[00:00:00] Dr. Katie Deming MD: If you're dealing with cancer or chronic illness, you've likely been told to cut dairy out completely. But what if I told you that some dairy is not only nourishing for your body, but also healing today is sit down with returning guest, Monica Corrado, a teaching chef and holistic nutritionist who spent 25 years helping people use food as medicine.

[00:00:22] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Monica specializes in guiding those with serious health conditions towards healing through traditional nutrient dense foods. You'll learn why the lactose and conventional dairy can feed disease and how a simple 24 hour culturing process can transform milk into a powerful healing tool. Monica walks us through how to make yogurt and kiefer at home that support your gut and immune system rather than disrupting them.

[00:00:48] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Stay until the end to hear Monica's top culture, dairy pick more powerful than store-bought and essential for gut health. Let's dive in.

[00:00:56]

[00:01:06] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Hello, I'm Dr. Katie Deming, and this is the Born Hill Podcast where we share practical tools and knowledge to help you create conditions for true healing in your life. Let's welcome Monica Carrado back to the show. Monica is a teaching chef, holistic nutritionist, and the gap Chef, welcome back, Monica.

[00:01:27] Monica Corrado: Thanks Katie. So glad to be here.

[00:01:29] Dr. Katie Deming MD: I love talking to you, so I'm excited for this episode.

[00:01:32] Monica Corrado: Me too.

[00:01:33] Dr. Katie Deming MD: one of the things that I wanted to talk about today is dairy in specific, and a lot of people, actually, there are some specific issues about dairy with cancer, and we're gonna get to that, but a lot of people come to me and they're like, I just can't eat dairy.

[00:01:48] Dr. Katie Deming MD: I'm wondering like, what is that about? Should we not be eating, drinking dairy at all or eating dairy?

[00:01:55] Monica Corrado: So dairy is one of the perfect foods on the [00:02:00] planet. It has protein, fat, calcium. If it's raw, it has live enzymes, it has beautiful bacteria, et cetera, et cetera. But most people think they can't have dairy because they bloat, right? They say, I just can't tolerate dairy. And in fact, I hear that a lot with people that I work with.

[00:02:21] Monica Corrado: Oh, I can't do dairy. And I go, oh, really? Well, what happens? Oh, well, I bloat, well, actually, the first thing I say is, do you have an anaphylactic allergy? And they say no. Okay, cool. So then we can go on and say, okay, so what's really going on? And they'll say. Well, I bloat. I just don't feel good. I bloat. So if people are saying that they're bloating, that makes total sense because beautiful milk, raw milk, clean milk is full of lactose sugar.

[00:02:50] Monica Corrado: It's full of sugar. Lactose is milk sugar, and so that will feed. Bacteria in the gut, which will make you bloat [00:03:00] the sugar. It's always about the sugar. You know, I'm always talking about the sugar, no sugar, lots of fat, et cetera. Good meat. But, um, so what happens is if you culture the dairy, if you culture the milk or you culture the cream, of course we're always starting with the best quality that we can find, right?

[00:03:16] Monica Corrado: Um. So it doesn't have toxins in it to begin with, but if you culture it, so you make it into yogurt, you make it into Kefi or Keifer, you make it into cultured cream, and when you culture it long, which means 24 hours or longer, I. There's certain parameters to, to do that at what temperature, blah blah. But it's pretty darn easy to do it yourself.

[00:03:38] Monica Corrado: And then, um, the lactose is predigested by the beneficial bacteria that are in the cultures, that are in the yogurt cultures or in the kefi cultures or, or kefi grains. Um, and then the problem is gone. There is no lactose. Therefore there is no bloat. So it's a really amazing thing. I'm, I'm, I'm [00:04:00] sad to think about all the people who have stopped eating dairy because as I said, it's, it's a really a, a complete food.

[00:04:07] Monica Corrado: It's a super food, if you will, especially when it's raw and clean. Um, because they don't know that this simple thing of. You know, make it into yogurt, make it into kefi, cultured into cream, and then that issue of lactose is gone. Now, this is not to say that you can go into a store and buy yogurt, right? I mean, there's only one brand that I'm aware of right now.

