Kefir vs Milk: Which Is Less Inflammatory?

Kefir is less inflammatory than milk, by two points: kefir sits at the low end of the inflammation scale and milk in the middle. Kefir is milk with live cultures added and left to ferment, so this is one food at two stages rather than two different ones, and it pours on cereal or into a glass just the same.

Fermenting uses up most of the lactose, the milk sugar that most adults worldwide lose the ability to digest, which is why milk leaves so many people bloated and crampy and kefir does not. Kefir also holds a wider mix of live bacteria and yeasts than yogurt. Adults who drank a glass a day for six weeks reported fewer digestive symptoms, and kefir made with traditional kefir grains brought inflammation signals down.

Milk on its own did not raise the inflammation markers a doctor measures in the feeding trials, and a cup covers around a third of the day’s calcium. It sits in the middle of the scale because of how many people react to it: lactose troubles most adults, and milk protein is a common trigger in autoimmune conditions, eczema and acne. Fermenting leaves that protein intact, so kefir fixes the lactose problem and not the protein one. If lactose is what bothers you, pour plain kefir on your cereal this week instead of milk, and buy the unsweetened bottle, because flavoured kefir can hold as much sugar as a soft drink.