I recently learnt that all that sugar in Kefir is actually added sugar. I never actually deep analysed the way Kefir is produced and realised they cultures eat up the sugar, otherwise it cannot fermet.
I just had a look at my Kefir bottle of 400 ml and can see it has 5 gr of sugar per 100 ml, which adds up to 20 grams of added sugar per bottle.
So keeping in mind all the negative aspects of added sugar do the benefits outweight the harm by the sugar?
5g per 100ml is only 20cal of sugar. Are you consuming nearly 4 cups in a single sitting? 20g added on almost 4 cups of a product isn’t very much in the grand scheme and shouldn’t make a difference in health. You should be going off of reasonable serving sizes and how much sugar is in that.
Water kefir? Milk kefir? Homemade? Commercial store-bought? Sounds like you are talking about commercial kefir.
Homemade milk kefir can be only fermented milk, nothing added unless you add it. Much of the lactose is consumed in the fermentation. The microbes in kefir are highly beneficial for you gut.
You can’t make a judgement about kefir based on what you seem to be looking at.
If you’re asking if there is any harm in consuming it, with the added sugar, not really. They add sugar to brands such as lifeway to make it more palatable, not necessarily for the fermentation.
Generally speaking, the negative aspects of added sugar lies in the dose. No harm in not consuming or for the added sugar, but no harm in consuming a serving of it with the added sugar either
As for whether it’s going to our weight the benefits, I don’t see how it could. 5g of sugar won’t won’t negate anything. It’s when you consume a lot of sugar (say, more than 50g a day, on a regular basis) that this would be an issue, but even then that’s not necessarily a matter of negating benefits from everything else you eat
Edit - also are you saying that it lists 5g of added sugar per serving? Or simply 5g sugar? Even still this is not a lot, but I should note that dairy products are naturally going to have sugars
I don’t know what kind of kefir you are buying but i have never seen any with added sugar? The best kefir you can drink is Raw Kefir from Raw Grassfed whole milk. Ton of beneficial bacteria, enzymes, and bio-available vitamins and minerals.
Kefir and fermented foods can provide so much health benefit like adding in probiotics into your diet, improving digestion, encouraging microbiome diversity (so important!!). Some people can see glucose spikes from Kefir (or even yogurt) because of the sugar but some do not. I have tracked my glucose after eating (using a CGM) and have found it extremely beneficial in seeing how my body responds to certain foods, even those I thought were “healthy” for me!
Any store bought food is usually less healthy than homemade.
Homemade kefir is amazing. Just leave a jug of raw milk (idk if it works with store milk) out on the counter for a day or so until it gels up and there you go. Amazing in smoothies, adds a flavor that regular milk just doesn’t have.