So I started trying to make cultured foods about a year and a half ago when I started having some troubling symptoms. My dad has Crohn’s disease and I was starting to have all kinds of issues and the doctor thought it was likely to be Crohn’s. Because of the family history of the disease I was bumped up the waiting list and had a colonoscopy. Fortunately it wasn’t Crohn’s but the doctor didn’t know what to do after ruling that out so I started to do my own research and came across probiotic foods. I bought some fermented krauts and started incorporating them into my diet, started regularly drinking kombucha, made a sourdough starter, and found someone locally here in Iceland who shared some milk kefir grains with me. The symptoms I’d been experiencing disappeared completely within a few weeks!
I started looking for more probiotics to add to my diet and now also make my own apple cider vinegar, water kefir, and L.Reuteri yoghurt.
I tried to get my boyfriend to also start consuming these foods but he didn’t like the taste, especially milk kefir and l.reuteri. He quickly fell in love with water kefir though and asks for a bottle of it with his dinner every evening!
I started asking him to try a spoonful of my daily l.reuteri and milk kefir mixture sweetened with stevia drops. He didn’t enjoy it but complied, and after 3 weeks he started asking for his own bowlful of the yoghurt! He really enjoys it now.

What happened today prompted me to write my story to you. I’ve haven’t consumed any probiotics for about a week (I’ve been busy and getting home quite late and just forgot to take them), and I’ve had the flu for a few days. We’re both due to be flying to London tomorrow and I was nervous that we’d have to cancel our trip due to my illness. Today I decided to have some curtido kraut with rice for lunch, and when I opened the fridge I saw the container of l.reuteri. Even though I wasn’t very hungry I forced myself to eat a huge portion of the yoghurt after lunch. I am in complete shock! Within 30 minutes of eating the yoghurt my nose completely stopped running and I’m feeling so much better. My flu symptoms are disappearing as I’m typing this so it looks like we’ll be travelling to London tomorrow!

I’m so glad that i discovered cultured foods, thank you Donna for all of your fabulous recipes and resources!