Krasnoyarsk professor spoke about the correct use of yogurt and doubted the effectiveness of kefir diet. Proper nutrition – a simple thing and at the same time complex: everyone knows that there is harm, and what is useful, and a number of products and does have unique properties.
Meanwhile, this is not always justified. For example, a yogurt known to everyone is considered a drink uniquely useful. But not all specialists are so unanimous: everywhere there are features and pitfalls.
About the nuances of using the most famous drink for the diet, the SHE correspondent asked the head of the Institute for Preventive and Curative Nutrition of the Krasnoyarsk State Medical University, Professor Yefim Prakhin.
Why do recommendations for the use of fermented milk products mention kefir most often?
I do not think that now it is recommended most often, perhaps it is due to the stereotype of nutrition formed among the population and among doctors. There are no special indications for the appointment of kefir, but there are general questions related to the need to use dairy products in the diet. They must be chosen, firstly, to taste, and secondly, by priority, because today there is plenty to choose from. The variety of sour-milk products today is quite large. These are yogurts, fermented baked milk, yogurt. The best of them are those that contain the vegetable fibers needed in functional nutrition. Therefore, I recommend choosing foods with cereals.
Is kefir absorbed better than other sour-milk products?
The protein contained in kefir is very well absorbed, not only protein, but kefir itself contributes to the increase of digestibility of proteins and other products, too. For all sour-milk products there is one unifying thing – they are digested well, and kefir is only one of such products.
It is often endowed with unique abilities to restore the work of the intestine. This is true?
As a pediatrician I remember the times when yogurt was made in dairy kitchens, and not in factories, it is difficult to foresee some nuances at factories. For example, kefir supports the motility of the excretory function of the intestinal tract, this is so. But only one-day kefir contributes to this effect.
Two days just normalizes the work of the intestines, and kefir, which lasted longer, can not be called useful.
Today kefir often comes with additives, it can very well be used as an enriched product, for example, vitamin C. Its possibilities are very large. A good combination of it with bifidobacteria. In a healthy diet, it is generally better to use what is associated with the filling of bifidobacteria, this dramatically improves the properties of kefir.
Often one can hear a recommendation to use kefir as a valuable source of calcium …
According to the content of calcium in kefir I can say: it is almost the same as in whole milk, maybe there is a difference in small limits. It is well absorbed, but it has much greater importance in maintaining motor function, the microbiological component of digestion. Calcium is not an end in itself in the appointment of kefir, although it is absorbed well.
How does kefir affect metabolism, does it help to lose weight?
Kefir itself contains easily digestible proteins, and lactic acid facilitates the assimilation of other proteins, in this regard, kefir for metabolism is useful.
But as for the goal to lose weight by any means, when yogurt is used thoughtlessly, I had to see the girls who got into the clinic after kefir diet. We with great difficulty returned them to their original condition, and as an end in itself to use kefir for weight loss and weight loss, I would not recommend it.
To do this, you need to choose foods that are balanced in terms of vitamins, microelements, amino acids, fatty acids, specialized foods for weight loss are much more effective.
How do you feel about unloading days using kefir?
For unloading days, it is not necessary to use kefir. On the question of whether the effect of this, I can not answer, but do not be like advice that promises fat burning and rapid weight loss. This process in any case is the lot of the medical approach and medical responsibility. We always say: you can discuss anything, but no one has canceled a qualified opinion for a particular person.
Who should not drink yogurt?
All people with the manifestation of heartburn, belching, hiccups, hypersecretion of gastric juice, various forms of gastritis should be cautious.
Kefir at night – one of the favorite advice of nutritionists. How do you feel about him?
I would say so: this is also from the field of old traditions, when they said – and I am a witness to this – that yogurt should be drunk at night.
Today, I believe, a more correct approach, that at night you do not need to eat, and yogurt is food.
In general, there is an opinion on a healthy diet, especially in relation to people who have a gastritis problem, a reflux disease. If there is an inconsistency of the gastroesophageal valve, taking the product for the night means at night to suffer from heartburn, to feel a belch. In a healthy person, these phenomena can arise.
Is it possible to give kefir to children? From what age?
For children this issue has a long history. Until the 1960s, they spoke of the priority of sour-milk products in the nutrition of children under one year, and if there was not enough breast milk, even then we used kefir in special dilutions. Then simply there were no industrially produced products for artificial nutrition. Today kefir, as well as whole milk, for children under the age of one is not recommended for the menu, for this purpose there are special adapted mixtures that correspond to the physiological capabilities of children. After a year, kefir can be safely used in baby food. Whole milk for children is good, but dairy products must necessarily alternate with fermented milk or even give them priority.
