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 a 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.
Here is a list of the typical strains of probiotics and beneficial yeasts in properly fermented kefir, according to the Journal Food Microbiology:
Beneficial Bacteria in Kefir
There are dozens of beneficial bacteria and yeasts in homemade kefir made with live grains compared to only 2-7 in yogurt. This is the case even if the yogurt is fermented at home for a full 24 hours.
Some sources in recent years have measured the number of species in kefir as high as 50-70, so the list below is conservative. There are likely many more!
- Bifidobacterium breve
- Bifidobacterium lactis
- Bifidobacterium bifidum
- Lactobacillus acidophilus
- Lactobacillus brevis
- Lactobacillus casei
- Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus
- Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. delbrueckii
- Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. lactis
- Lactobacillus helveticus
- Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens subsp. kefiranofaciens
- Lactobacillus kefiri
- Lactobacillus paracasei subsp. paracasei
- Lactobacillus plantarum
- Lactobacillus reuteri
- Lactobacillus rhamnosus
- Lactobacillus sake
- Lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris
- Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis
- Lactococcus lactis
- Leuconostoc mesenteroides subsp. cremoris
- Leuconostoc mesenteroides subsp. dextranicum
- Leuconostoc mesenteroides subsp. mesenteroides
- Pseudomonas
- Pseudomonas fluorescens
- Pseudomonas putida
- Streptococcus thermophilus
Beneficial Yeasts in Kefir (none in yogurt)
- Candida humilis (yeast)
- Kazachstania unispora (yeast)
- Kazachstania exigua (yeast)
- Kluyveromyces siamensis (yeast)
- Kluyveromyces lactis (yeast)
- Kluyveromyces marxianus (yeast)
- Saccharomyces cerevisiae (yeast)
- Saccharomyces martiniae (yeast)
- Saccharomyces unisporus (yeast)
Quite a big difference in the probiotic benefit between kefir and yogurt, isn’t there?
Moreover, due to the higher potency of kefir, it is easy to stay under the 2 cups per day limit recommended by Jordin Rubin (quoted above) for those with a sensitivity to Streptococcus thermophilus.
If you are trying your hand at home fermentation of milk in order to improve your digestive health and rebalance the gut environment with beneficial microbes dominating instead of pathogenic strains, kefir is going to be the more potent choice for you and your family.
And, while kefir definitely has a stronger, more sour taste than the milder-tasting yogurt, you are guaranteed to not notice the difference if your primary use is for smoothies!
Looking for either thermophilic or mesophilic starter cultures for yogurt or kefir?
Click here for where I get mine and sources I recommend for the best quality and potency.
Sources and More Information
Microbiological study of lactic acid bacteria in kefir grains
Water Kefir versus Milk Kefir: Which is Better?
How to Make Yogurt Cheese (raw or pasteurized)
How to Make Coconut Milk Kefir (recipe plus video how-to)
Never knew how little I was getting from greek yogurt. I’ve made homemade yogurt using my oven and it was creamy but obviously not as beneficial. I would love to try Kefir. I live in MS where raw milk is illegal to buy. My local Kroger sells Horizon milk that’s non-homogenized but, that’s as close as I can get to the more beneficial milk. If I use Horizon non-homogenized milk will it adversely affect my Kefir? If so, any suggestions?
No it won’t adversely affect your Kefir. Of course raw is always best but if you can’t get it you will still get all of the probiotic benefits from the kefir even if the milk is pasteurized. The non-homogenized milk is a better choice than homogenized.
Does water kefir contain a large amount of beneficial bacteria? How does it compare to milk kefir? Thanks!
I hope the question will be answered. I also want to know about water kefir grains. Are they as good as milk kefir?
I am going to write a post about this tomorrow … it deserves its own article 🙂
Here you go, just posted it: https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/water-kefir-versus-milk-kefir/
Thank you for this article….it is full of good information. I intend to try making kefir as soon as I can get some grains.
I do, however, think there is a place for yogurt in the diet. There is nothing like having a bowl of yogurt with organic rolled oats mixed in and topped with fruit for a breakfast option…the quickest breakfast ever and the kids love it. You must admit that it’s hard to keep breakfast interesting and yogurt does help give that change. I have been making my own yogurt for some time, either using it immediately after processing when it is creamy and more runny, but not so tart……or straining it to produce the consistency of greek yogurt and taste more tart. I purchased a large crockpot with a probe specifically to make yogurt…..it brings the milk to a certain temp and then tells you with a “beep”….no more checking temps 20 times an hour!! Making yogurt is effortless now. Just make sure all utensils are sterilized including the towel you use to strain the yogurt (use a flour sack towel and plunge it in a pan of boiling water, then wring out). Paying attention to your temperatures is a big deal also….but the probe brings the milk to the correct temp for me so there is little to do after you figure out about how much time it takes for each of the steps. Google a good recipe & instructions for crockpot yogurt and go from there…. You will net about 3 or more times the amount of yogurt for the money if you make it yourself. After you made a couple of times, you will wonder why you ever bought expensive yogurt from the store!! I am hoping I will have just as much success with making kefir 🙂
I finally got into a habit of making it consistently and glad to know about storing the grains for awhile when I need to slow down. I, too, am wondering if there can ever be “bad” bacteria or yeasts in the Kefir? Can it be let go for too long? Are there signs of this? This is a GREAT article and I’ve read many!
