I am on my second batch, and it turned out great, and tastes better than the first batch. It is a really thick yogurt. I got some glass food containers that hold just over 16 oz, and have a nice lid, and this time, I used two of those and they fit into my yogurt maker perfectly. Now I have an option to start the next batch before using up all of the previous ones. Besides it helps me feel full longer, I have not noticed a lot of difference yet, but it has only been two weeks, so I am sure it will take longer before i notice other changes. I had my lab tests yesterday, and the ones that were bad/out of range are better this time. My GFR is up from 44 to 51, which is a good improvement. It is possible that the good bacteria are getting rid of some of the things I want gone.
I'm trying to decide how to measure out the proper amount of L. reuteri to make the yogurt. If the doctor's capsule was only hundreds of millions of CFUs and he thinks it progressed into trillions, I don't know what might happen when my capsule has billions of CFUs. Then I gotta decide how much prebiotic to add... The comments sections in the vids for this stuff are of no help because people ask "How many capsules do I use?" without thinking that a "capsule" ranges from millions to tens of billions of CFUs. I guess I should let go of the perfectionism and just try it. But I don't want to overload on the bacteria and cause distress. And I want to make sure I have a decent amount of bacteria.
If you have the Bio Gaia probiotic tablets with the l.Reuteri in it, then you are supposed to use 10 tablets, crushed, in the first batch. I found that if you warm up the half & half a little bit, then the 2 tablespoons of inulin dissolve much easier into the liquid mixture, and then I added that to the rest of the cream. This time, I used one helping (about 4 oz) of the first batch as a starter for the second batch, and just had to add the inulin and not any more capsules. If you want enough probiotics to get up into the small intestine, you need to plant a bunch of them in there and then eat lots of food with prebiotics so they live as long as possible. I have been slicing up a small raw potato and eating that some days because it is all prebiotic and water, according to Dr. Davis, and I like the taste of a raw potato.
Follow the stuff @Yvonne Smith posted. My only worry with too many CFUs is that they might run out of food before 36 hours were up. As she said, you probably have to overwhelm the stomach a bit to get probiotics through it. Too much is probably better than too little as long as they are fed.
Thanks for that. First, it sounds as though you've been able to tolerate that bacteria OK. I've wondered about any distress a new strain might cause is it kills different bad bacteria than other strains do. I assume you used 4 cups of milk/half & half (one quart) in that recipe? My math says that you put one billion CFUs in it. The l. Reuteri capsules I got are 5 billion CFUs, so I can just use part of them. I was thinking of mixing different brand capsules together so as to get a spectrum of bacteria. I'll have to try eating raw potato. I, too, have always liked the taste, even when I was a kid. Funny, I always thought that they would mess up my stomach...dunno why I thought that.
According to the Super Gut book, the different probiotic bacteria need different temperatures to multiply, and some of them will take over the food and the l.Reuteri will die if mixed with the wrong bacteria. He explains what can and can’t be mixed, and how to make some of the other probiotic strains that are beneficial in the book. I would read the book before experimenting. I have just been making this one type, and am going to stick with that one for now. I am still mixing it in with some of my kefir just before i eat it each day. You can’t culture it with kefir because of the temp differences, but you can mix them together to consume them, and I like the flavor of the kefir mixed in with the yogurt. About the raw potato, we are warned about the solanine , which is where the potato has turned green from exposure to light. As long as you are not eating any green skin from the potato, it is fine to eat some of it raw. This is probably why you were told not to eat it as a child, @John Brunner . Also, this is part of a 4-week plan to reshape your gut biome, and you are supposed to stop eating anything with grain, sugar, or starches in it, and just have proteins, fats and vegetables while you are doing the reset. The book explains everything.
THAT's right...solanine. So did you make a full quart of yogurt with that probiotic/prebiotic mix you cited? And thanks for the advice on not mixing bacteria.
Yes, I am making a quart at a time, and using a starter from the previous batch. It gets better and thicker by the second batch. I have been eating 4 oz each day, mixed with about a cup of kefir.
Epoch News has another article on l. reuteri, citing the work of Donna Schwenk and Dr. Davis. One of the comments mentioned that Lifeway brand kefir contains l. reuteri, for those who don't want to bother making their own. Link to article. You may have to create a free account to read it. There's not much information in it that has not been discussed here.
I stumbled upon Progenabiome, "A Research Genetic sequencing laboratory." It was linked from that Epoch Times article I cited above. From their website: Who we are A genetic sequencing research laboratory dedicated to continuing the work of the late Dr. Sydney Finegold, a man who recognized the power of anaerobic bacteria and spent his life correlating microbes to diseases. Our mission Crack the genetic code of a trillion bacteria, fungi and viruses that live in our gut. Our hopes Find cures to diseases that we feel are caused by alteration of the gut flora, following the vision and pioneer work on Fecal Microbiota Transplant of Dr. Thomas Borody. There is too much on their website to synopsize, but these publications (available for reading on their website) caught my eye: Microbiome-Based Hypothesis on Ivermectin’s Mechanism in COVID-19: Ivermectin Feeds Bifidobacteria to Boost Immunity--Frontiers in Microbiology Vitamin C improves gut Bifidobacteria in humans--Future Medicine Impact of Probiotics on Gut Microbiome Bifidobacterium Relative Abundance: First Do No Harm--Journal of Clinical Trials
There are some who believe that the gut biome is modified by the ingestion of GMO grain, as that has been detected in cattle in feed lots. If that is taking place, I wonder if the probiotics would stimulate those modified bacteria as well as the "normal" ones that have been there for millennia?
This makes a lot of sense, and is maybe one of the reasons that the Super Gut 4 week rescue program says to eliminate ANY kind of grains, wheat, rice, oats, barley, corn, and all of the lesser known ones as well. So much of our plant foods have been genetically modified now, and it makes sense that the gut bacteria would have modified along with it. By eliminating everything that the modified bacteria feed on, and adding the most beneficial probiotics in large quantities, then it seems like we could completely restore our gut biome to more like it originally was supposed to be. We know that commercial probiotic capsules do not add nearly enough good probiotics, and culturing our own to get the largest amount seems to be the best way to me.
Obviously, no one knows...at least, we hope they don't know. That last study I cited (Impact of Probiotics on Gut Microbiome) may have tangentially touched upon your question because it compared people who took "unapproved " [unregulated] probiotics, no probiotics, and "approved" [FDA-regulated] probiotics. The "unregulated" OTC ones contained species/strains that were not cited on the label. Interestingly, subjects taking unregulated probiotics had a lower mean relative abundance of Bifidobacteria in their microbiome than both subjects taking regulated probiotics and subjects who did not take probiotics. So it seems that harm was somehow done. (As an aside, I could not find any FDA-"approved" probiotics, so I have no idea what "regulated" brands the study found, unless there are some classified as drugs and are, therefore, subject to regulation.) I don't understand the mechanism by which "good " bacteria identifies "bad" bacteria and then eliminates it. I guess that would answer your question, but probably in a hindsight "what trashed my biome?" investigative kinda way. Since GMO has Bill Gates' fingerprints on it, one has valid reason to be suspect.
This study I cited: Impact of Probiotics on Gut Microbiome Bifidobacterium Relative Abundance: First Do No Harm--Journal of Clinical Trials would seem to back up that statement, Yvonne.
I just think that prebiotics will act to feed bad as well as good bacteria and, to your point, I don't understand how the prebiotic could differentiate GMO bugs from non-GMO bugs. I do think I understand how the L. reuteri could act to wipe out ALL competition, but I think prebiotics will amplify all species that utilize the specific substance.