5 Guidelines for Yogurt Use
Pitta provoked diseases are any those that have an inflammatory component What would those be? The short answer is any disease since every disease has an inflammatory process associated with it
There is simply too much of the hot quality in the body which has an imbalance created by the foods consumed So the obvious first step is to reduce those foods that are Pitta provoking
One particular thread that I have seen come up is the question about inflammatory conditions and yogurt How should it be used and whether it is safe in such conditions, that is, whether it is Pitta provoking and causing disease and/or pain
Yogurt is an amazing food and many ethinic cultures on the planet use fresh yogurt and kefir as health promoting foods in their nutrition And there are very good reasons for doing so but due to the Pitta aggravating nature of yogurt, freshly made is the only way to go
The "Good" Guys
The value of yogurt is that it serves when freshly made as rich source of probiotic which is a population of "good bacteria" that reside in the bowel "Bad" bacteria at times overgrow the gut flora leading to poor digestion, absorption, and assimilation so it's important that the good flora flourishes and the bad are kept in check As I've alluded to in the past, bacterial growth is a major part of our digestive strength that needs to be nourished
This is particularly important if you have GERD, IBS, and inflammatory bowel disease(ie Crohn's disease) since the digestive fire is significantly compromised in these dual conditions
Regular use of freshly made yogurt insures that the "good" bacteria are consistently replenished
You may have heard of yeast overgrowth and this is yet another factor that can lead to poor digestive fire(eliminating yeast laden bread products is a good idea in that it gives us more than we need so flatbreads are best or at least toasting yeasted products)
Bowel flora is important in the concept of digestive fire and aids in bowel digestive function as well as providing important nutrients for our nutrition
Pasteurized yogurts should be avoided as pasteurization kills off the beneficial probiotic component of yogurt
Making Digestion Easy By Predigestion-Optimizing Digestive Strength
The value of yogurt comes in the predigestion of lactose and casein which we talked about a couple of days ago Hence the bacteria during the incubation phase of creating yogurt use the sugar lactose and break down the protein casein The lactose then doesn't bother the lactose intolerant and the casomorphin derivative from casein digestion can be less, hence affecting us less
Why freshly made? From an energy science view the build up of acidity occurs with aging yogurt even if refrigerated becomes inflammatory and thus Pitta provoking You also get the maximal amount of probiotic in the yogurt(some bacteria die off after 4-5 days)
Even though fresh yogurt is not very acidic(sour taste) it still can be Pitta provoking if used daily Hence home made yogurt has its consumption limitations
So 5 Guidelines
1 Based on the foodsheal.com food combining list, don't use fruit with yogurt
2 To really inhibit the negative sour effects of even freshly made yogurt, the use of Sucanat or Turbinado(crystallized cane sugars) can be important because the sweet taste helps balance the aggravating sour taste
3 Always use yogurt in moderation, that is, 2-3x per week
4 Store processed yogurt is too acidic and will provoke inflammation
5 Diluting the yogurt with water reduces its acidity
How to get started
Buy a yogurt maker(Donvier is a French brand and is in the Amazon store at the ic-solutions.tv website) Using fresh starter each time ensures that the bacterial count of the yogurt will be rich
And yes, this does take some time to make your own yogurt but after doing it, in a short time you can do a batch in about 15 minutes(total time; heating the milk and cooling it can be done while doing other things)
If the yogurt is curdly and clearly not smooth in texture it means that there's probably too much cooking going on and that the incubation times are too long So try 10 hours instead of 12 hours with the Donvier
YouTube has several videos on how to make your own yogurt
It's best not to use dry milk powder as the milk product as it is provoking to Vata Pitta
Here's a link for directions on making your own for trouble shooting
The greatest value is making your own yogurt is that you participate in your own health and this is a small but significant step in assuming responsibility for our health
Until next week To health as a Skill Love DrBill
