Cultured dairy products have unique characteristics that makes them even more nutritious than plain milk!
What is cultured dairy? Think yogurt, cheese, kefir, curds and whey, creme fraiche, pima milk, and clabbered milk. Any traditional culture that consumed dairy included foods like these. Cultured dairy was popular with our ancestors for a number of reasons. One is simply that refrigeration wasn’t available, so milk would simply culture itself when it was stored (neat how it does that, isn’t it?). But cultured dairy products were also revered for their many health benefits:
So Long, Casein. This protein is particularly difficult for the body to digest, but it is also broken down by friendly bacteria during the culturing process.
Good-bye, Lactose. Think you might be sensitive to the lactose in milk? Lacto-fermentation breaks down the lactose over a period of hours. At 24 hours, virtually all lactose is gone! For this reason, many lactose-intolerant folks can enjoy cultured dairy products without side effects.
Hello, Probiotics! Yep, these are really beneficial little guys! These beneficial bacteria are what “cultures” the milk, and gobble up all the lactose and casein. They also promote a healthy GI tract and overall vitality. Getting plenty of probiotics can drastically reduce the occurrence and severity of many illnesses, too.
Culturing dairy with raw milk is highly recommended, but the best part about culturing is you can also do it with pasteurized milk (though it should not be homogenized). Culturing can actually restore the wonderful enzyme content of milk which is destroyed by pasteurization. These enzymes are important for digesting lactose and casein, and for absorbing minerals like calcium.
The lost art of culturing dairy has been rediscovered thanks to wonderful books like Nourishing Traditions. A great addition to your reading library!
Check out this great video for more information on Cultured Dairy!
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