[00:04:31] Monica Corrado: There may be others that actually cultures their yogurt long enough. It's organic, it's cultured 24 hours or more, and therefore it's lactose free. Yay. Uh, but everything else, you know, that you're going to buy organic or not. Of course, we're always going to say organic, the cleanest that we can find. Uh, but any yogurt that's commercially made will not be lactose free. And therefore, so you can't just say, oh, well, Monica said I could have yogurt and that would be it. Right? I'll feel good. [00:05:00] No, you really have to make it yourself, and that's easy peasy.

[00:05:03] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Yeah. Well, let me ask you this. What is that brand? Just so that people know if there is one brand that does that, I'd like to know too.

[00:05:09] Monica Corrado: It's called White Mountain Bulgarian.

[00:05:13] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Okay. And that.

[00:05:14] Monica Corrado: they that they make an organic and a not organic. So we're always saying the organic right? And we always want the whole milk. So we're not looking for low fat ladi da, or, and we're not looking for conventional milk. We just want organic whole milk, white Mountain, Bulgarian.

[00:05:30] Monica Corrado: They are the only brand I'm aware of, and I'm, I'm always, you know, I'm always looking to see where can I find people want shortcuts, right? Like I teach cooking, but sometimes we need shortcuts. So I'm always looking like, hmm, what, uh, what brand? Is there a new brand that you know? Or is it just these guys?

[00:05:46] Monica Corrado: And so there is another lactose free brand out there. I think it's called Green Valley, but they are adding enzymes into the process. Like they're not doing the long culture, they're just adding lactase, which is [00:06:00] fine, but not, you

[00:06:01] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Got it. Okay. Well, and I think this is really important because for cancer, the lactose is the problem in the dairy anyway. Right? So. Doing long cultured yogurt is one of the ways that people with cancer can eat yogurt and have it be a safe food, a safe and nourishing food for them. And you know, I'm always afraid when you say you have to make it yourself because I don't like to cook.

[00:06:33] Dr. Katie Deming MD: We all know this. This is like, I, not a secret that I'm. That I'm not a big cook, but I have to say, it's funny, I actually have this yogurt sitting on my desk right now because I had it with my lunch and I haven't been able to finish that, and it's my favorite. So the long cultured yogurt is my absolute favorite.

[00:06:54] Dr. Katie Deming MD: And then the cultured cream, I never knew that I was addicted to cultured cream until I tried it, and [00:07:00] it's amazing. So. This is so simple. Like I thought that this was gonna be so complicated until you started teaching this to my clients. And so can you just tell people like, what is the process like?

[00:07:14] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Because I think people get scared when they think they have to make their yogurt and, and now I'm like, this is so easy. We just do this once a week and then we have it for the whole week in the house and everyone loves it. My kids, my partner, myself, we can't keep it in the house actually.

[00:07:29] Monica Corrado: Excellent. I am thrilled to hear that. Yay. Another convert. Ha ha. Um, so easy. It's so easy. . We know that culturing milk, right? So you can either culture milk to make yogurt, which is what you're talking about. Or you can culture milk to make ke for a keir, right? So you're always using, it's just culturing milk.

[00:07:48] Monica Corrado: Um, the easiest way to make cultured yogurt, to make yogurt, believe it or not, is in a thermos. It's the easiest. It's like the easiest entry point. I'm always trying to find like, what's the easiest way in for people, [00:08:00] right? Like you can make yogurt and a thermos. You can get yourself, I just saw, I just saw a Yeti Thermos, right?

[00:08:07] Monica Corrado: Wide mouth. 26 ounces. So just less than a quart. But you could do two of them, right? Um, and pardon? It will hold. It will hold the, um. The milk warm the way it has to in the range. So you can use a yo, you can use a thermos, you can use a yogurt maker. There's a really wonderful, I'm going to talk about this brand.

[00:08:30] Monica Corrado: There's a wonderful yogurt maker out there right now. It's called Luve, L-U-V-E-L-L-E. May, maybe just LE, but Luve

[00:08:38] Dr. Katie Deming MD: That's what I have. I have the

[00:08:39] Monica Corrado: Luve is a great yogurt maker. They actually get the fact that you need to be able to, um, you know, culture it for 24 hours, which a lot of yogurt makers do not allow you to do. They're like eight hours, 12 hours, whatever.

[00:08:54] Monica Corrado: So, and they also culture at the correct temperature, which is somewhere between 105 and [00:09:00] 115. So I'm always saying, aim for one 10. Why? Because it's in the middle and people don't have to think about the range. So I love that one. People can also use their instant pots and they're in Stu Pots, uh, on the yogurt.

