Humanity has had its share of hunger and starvation for millennia, but after millions of years, the food industry has now found a way to produce food and distribute it to the masses in a way that is efficient and inexpensive.
But after millions of years of low caloric intake, we as humans were not prepared for what followed: the rise of the obesity epidemic, which is currently affecting major parts of the world, especially children. In the case of obese children, they are often exposed to environments not conducive to their health. They are obese not because of genes, but because of the poor dietary habits, they learn to be acceptable by the adults in their lives.
One way to solve this is to identify what’s wrong and fix it. But that’s easier said than done with the millions of different (and often unhealthy) food products surrounding us every day. We might need to simply aim for the simple solutions and look at the past. What did people eat back then? One conclusion based on history is pretty clear – people in the past ate a lot of fruits and vegetables during the season, fish, and other meat once a week, as well as fermented foods almost every day. They didn’t eat food saturated with sugar, full of empty calories, and harmful additives. The solution seems fairly simple: reduce sugar, reduce meat, especially after puberty, and eat fermented foods that are full of probiotic bacteria that improve nutrient absorption. This conclusion was the moment when NPSelection was created.
In the search for unprocessed and probiotic-rich yogurt, others soon realized that people could not buy unprocessed and affordable yogurt from the supermarket. They found varieties of yogurt with different flavors, with fruits, granola, or jam, but they could not find yogurt that could add rich probiotic properties to their diet. Several yogurt brands containing additives (flavors, sugars, thickeners, etc.) and processing are huge. Still, those which are perfectly balanced are expensive. This was the reason to find and develop a selection of yogurt and kefir starters with just one simple idea: “If people can make it at home as their grandparents used to do, it is just as authentic.” The knowledge to do this is not forbidden, NPSelection just ensures that it is not forgotten, and their tools and explainers can only help transform the ancient practice into a new dietary revolution.
For centuries, people in the most developed parts of the world back then believed that fermented dairy products offer health benefits even when they didn’t know anything about probiotic cultures. Recent scientific research from around the world supports these traditional views, suggesting that probiotics can be a valuable part of a healthy diet. Probiotics are living cultures and most people associate probiotics with gut health, which makes sense given that the digestive system is one of the most important tools for absorbing nutrients.
Probiotics–rich yogurt is an ancient food consumed throughout the Middle East, Northern Africa, and much of Europe. Yogurt first surfaced some 5,000–10,000 years ago, most likely as a result of milk naturally souring in warm conditions. At the time, yogurt was an excellent way to preserve milk because the acidity slows the growth of harmful bacteria. It was a well-known food in the Balkans, Middle East, and Roman Empire. Yogurt (or something similar) was an important food for Genghis Khan’s great army, as he believed that it was the chief reason behind the extraordinary bravery of his warriors.
Milk kefir is another fermented probiotic beverage that boasts of a long list of health benefits that has been made in the Caucasus Mountains for thousands of years. According to local history, the people in that region treasured kefir as a healthy super-food after Mohammed taught them how to manufacture it. Kefir is reported to have been tried by Marco Polo, and it was prized as a medicinal food, but the secrets to manufacturing it was not revealed until the early 1900s.
Consumer awareness regarding the health benefits of probiotic-rich diets is currently very high, as shown by the high demand for probiotics. In short, people are now taking good gut health in mind when making food purchases.
But the food industry, although having discovered how to solve most of the problems back then, is currently ignoring the balancing factors and human physiology in many different ways. Now it’s time to get back to the basics if we want to live a better and longer life.
The products NPSelection offers are:
- Kefir Starter Culture
- Vegan Bio Starter Cultures (for those who wish to try with vegan soy and cashew milk)
- Bulgarian Yogurt Starter Culture
- Pure Acidophilus Yogurt Starter Culture
- Balkan Style Yogurt Starter Culture
- Bifido Starter Culture
- L.Rhamnosus and L.Gasseri Yogurt Starter Culture
All cultures allow you to make great homemade yogurt and kefir at home with no sugar. And you can learn so much more by checking out various websites, forums, blogs, and even phone apps. The dairy-fermented food world is wide and vast.
Apart from this, people should also introduce cheese, tempeh, miso, kimchi, sauerkraut, fermented sausage, and, why not, a responsible amount of homemade wine into their diets.
However, if you need to take one step toward a healthy diet, what should be yours?
