Yogurt is a rich probiotic that can help populate your gut with healthy bacteria like lactobacilli and bifidobacteria. But, not all yogurt is created equal.
The technology of fermenting yogurt can make a big difference in its probiotic and lactose content (i.e. how you feel after eating it). We have learned this from the SCD diet, so we want to give it credit.
Yogurt is fermented milk. Milk naturally contains sugars such as lactose, which many UC patients find hard to digest. Yogurt is made by adding to milk a portion of healthy bacteria like Lactobacillus bulgaricus or termophillus. The good bacteria eat the sugars during the fermentation process and multiply. You eat the yogurt in the bacteria and populate your gut with the good bacteria. Great! But, here is the catch.
The Commercial (Store) Yogurt sold in stores is usually fermented from milk for 6-8 hours. During that time, the good bacteria eat some of the lactose and the released lactic acid curdles the milk, giving it the appearance of yogurt. But, 6-8 hours is not enough time for the bacteria to eat all the lactose. To be fair, it’s not the goal of the producer to make the yogurt lactose-free. It makes for a shorter production time. Store yogurt is useful as a starter culture.
Biochemist Elaine Gottschall of the SCD diet, writes about the commercial process:
“Because of so much lactose in it from the very beginning, what happens is that the little good guys (bulgaricus and thermophilus start doing their work and when they have converted half of the lactose in the original vat, there is lactic acid produced and the acidity (acid=acidity)(the pH) reaches a critical point of about 3.5. At this point, our little guys’ enzymes cannot work because of the acidity and there is still 50% more lactose remaining (remember they added milk solids at the start). You end up with as much, if not more, lactose as in a glass of milk. Subjecting the yoghurt to more time would not change anything. The cultures’ machinery (enzymes) cannot work in such an acid environment.” Read more.
The Homemade Yogurt (Recipe) is fermented from milk for 24 hours, allowing bacteria enough time to break down the lactose in the milk. Because the bacteria are able to break down the lactose, many people who are lactose intolerant are able to tolerate the 24 hr yogurt. The 24 hr yogurt, according to Elaine Gottschall of the SCD diet also “has a higher probiotic count than commercial yoghurt because it is fermented longer.” In addition, you have the freshest bacteria from the environment where they fermented. The Homemade Yogurt is surprisingly simple to make.
How to make Homemade Yogurt: Recipe Here.
How to introduce the Homemade Yogurt: as with any new food, we recommend introducing it slowly. Try 1 teaspoon the first day and see how you feel. If you feel OK – try 2 teaspoons the next day. If you feel unwell, there may not have been enough healing and you may try again later.
Our Experience: Before the Homemade Yogurt, Phil was consuming commercial lactose-free dairy products (like Lactaid), believing that products from regular milk would unsettle him. We were surprised how well he reacted to Homemade Yogurt and it has helped greatly ever since.
What About the Lactose-Free and Dairy-Free Stuff? There is an abundance of new products that offer an easier solution to people with lactose sensitivities. However, what we know about the fermentation process (live little guys needing to consume lactose), invites some questions: Does lactose-free yogurt start with lactose-free milk? If so, what do the bacteria consume to survive and multiply? Same goes for dairy-free yogurt. Although some research has suggested some comparability between dairy and non-dairy products, much more research is necessary to prove they have similar probiotic qualities.
We give credit to Elaine Gottschall for her research into yogurt and we love her SCD Yogurt, which we pass on as a recipe to you.
Although The Colitis Diet is different from The SCD Diet by being tailored specifically to Ulcerative Colitis, we share the same approach to yogurt.
Check the FAQ about the yogurt on the SCD website.