[00:09:14] Monica Corrado: So, yay. So a lot of people have these things in their houses already, and you can start with the best quality milk you can find, which is going to be raw. If you need to find clean raw milk near you, you go to real milk.com. That's a project of the Western, a price foundation. And then you can get then the best quality, organic, whole milk, yogurt, grass fed from the store.

[00:09:39] Monica Corrado: That's the easiest way in to use as a starter. So, yeah, you can also graduate. Then after you're like, okay, I'm getting my feet, you know, I'm figuring it out. I'm making yogurt. Um, you can also graduate to, uh, getting the starter packets, which I act, which are actually yogurt starter cultures. It's a [00:10:00] little bit more advanced, but it's going to give you, More potent, um, you know, uh, yogurt, if you use some of these traditional cultures that you can get in a starter packet and then you use that as your starter, you always need a starter if you're going to culture. Yogurt,

[00:10:19] Dr. Katie Deming MD: And where

[00:10:19] Monica Corrado: into yogurt, sorry.

[00:10:21] Dr. Katie Deming MD: and where do you get the yogurt starter cultures?

[00:10:24] Monica Corrado: So my favorite, I mean, my favorite is called Cultures for Health. That's a company that's online. They've been around for years. They do beautiful things. There's a lot of education on their site about troubleshooting things about raw milk versus pasteurized milk and different cultures, and really very, very nice, uh, good educational site cultures for health.

[00:10:48] Monica Corrado: They have yogurt cultures, they have traditional ones, they have Bulgarian ones, they have mesophilic ones, they have thermophilic ones. There's all sorts of things, so don't get overwhelmed folks, if you've never done it [00:11:00] before, it's easy to start with the best quality milk you can find, and then a good, you know, the best quality yogurt that you can find from the store as your starter, meaning whole milk plain.

[00:11:14] Monica Corrado: Pastured, no fillers, organic. That would be what you're looking for.

[00:11:19] Dr. Katie Deming MD: And actually I have a question about that. 'cause one of my clients asked, they used Greek yogurt as their starter. Does that matter?

[00:11:27] Monica Corrado: So it

[00:11:29] Dr. Katie Deming MD: thought it didn't turn out well. So she, she was asking me and I said, oh, well, we need to ask Monica the

[00:11:34] Monica Corrado: There you go. So Greek yogurt, I'm, I'm ringing out my little bunny ears, my Greek yogurt quote unquote. So. There is Greek yogurt, meaning there's yogurt that is made with cultures from Greece. And then there's Greek yogurt. That's the one I'm putting in quotes that is really just yogurt, where they've strained out the way. So people think that because that's what they're buying in the store, that Greek [00:12:00] yogurt, you know, is yogurt is supposed to be really, really thick.

[00:12:02] Monica Corrado: Well, that's because they took all the way out, and they're calling it Greek yogurt. So can you use Greek yogurt as a starter? Only if it's really Greek yogurt, and it's not this, you know, yogurt that they just strained the way out.

[00:12:16] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Got it. Okay. So I think that maybe was the problem for her. So basically a plain yogurt that's cultured is what they would start with

[00:12:26] Monica Corrado: Yep.

[00:12:27] Dr. Katie Deming MD: milk, organic

[00:12:28] Monica Corrado: milk. Pastured, no fillers. Yeah. I say no fillers because a lot of the brands that everyone is, pardon?

[00:12:38] Monica Corrado: A lot of the brands that people are used to thinking are good, right? Organic brands actually add pectin to their plain yogurt, and that's not okay. So if you're seeing pectin in a yogurt, that means that they have used inferior milk number one. It won't set up. [00:13:00] They haven't cultured long enough. Number two, so they're using P pectin as a thickener to make it thick, which is what people are used to.

[00:13:08] Monica Corrado: You know, if you buy, if you're used to commercial yogurt,

[00:13:11] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Got it. Got it. And one thing for people to note is that the 24 hours, it has to be cultured for 24 hours because the, like some of the yogurt makers, like you have said, like I've had clients who are, they're like, I did it on the yogurt setting and then, but it was only 10 hours or 12 hours. I'm like, doesn't count.

[00:13:29] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Needs to be 24 hours. Or your Instapot, the yogurt setting on our Instapot was just, I think it was 12 hours or something. Then you have to run it. Twice or set it for 24 hours. And personally, I'm just gonna give this for my listeners so that they can hear my experience. We were doing it in the Instapot initially and we had some inconsistency, and I think it was related to temperature, so.

