Kefir, The old Food that became Fashionable and its Health Benefits

Kefir, the old food that became fashionable and its health benefits

In recent years milk and its derivatives are demonized. they need been attributed, without a scientific basis, to being the source of health problems.

On the opposite hand, the priority to follow healthy lifestyles and therefore the return to a more natural diet has redirected the design towards the fermentation products of milk, which may be taken by people with a particular level of lactase deficiency.

These products include yogurt and cheeses, but kefir has recently become very fashionable.

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Milk and milk have accompanied us since the Neolithic when the human species domesticated animals to supply themselves with proteins without the necessity to travel hunting.

This group of foods provides us with high biological value proteins, vitamins, and minerals. Among the latter is calcium, whose availability is bigger than in legumes, nuts, and vegetables, since the fiber present in these hinders its absorption.

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Mammals are characterized by taking breast milk because the first food.

This is an entire food that gives all the nutrients necessary for the expansion and development of the newborn within the early stages of life, also as antibodies that help the still immature system of the offspring.

This is an entire food that gives all the nutrients necessary for the expansion and development of the newborn within the early stages of life, also as antibodies that help the still immature system of the offspring.

In the intestine , an enzyme is produced, lactase, which makes it possible to digest lactose, the most sugar contained in milk. within the overwhelming majority of the world's human population, said enzyme is deactivated at an early age.

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The consequence of the deactivation of this enzyme is that lactose can't be absorbed, which generates transient symptoms derived from malabsorption that cause discomfort.

A plausible hypothesis to elucidate this phenomenon is that it might be a mechanism to be ready to wean quickly and efficiently the offspring when the amount and frequency of births are high.

After the domestication of animals within the Neolithic, in some human populations in Europe, there's a mutation that maintains the activity of lactase throughout adult life or a minimum of an outsized a part of it.

Although the overwhelming majority of the planet population doesn't tolerate lactose in adulthood, among Europeans rock bottom rates of intolerance to the present substance are registered, with an excellent difference compared to other human groups.

This adaptive mechanism allows the person to possess an additional source of food in adulthood, especially in regions where winters are long and therefore the food available in nature is more scarce, as in much of the ecu continent.

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In the era , cases of lactase deficiency have increased, either by reversal of the favorable mutation, either by mixing populations or just because previously it had been not diagnosed and now it's . For this and other reasons, an issue has arisen about the convenience of dairy products in human nutrition.

In the era, cases of lactase deficiency have increased.

We start from the idea that no food is important. those that are essential are the nutrients.

Therefore, at a time when so-called "superfoods" are so fashionable, it are often said that not drinking milk or dairy products doesn't need to cause any health problems if their lack is supplemented with other foods that provide the proper nutrients.

However, if your consumption - within the amounts recommended by nutritionists - is tolerated by our body without causing any disorder, there's no reason to try to to without them.

Milk fermentation products, during which lactose has been transformed into other molecules -mainly lactic acid-, are often ingested by people with a not very severe intolerance level to the present sugar.

If your taste does not convince you, you can mix it with fruit.

Kefir and its benefits

Kefir, or milk kefirada, may be a dairy derivative produced by a symbiosis of bacteria and yeast - popularly referred to as "kefir fungus".

Both are grouped into granules that are held together very loosely by a polysaccharide matrix that synthesize the microorganisms that form the consortium.

This consortium carries out a lactic-alcoholic fermentation, unlike yogurt, during which the fermentation is merely lactic.

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The generation of alcohol - which is found at very low concentrations, around 0.5% - is thanks to the action of the yeasts.

In addition to the transformation of lactose into carboxylic acid , other metabolites, not present in milk, are produced by the action of microorganisms.

In addition, milk proteins are degraded during a multitude of peptides, many of which have biological activity - antihypertensive, antioxidant, antimicrobial -.

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Finally, it's a probiotic food that contributes to making an adequate balance within the gut microbiota, an idea that's now fashionable in science and in society generally , since alterations within the microbiota are associated with different diseases.

In short, our modern societies are rediscovering old foods that, to those that like and tolerate them, will bring them a replacement flavor, texture, and health benefits.

This article was originally published within the Conversation magazine. Manuel José Rodríguez Ortega may be a tenured professor at the University of Córdoba, Spain, within the area of Biochemistry and biology .

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