I had about 200ml of kefir* with my lunch today in a state run canteen, and I noticed that it does not taste sweet in the way that milk does (now that my taste buds are more sensitive to sweetness).

I was wondering if the lactose in the milk might have been eaten up in the fermentation process thus making it an excellent low carb food/drink. Does anyone have any information on this or on its lactose /carbohydrate content?

*Kefir is a popular drink in Eastern Europe. It is basically thick soured milk without the gone off taste. It tastes something like a runny sour cream.

Thanks,
Robert

A quick search on this forum for "kefir" turned up a few posts - these two in particular should answer your questions

http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthre...highlight=Kefir

http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthre...highlight=Kefir

HTH
Nat

Many thanks Natrushka. It was interesting reading.

I suppose the smart think to do would have been for me to go out to a shop, buy a packet of kefir and read the ingredients!!! Well I've done that now and found that the fullest cream variety is 3.6g per 100 as oposed to 4.8 for full fat milk. It's not a slow as I had hoped but it is so delicious and so full of good bacteria I think I'll include a glass in my plan from time to time.

I also visited a web site which explains how to make kefir and wrote to the owner. He explains that well fermented home made kefir can get to almost 0 carbs...interesting.

Thanks again,
Robert

P.S.

If anyone would like to see acomplete breakdown of kefir, the owner of the site refered to about e-mailed me this link:

http://www.cyberdiet.com/ni/ni2/sho...num=4413&csc=5A

Best to all

Robert