[00:13:54] Dr. Katie Deming MD: We ended up getting the luvell and then they've just been so consistent, so easy, it's just [00:14:00] been like perfect. So I love, and it's not that expensive. I think it was like 140. I don't, don't quote me, but it was like not that expensive. And for how much we use it, we're using it every week, you know, making, um, a batch of yogurt, so

[00:14:15] Monica Corrado: And you only buy it once and you use it forever, so it's great.

[00:14:20] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Yeah. Okay. So that's amazing. And also, what is cultured cream or cultured yogurt like, I didn't even know what that was. I mean, now I know, so I'm asking you because, you know, you can explain to the audience, but like, what is that and, um, why would people wanna eat that?

[00:14:38] Monica Corrado: Sure. So, um, cultured cream is cream that you culture. Oh my goodness. Really? I know. Um, it's also known as creme Fresh cultured cream in France. It's called Creme Fresh. There's actually a whole, um. Actually specific cultures to make it creme fresh, but cultured cream creme fresh, [00:15:00] um, in gaps.

[00:15:00] Monica Corrado: We call it gap sour cream. But in any case, the point is you're using cream and you wanna get heavy cream. Again, no fillers watch if you're buying it commercially in the store, they're adding gel and gum. Two and xanthan gum and all these gums to heavy cream, even if it's organic. So really watch it. Watch, watch, watch.

[00:15:22] Monica Corrado: Use your little food detective, you know, little um, Sherlock Holmes magnifying glass. Read your ingredient labels, right? So you start with the best quality cream. You can find heavy cream and you can use yogurt that now you're making yourself yay to culture. That cream. Again, we're looking for 24 hour culture.

[00:15:44] Monica Corrado: Um, you can culture it actually on your countertop or in a yogurt maker, but it needs to go for 24 hours. And, um, golly, the thing about cultured cream, I mean, cultured cream is high fat, what we call high fat dairy. [00:16:00] Cultured milk as in yogurt or kefi, or keefer is high protein, dairy, and so high fat dairy has so many wonderful properties for your joints.

[00:16:12] Monica Corrado: Okay? Like people who have issues with joints, stiffness in et cetera. Cultured cream has wonderful, almost magical, not magical, but this wonderful properties that really helps people with, with joint issues, joint pain, stiffness, et cetera.Also, it's just really very, very good for, for anyone who's under any stress, right?

[00:16:32] Monica Corrado: because it's got all that beautiful fat for your hormones, for your sex homo hormones, for your stress hormones. For your adrenal glands, right? So, so when people say to me, I love cultured cream, I'm now making my own cultured cream. I'm like, that is, you know, fabulous. Like, it's like dessert. Like that's my dessert.

[00:16:53] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Yeah.

[00:16:54] Monica Corrado: just so good for, it's good for you. It's full of, right. It's all the properties [00:17:00] of cream Plus it's now a probiotic food, which is what yogurt is, which is what Kefi is. So whenever we can get these beautiful probiotic foods into our bodies, it's going to be a win. For your whole, for all your health, whatever you're, whatever you're working on, whether you're, you know, quote unquote, generally healthy, whether you're battling cancer when you're, do whatever's, going on more.

[00:17:23] Monica Corrado: Probiotic foods is always a good thing.

[00:17:26] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Absolutely. Well, and also I would love for you to talk about dripping if you made cultured yogurt yourself and then dripping the way, because on the last episode that I had you on, we were talking about, I. Stay away from all those protein powders and those, you know. Basically processed foods. The powders are processed foods.

[00:17:49] Dr. Katie Deming MD: One of the ways that people can get their own WHE protein from Healthy Milk is through, you know, uh, straining [00:18:00] their. Cultured yogurt to drip the whe. So can you tell just a little bit about that and what that creates? 'cause and also I love that whey can be used for diarrhea. Like it's a great way to slow bowel movements if people are having loose bowel movements in a natural way.

[00:18:16] Dr. Katie Deming MD: So I wonder, can you talk about this So funny, I feel like you're gonna go, I'm sure, use this way and way. ways that you can use way.

[00:18:24] Monica Corrado: That was one of my first films Act videos I ever did, by the way. Ah, by the way, sorry. I'll go to Method. Whey No way. Yes. Whey I did. I did that. It's true. Okay, so now we're gonna talk about whey. WHEY. So whey is a milk protein. Um, it is a simple protein versus something like casein, which is a complex protein.

