Aliyanna wrote:I have been doing lots of ferments to help heal my family's guts. They get lots of kefir, water and coconut milk (with milk kefir grains) coconut yogurt (using culturelle as my starter and konjac as my thickener.) I make gluten free sourdough with teff and kefir, I ferment veggies and fruits and we are still having issues.
Question: What does all this lactic acid do? Culturelle is supposed to kill bacteria and work on the yeast. That is why I chose it as my culture. Besides all this they are getting lots of grapefruit seed extract to kill the yeast. Any thoughts or suggestions. I am also giving larch extract. Am about at my wits end.
tia
Aliyanna
lactic acid in high concentrations provides an environment which kills most types of bacteria. Sauerkraut ph will lower to a level which is not hospitable to most bacteria and yeasts.
Culturelle is rather overrated in my experience. I tried it a long time back to make yoghurt and used it for quite a long time and didn't notice any improvement. The claims made for it, including reducing the permeability of the gut are just claims and in my experience are not justified. There are far better bacteria than Culturelle/Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG for fighting yeast and sealing the gut if hyper permeability is a problem.
Bacteria naturally compete with one another and they produce Bactericides to kill off competing bacteria. Adapting and changing according to the terrain so they can survive. It's called survival of the fittest, the giant balancing act which is life.
The problem that most people seem to make when trying to eliminate yeasts and infections are that the yeasts and bacteria can create biofilms which protect them from other bacteria and any substance which threatens them. Biofilms are protective communities of bacteria, yeasts and fungi which work together and benefit one another. They are like a protective dome over them that allows in the nutrients that they want and filters out anything that the don't want. Biofilms and the organisms inside are highly adaptive, they can adapt very quickly to virtually any substance that threatens them. Changing the biofilm if something gets through so that it is filtered out.
Organisms inside a biofilm are notoriously difficult to destroy. The biofilm needs to be destroyed/broken up to enable anything to attack the organisms. Other bacteria are the best bet but only after the biofilm has been removed. Find some antagonistic bacteria, break down the biofilm using enzymes and then use the bacteria for a fight to the death.
The soil based organisms can be very useful at destroying yeasts and fungus. Some of the bacillus bacteria strains are used commercially to prevent fungi growth on fruit.
Be aware of what some yeasts can do, they can be very damaging when they form hyphae because they can penetrate through the digestive system wall and move to other areas of the body.
I suggest that you investigate biofilms because that is likely why you aren't getting very far.