Imagine yourself at your family’s big annual holiday dinner this past December. Food is everywhere – bowls of salty nuts, a massive shrimp cocktail tray, a huge buffet of dinner dishes and a dessert cart crammed with cakes, cookies and pies. Did you: Pick up a single peppermint stick and retreat to a quiet bedroom, […]
How to Enjoy Snack Time While Still Eating Healthy
In the Lifeway Kitchen, snack time is one of our favorite times. We firmly believe that eating healthy snacks between meals, or when we’re hungry, helps us stay on track with a healthy diet and avoid binge eating (or digging into the cookie jar) later. In other words, snacks can be crucial to sticking to […]
Kefir + Digestion: How Kefir May Help Your Digestive System
If the holiday season has you feeling bloated, lethargic or downright stuffed, you’re not alone. What starts out innocently enough as, “a cookie here, a cocktail there” quickly balloons into days – or weeks – of eating indulgent and rich foods your body isn’t used to. Celebratory feasting is certainly appropriate (and appreciated – it’s […]
7 Smoothies to Boost Your Immune System
Support your immune system and keep your belly balanced with these seven delicious smoothies, all made with fresh fruits, vegetables, and kefir! We firmly believe that drinking a glass or two of kefir daily helps keep immune systems strong (science supports this belief, too!), but it never hurts to fortify your diet with extra vitamins […]
Probiotic Partner: Sauerkraut
At the start of the year, E! News predicted that sauerkraut would be one of the trendiest foods of 2015. That’s because the crunchy, tangy fermented side dish is overflowing with healthy probiotic bacteria. In fact, all those good-for-you bugs are likely what prompted iconic integrative physician Andrew Weil, MD, to call sauerkraut “a living […]
Eat Pickles, be Cool as a Cucumber
A new psychiatry research study out of the College of William & Mary and the University of Maryland found a potential link between probiotic-containing fermented foods like pickles, kimchi, and kefir, and social anxiety. They discovered that young adults who eat more fermented foods experience fewer symptoms of social anxiety, with the effect proving strongest among […]
Kefir Crush: Amie Valpone
On any given weekend, various members of the Lifeway Team can be found in cities all over the United States, talking kefir, probiotics and gut health. Along the way, we meet some of the most interesting and enthusiastic people imaginable, all of whom share our passion for healthy living through healthy eating. Sometimes (our favorite times) […]
Cooking with Kefir: Healthy Kefir Swaps
While drinking a tall, cold glass of creamy kefir is a classic way to enjoy our favorite tart and tangy probiotic beverage, it’s certainly not the only way. There are several ways to use kefir as a healthy swap to your favorite recipes! We love cooking with kefir and using it in any recipe we […]
The Wonders of Whey
Over the past few weeks the Lifeway Kitchen team has been experimenting with straining our kefir into a thick cream. The results are amazing (check out this recipe to see for yourself), but we’ve run into one problem: what should we do with all of the whey. Wait, whey? What’s whey? Milk, and therefore kefir, is […]
Healthy Ingredient Spotlight: Superfood Round Up
Since beginning our Healthy Ingredient Spotlight series in January, we’ve broken down the health benefits of 12 different fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices that we love using in our kitchen. We’re excited to keep the series going and to bring you a slew of new spotlights as the cooler months roll in (they’ll be here […]