[00:18:47] Monica Corrado: Casein is where people, some people have issues. Digesting casein, uh, because it's a complex protein, uh, that has something to do with the state of their gut health. And we could talk about that later, but we'll just stay with [00:19:00] whey right now. So, whey, uh, the gift of whey is, or one of them, is that it's a simple protein.

[00:19:06] Monica Corrado: Your body just absorbs it. Like you just, you don't even have to digest it. You just, it just goes. And so for people who are having any digestive challenges, for whatever reason, whe is a wonderful thing to lean on. Because it's protein, it's liquid, it's easy to di, not easy to, uh, eat, drink all day long. Um, whey is also full if you've, you know, of, uh, pro probiotics and all sorts of good things.

[00:19:34] Monica Corrado: But how do you make whey. You can take your own yogurt and just, um, you'll take your yogurt, you'll take, I always do it in a two cup liquid measure. 'cause I wanna see how much I can get. Like for measurement, that's the cook in me. What can I tell you? But in general, for every quart of homemade yogurt, you're going to get two cups of whey and one cup of what I call yogurt cheese.[00:20:00]

[00:20:00] Monica Corrado: It's kind of, and I love for people to use that yogurt cheese as cream cheese. I mean, don't buy that garbage in the store. I mean, that really is, sorry, but not sorry. Right? It's full of like gums and Oh my God, it's dead. It's like rubbery. Forget it. You can use the cheese as, um, as, um, cream cheese yourself.

[00:20:20] Monica Corrado: So how do you do it? You take your beautiful quart of yogurt or as much as you have. You take a two cup liquid measure or a bowl, some kind of receptacle to to catch the way, and then you take a fine mesh sieve, a fine mesh sieve. Um. I like to use the stainless steel one, um, that'll fit over the bowl and you line that sieve with something.

[00:20:44] Monica Corrado: Now a lot of people are using cheesecloth and when I first started teaching this stuff 25 years ago, yes, it's true. I said, use cheesecloth. If you have it, great. But cheesecloth tends to allow milk solids like the [00:21:00] yogurty part right through, through it into your way. And we don't wanna do that. We wanna, we wanna keep all the, the milk solid, which will become what we call the yogurt cheese.

[00:21:11] Monica Corrado: Up in the sieve, and we want to allow the way to be just a clean, dripped way. Okay, so I'm telling people you can use several, don't you love that word? Several layers of cheesecloth that you fold over over, or maybe like four to six, like literally. And then line the sieve with that. You can also buy, a very finely woven cheesecloth, which you could use, but it's not the typical one you see.

[00:21:35] Monica Corrado: You have to look for it and go, I think it's a 98 weave, or a hundred weave or something. It's very tight. You can't see through it. You could use that easily. One piece. So several layers of cheesecloth or just one of the tighter woven ones. I also encourage people to use like, I don't know, grandma or mom's, like dead linen napkin.

[00:21:57] Monica Corrado: You know it's a napkin you love, [00:22:00] but it's like you're never use it 'cause it's all stained or it's old or it's whatever. But these cotton napkins are great for dripping away. They're fantastic as long as you're not washing in like. You know, smelly. Please don't ever use smelly detergent in any case. So you line, you got your bowl or your two cup liquid measure.

[00:22:20] Monica Corrado: You've got your fine mesh sieve. You line that sieve with something. It could be, it could be a brown, uh, paper, coffee filter, right? It could be, uh, an old linen napkin. It could be, frankly, I have people cutting up old t-shirts. They work. I mean, you got this stuff around the house. Let's do that old reuse thing, right?

[00:22:41] Monica Corrado: You can use cheesecloth, whatever, find something to line it with that's going to allow you to get a drip through. So the way will drip through cleanly and all the cheese will stay up top and, As I said, usually, usually it'll be a quart. For every quart of homemade yogurt, [00:23:00] you'll get two cups of whey and one cup of cheese.

[00:23:02] Monica Corrado: Yeah. Which is fun to know. Right? And so what do you get? Yes whey? So whey is a simple protein. Which is wonderful. So for everyone who's trying to up their protein, yeah. Don't go to a protein powder, please. Right. Certainly not pea protein or we, we know soy protein is absolutely never ever, ever, ever outta here.