I had trouble with raw milk kefir giving me upset stomach for 2-3 years. (I stuck with it so long to see if I could train my gut to adapt to the kefir. ) But now I make raw milk yogurt: heat yogurt to 100 degrees F and add a dollop of live culture yogurt. Yes, the yogurt is milder tasting than kefir and runnier than heated yogurt. But my stomach has no trouble with it.
I wonder if because I use low heat if the beneficial organisms in the raw milk are still active and grow along with the added yogurt cultures.
This is the only way I can tolerate raw milk. Every other “form” of raw milk bothers my stomach: fresh sweet, kefir, clabbered, …..
Could you be lactose intolerant? I have the same problem with raw milk and kefir but not with raw milk yogurt. I realize some lactose-intolerant people are able to consume raw milk without trouble, but not me. I need to take lactase enzyme (Lacataid) when I drink raw milk and kefir, but I am able to consume raw milk yogurt without the Lactaid. I think this is because the yogurt cultures break down the lactose better than the kefir cultures. You may want to give this a try so you can enjoy the health benefits of milk kefir too.
Kefir is absolutely the worst thing for anyone with histamine intolerance or mast cell issues. Yogurt isn’t so great either, depending on the strains. Most strains, including many of those listed for keifr, increase or release histamine in the body, so that might explain your reaction.
I’d love some tips on getting kefir grains activated well. I spent weeks recently trying to get some newly purchased grains (from cultures for health) going, and while it reached place where the milk would thicken, it smelled icky–not a pleasant sour smell and no one in the house would touch it. I finally rinsed the grains (they never seemed to multiply either) and put them in an open jar to dry out. Sigh… I started with gently pasteurized whole milk and when the milk was consistently thickening switched to raw but maybe that messed it up.
When you switch grains from pasteurized to raw milk or vice versa they will have an adjustment period to the new milk. Usually 3 to 5 days. I’ve found my gains perform better in raw milk than pasteurized. The raw gets thicker and the grains reproduce faster. I’ve never rehydrated grains so am not sure how long they would take to activate. It’s possible, if you are not used to it that the sour smell of kefir would smell icky to you and your family if you are not used to it. I’ve been drinking it for several years and still can’t do it straight up. I put a little honey in it or make a smoothie with a banana and berries. My daughter, though, will drink it straight and enjoys it that way. If the icky smell was a yeasty smell it just means that your culture needs to balance out. Refrigerating cultures usually encourages the yeast growth. While this yeast is a beneficial yeast and the kefir will be fine to drink, I just don’t find it as pleasant to drink or smell.
Really interesting article – I’ve done great with Kefir but my whole life I’ve never really succeeded with yoghurt and had no idea why until now (my last attempt at an explanation was “modern milk is so pure it won’t culture”).
Thanks a lot for the explanation.
Another question – my goat kefir grains proliferate much quicker and I get bigger grains when I culture them in cows milk, that is, they seem to prefer cow milk to goat milk, despite having come (very healthy and big) from a goat milk only source. Interested in anybody’s take on this – when I want some to share, I have to go back to cow’s milk (I have a ready source of raw goats milk, for raw cows milk its a 80 mile round trip).
The grains really like a high butterfat/cream milk. Goats milk is naturally homogenized which may affect it’s ability to utilize the butterfat. I’ve not cultured goats milk but I know my grains reproduce a lot faster when I use a Jersey milk which is high in butterfat than when I use a Holstein milk.
I have been drinking Kefir for 2 years now but lately it has been making me feel quite ill. Is it possible that I have a ‘bad bug’ in with my kefir grains? why would something that has been so great be so very bad now?
I do think it is possible to get some mold in your kefir. I have had difficulty with my kefir in the winter months when the ambient temperature in the house is below 70 degrees. I definitely got some mold on the top of my kefir. I would rinse the grains and start with a small fresh batch. I recently did this and found a warm area in my kitchen and my grains worked much better.
This has inspired me to get my milk kefir grains going again! I have been making milk kefir on and off for a couple of years, and when I am not actively making kefir every day, I store the wet grains in a small mason jar of milk in the back of the refrigerator, sometimes for months. When I am ready to make kefir again, I rinse the grains with fresh milk in a plastic fine mesh strainer and then culture them on the counter in fresh raw milk. The grains have never failed to make kefir, even after a long break. I hope this helps those that want to make milk kefir but are concerned about the commitment.
I have tried milk Kefir in the past and my main issues were:
1. The turnover is really fast. I have to make a batch every 1-3 days but we weren’t consuming it fast enough. Any tips for slowing down the cycle? I read it isn’t good to throw them in the fridge very often.
2. I had a really hard time finding my grains, especially in the beginning when they were small. Could I use a bag for this? The kefir was too thick to strain and it was too much work to try and dig them out (even though they are supposed to come to the surface). I just gave up in favor of making yogurt.
We have had tons of luck with water kefir but those grains are easy to strain and I could slow down the cycle with secondary fermentation. Plus it is so yummy!
Thanks,
Alexis
My milk kefir is also very thick, but I still strain it with a fine mesh plastic strainer. I stir it with a plastic spoon in the strainer which helps the kefir drain out. Then only the grains are left in the strainer.
I have not been able to slow down the cycle. I just take out some grains and refrigerate the excess I can’t use or give them away. They multiply like crazy!