Cheap probiotics ideas please

So I was talking to my mum on the phone yesterday, explaining to her the shocker of a night I'd had after eating a butter chicken curry (even korma possibly has more kick; it was nice tho'). The subject somehow got onto the gut microbioeme and I said I don't think I have a single, solitary friendly gut bacteria left - whatever's left all seem to quite literally hate my guts.

My mum said "what about yoghurt?", I said "what about it?", and she said something about probiotics. I almost summarily dismissed it, but then I remembered the SCD folks and how big they were on their yoghurt. A light bulb went over my head and it finally seemed like probiotics might be worth a try.

My problem is that high quality probiotics like VSL#3 are way too expensive for me. What about making your own yoghurt and adding your own bacterial strains? Is this the cheap man's way of taking probiotics?

I don't even know if this will make the slightest bit of difference, but my gut seems to be in constant chaos these days and I'm fed up of it. The years of Crohn's and surgeries have finally taken their toll. I don't expect to ever get back a perfectly-working digestive system again, but if I have to eat bland sh!t for the rest of my life I'm gonna go nuts - I at least want to reach a point where I can eat fruit and vegetables, nuts, pulses, etc. again, like I could for the first 10 years of my time with Crohn's.

Crap, I have to eat kefir and sauerkraut? Can't we just keep it to yoghurt, guys? <_<.

Seriously, I think sauerkraut may be a bit obstruction-ey for me at the moment. Kefir looks safe enough, though. I've drunk Fortisip and Elemental 028; I can drink this, too.

@FSLondon - Is the Rhythm coconut kefir smooth? I won't bother if it's got all the shredded stuff in it. *googles* Holy crap, £5 for one 500ml bottle?? VSL#3 would be cheaper! I think I'll skip the testing stage and jump straight to making my own... :-/

Yes you can make your own yogurt. I did it in my oven (using the light bulb only) and a microwave, no need to buy a yogurt maker. So simple a child can do it. You will need a starter packet of probiotics or some probiotic capsules to open and sprinkle on the milk.

The process is very simple: heat the milk to a high enough temperature to kill all bacteria in it (good and bad). Then cool the milk down to room temperature and sprinkle on the probiotic powder and keep in a slightly warm place for 24 hours (oven with light on). Then put it in fridge to get it all nice and solid. I used to go one step further and drain the whey to make a thicker Greek-style yogurt.

Too bad my gut hates yogurt :-( because my mouth sure did.
I think you would love making homemade yogurt.
You could try different types of probiotics or do mixes and see if something good happens.
Yogurt has been made by peasants for thousands of years without kitchens, can't be too hard.

I feel like probiotics are as individual with this disease as every other thing is. Florastor was not good for me at all. It has dairy in it so it gave me lots of gas. I use Culturelle (not that cheap) and one from my local health food store (also not that cheap). Neither has dairy in them. They are not crazy expensive like VSL #3 is. I don't feel like they do a thing to help my flares once I'm in them, but overall I think they are good for me. I had to try several different ones to find ones that didn't disagree with me. And then that gets expensive. Kefir is a good suggestion, if you can tolerate lactose, and it's not too pricey. I can only drink it in small amounts which is probably not doing didley for me since i'm not drinking enough of it.

Hey folks. I took a long time writing a wall of text in another thread and I'm in a bit of a rush now. I'll reply properly later on :p

You can make your own yogurt at home. It is very simple. You will need little bit of yogurt as a starter. Get organic yogurt with bacteria strains that you are looking for. You will need this only first time.

Heat milk till it boils. Let it cool to room temperature. Mix spoon full of yogurt that you bought and then leave the container in oven with light bulb on. If you keep longer,higher the probiotic but don't keep out longer than 24 hours else it will be too sour. After 24 hrs. refrigerate. Every time, save spoon full of yogurt to make another batch.

SCD says yogurt can be well tolerated even by the people with lactose intolerance. Hope it helps you.

Ima - could you exclaim this >

"heat the milk to a high enough temperature to kill all bacteria in it (good and bad)."


if you are using regular, store bought, super sonic pasturized, do you really need to cook it again ? i thought the idea WAS to create bacteria ????

Thanks guys.

I'm having second thoughts that this will actually do anything now. I'd probably be better off overhauling my entire diet, tbh. I don't eat terribly healthily and am mildly surprised I haven't developed any nutritional deficiencies.

But I guess yoghurt or kefir is as good a place to start as any. Kefir looks a bit better, in that it has more varieties of bacteria - the more the better, right? <_<. This site also claims that kefir, unlike yoghurt, can colonise the intestinal tract, but I don't know how true that is: www.kefir.net/kefir-vs-yogurt/

But on the other hand, making your own kefir from live grains looks, well, terrifying. Even the SCD yoghurt is daunting. Hold my hand while I think about it, folks... :-/