[00:23:23] Monica Corrado: But no powdered protein use whey in your smoothie or in your shake or just, you know, it makes a lovely in the, in the summertime if people are in the northern hemisphere, um, in the summertime, a little bit of beautiful like. Mountain Valley spring water that's sparkling or harl, Steiner or Pellegrino, with the way and a squeeze of lemon is so refreshing.

[00:23:47] Monica Corrado: I mean, it's lovely. It's refreshing. It gives your electrolytes, you know, it's just a lovely way to bring it into, to your just daily life. And then what you said about, uh, diarrhea. Yes, [00:24:00] because whey is milk protein. Versus the cream, the cultured cream, which is milk fat. Um, whey can really put a halt to diarrhea and you can use it.

[00:24:14] Monica Corrado: Um, you know, you can use it a tablespoon at a time every 10 minutes. I mean, you can drink it all day. I have people drink a quarter whe a day. I mean, that's a lot of whey, but sometimes for a little while until we get the, you know, things kind of firmed up and people back on the, on the path. Uh, but yes, way wonderful.

[00:24:33] Dr. Katie Deming MD: And just to be clear for people, this is the cultured yogurt that you're straining to make the way. So you're not gonna buy store-bought yogurt and then do this to drip for the way.

[00:24:44] Monica Corrado: Well, I mean, people do it in a pinch. Yes, in a pinch they could do that. Um, and often people will do that if they're traveling, right? Like they don't have time to make it at home. So they'll go and buy the best quality yogurt they can find. Always, [00:25:00] I mean, you know, here I am. I'm gonna say it. Homemade is always best.

[00:25:04] Monica Corrado: You get to control the ingredients, therefore you control whether it's got toxins in it or not, or how it was raised, and you know, all sorts of things like that. So homemade is always better. It's also cheaper. Ding, ding, ding. Did everybody hear that? Save money, right? Like. Don't buy those quarts of yogurt.

[00:25:21] Monica Corrado: Make your own. It's incredibly, it's cheaper, it's more potent, it's better for you. It doesn't have lactose in it because you know what you're doing and you are, you know, culturing for 24 hours at like 110 and you know, and it also does all these wonderful things for you. So make your own yogurt. I'm with you.

[00:25:40] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Yeah.

[00:25:41] Monica Corrado: And can I just say one quickie thing? I love yogurt. I think it's wonderful, but I really like if people have to choose one thing to do to culture dairy, like just one kefi. Keefer is the answer. Why It's easier. I know. I mean, [00:26:00] not that I'm telling everybody to just take the easy way out, you know, I'm not, but, but sometimes people are really like, I don't have time to heat up my, my milk.

[00:26:07] Monica Corrado: I don't have time. I don't have time. I don't have time. So Keir or Keefer, K-E-F-I-R is so easy you don't have it. And it's, it's really very, very easy. You do it on the counter every day. And, um. Basically it's milk plus kefi grains. Stir it up 24 hours later, you have Kefi. So it's even easier not telling people not to make yogurt.

[00:26:30] Monica Corrado: Make it. Yes. But it's easier and it's far more potent than yogurt because it has yeast in it.

[00:26:39] Dr. Katie Deming MD: yeah. And where do you get your grains from?

[00:26:42] Monica Corrado: Well, hopefully everyone has a local western, a price chapter near them. I don't know. They're all over the world, right? So West a price has local chapters. People are making kefi all the time, and they have grains. The grains multiply. When you have healthy grains. They're just growing, growing, [00:27:00] growing. And people like to give them away, and then you know that they're robust and they're, you know, they're, they're healthy, they're robust, they're free.

[00:27:08] Monica Corrado: If you can't do that, then again, you can look ahead, uh, just jump right on. Cultures for health again. Has, um, cultures for Health has, uh, both kefi starter, which is a packet, very easy to use, and, uh, kefi grains, which you have to reconstitute. So it's a little bit more work at the beginning, but after a while it becomes very easy.

[00:27:30] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Yeah. Well, and the problem becomes what to do with the grains. You like become friends with all your neighbors. You're like, please, it's because

[00:27:38] Monica Corrado: Give them away. I mean, just think you are promoting health everywhere,

[00:27:42] Dr. Katie Deming MD: yes,

[00:27:44] Monica Corrado: right? Like you're, I just see the little grains like multiplying out, you know, same thing with kombucha, descovy. So we should talk about that another time.

[00:27:53] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:27:54] Monica Corrado: We could talk about kombucha.

