Hi Maggie,
They all have natural sugars in them, the unsweetened that is....can't avoid it. I can't tolerate cow kefir unfortunatley. I was successfuly making it. It was wonderful! I stopped though, just couldn't agree with me. I recently discoved goat yogurt which seems good!!!! and I found goat kefir! I've had it a couple of times, and really, it's more digestable for me. I just take small amounts, like 1/2 cup. I liked it and found it really didn't taste that goaty!

Store bought kefir is just a label with some slick marketing (as is "probiotic" yogurt and "organic" eggs and meat that are still factory farmed) - it is not real kefir (meaning doesn't have ANY of the probiotic qualities that is associated with kefir). It is dead and has things like guar gum to thicken. Real kefir will explode a glass jar and only has a refrigerator shelf life of about 24 hours before it separates to curd, which of course does not give it a shelf life of 2 to 6 months that is necessary for a retail store product to generate a profit.

You can get real kefir grains, the cauliflower looking colonies of the bacteria/yeasts that make ancient kefir, online for $20. You then use the best milk source available to you, preferably raw unpasteurized unhomogenized grass fed, but the best you can afford. The grains grow with every batch, so you only need to purchase once and then change the milk out to keep them alive. Not rocket science.

People using store bought (pasteurized & homogenized) milk often have allergic reactions to the kefir and blame it on the kefir when really it's the altered molecular and unnatural structure of the milk proteins. Raw milk has the appropriate bacteria and enzymes to help our system digest it, heat and chemically altered milk is just a toxin to our body. Sometimes the benefit of the bacteria in kefir doesn't outweigh the harm and irritation that the altered milk is doing to the body. If this is the case, no worries, you can get traditional, sustainable WATER kefir with a reduced but still hefty array of bacteria/yeasts which you need only Sugar water, minerals, and fruit of your choice to make a carbonated beverage. I make milk and water kefir from grains.

Not trying to info overload, but I really want people to be more aware corporations charting health trends (via search engines, sites like this, etc.) and marketing facsimile products mimicking traditional healthy products that people hear about, and then charging a fortune for them.

ps - I work in marketing multimedia. :-)



~ Join the Revolution. Free yourself in 2012 ~

I'm all for getting kefir grains and making it yourself, but if you can't, then Helios plain organic kefir is the best. It's unsweetened. I've been suffering from candida for years and I really feel a difference when I drink it. Other brands I tried don't provide enough probiotics, or maybe even non at all. With Helios the fatigue from candida lifts temporarily and I'm more regular.