Kefir recently gone from niche to mainstream. What's behind the sudden kefir madness? It's all about culture, bacteria culture that is.
Kefir, a two thousand-year-old drink traditional to Eastern Europe, Russia, and Turkey, has been in the shopping carts of New York's natural foods shoppers for at least a decade. But recently it's crossed over to mainstream popularity, thanks in part to Jamie Lee Curtis's unsexy, unflinching campaign about GI health. "The kefir category has grown by double digits in the last few years," says David Cantor who works in marketing at Evolve Kefir and who also earned a Masters in Science in Nutrition Science and Policy from Tufts University.
To the uninitiated, kefir, which means "feel good" in Turkish," comes across as a somewhat tart, creamy liquid yogurt. A lot of people, like reader Maggie Hinton uses it as a smoothie base. "I blend a scoop of protein powder and Green Vibrance with low-fat plain Lifeway Kefir for a nice smoothie-like consistency," she says.
How is this different from your morning bowl of Greek yogurt? "Kefir's cultures, unlike yogurt's, are robust enough to make it through your treacherous stomach," says Cantor from Evolve. Kefir's bacteria count is in a whole other league than yogurt's. Kefir contains 10 strains of bacteria, whereas most yogurts generally have only two or three. (And, sorry, but frozen yogurt has no active bacteria).