I’ve been working hard to take off excess weight, primarily with the Medifast “Take Shape for Life” program as well as Farm to Fit local meal service. This new program gave me impetus to enjoy smoothies as snack meals and get creative with ways to make them nutritious.

Enter the kefir. I got samples of Lifeway Protein Kefir, a natural probiotic kefir packaged in 16 fluid ounce containers. It has very little added cane sugar and is 1:1 protein to carbohydrate content.

Kefir is a fermented milk product, much like yogurt but with more active yeast and bacteria cultures. It is thinner than most yogurt, a thick liquid that can be a little fizzy from active fermentation. As a former microbiology technologist, I am a believer in keeping your gut microbes happy.

There are entire new theories of many diseases that think they are caused by or made worse by having off-balance gut microbes. Probiotic foods like kefir can introduce good microbes back into your personal ecosystem and may help restore the balance.