[00:27:55] Dr. Katie Deming MD: No, I love that. And um. I think that, you know, [00:28:00] ke fear is one of those things that a lot of people, you know, if there are issues with yeast, I don't know if you wanna talk about that. 'cause I think that's, yeah. Really, really powerful for people to understand.

[00:28:12] Monica Corrado: Okay. So people that have, yeah, so a couple things. I know I'm, I'm sitting here like waving the flag of kafi. I also wanna just say that Kefi can be very, very powerful, and so often not, not even often. 99% of the time when I'm working with people, we are going to start cultured dairy with yogurt because yogurt is lactobacilli.

[00:28:38] Monica Corrado: Bacteria and, um, it's going to be just, uh, a milder beginning of introducing probiotic, real probiotic foods, not just stuff you're buying in the store, right, but homemade potent probiotic foods. We will start with yogurt first. So. Kefi I, I wave the flag because [00:29:00] if people can graduate to Kefi, kefi is full of not only lactobacilli, but most of it is lactic acid producing yeast.

[00:29:10] Monica Corrado: Now people are afraid of yeast and. Because candida, poor little candida. Anyway, there's like 130 strains of candida. We only, we only talk about one candida albicans, right? Everybody says, oh, I have candida, I have candida, I have candida. So they're afraid of kefi. Well, Keir is so potent. It's the number one thing that you want to be eating or drinking, um, to combat, if you will.

[00:29:37] Monica Corrado: A yeast imbalance in the body, a pathogenic yeast imbalance in the body. Kefi will do that, which is why, you know, people that have, if you have, I don't know if you have people listening that have children with cradle cap, that's a yeast issue. You must, you know, that's your, that's your tool Kefi, right?

[00:29:56] Monica Corrado: People that have. To fungus. Oh, I've had to fungus all [00:30:00] my life. People will say, I'm like, okay, Keir, right? Like, people have eczema. Keir. I mean, it's the answer to so many things because what Dr. Natasha Campbell McBride says, she's, you know, with the gap diet, she says that the yeast and Keir are like little Hoovers, little meaning vacuum cleaners, little Hoovers that go through your body and they, and they hoover up the toxins.

[00:30:24] Monica Corrado: That's why Kefi, you know, is so powerful. So while as, again, well, as I said, I'm championing, I'm championing Kefi here, but, but move mindfully because kefi can be meaning a teaspoon to start with if you make it yourself because it can initiate a very strong die off, which can look like. Everything from a headache to a migraine, to a, a rash on your skin to, um, histamine response, you know, heat, symptoms.

[00:30:59] Monica Corrado: I [00:31:00] mean, all sorts of things. And if you have too much, you, you even can vomit. And then people say, oh, confus bad for me. No, no, no, no. You just started too quickly start. I'm always about. Listen to the body, respect the body's wisdom. Start with just a little bit, because even though our minds think, oh, well no, I can handle this, it's just confused.

[00:31:19] Monica Corrado: It's just no big deal. Sometimes it's a very strong reaction and you know, I, the way that I like to work with people is to just really support them and guide them through so they're not having these strong reactions, which are really uncomfortable. They can be very uncomfortable, so just respect the power of the yeast. That's our new like bumper sticker. We respect the power of the yeast. I know. Just, you know, a teaspoon, a tablespoon. Slow and steady. Listen to your body and don't be afraid if you have a little die off, because that's a good thing.

[00:31:53] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so I wanna come to, you've brought up raw milk [00:32:00] and the West Nay Price Foundation, and I wanna talk about this. Why? Why are you talking about raw milk? Like what is so different about raw milk versus the milk that people buy in the stores?

[00:32:14] Monica Corrado: That's a big question. Well, raw milk is real milk. I'll just let that sit there. Right? Raw milk is real milk. I know the other stuff looks like milk. It even tastes like milk, but because it's been pasteurized, some of it ultra high temperature pasteurized, right? The, the protein structures in the milk have been shifted, the enzymes have been destroyed.

[00:32:39] Monica Corrado: Uh, the good, healthy, beneficial, amazing bacteria have been killed. So what, you know, raw milk versus. Pasteurized milk, all the milk that you buy in the store, unless it says raw, unless you're blessed to be in a state where you can buy raw milk in the store. [00:33:00] And there are many of them now in our country, thank thank God and thank you Western, a price foundation for that work.

[00:33:08] Monica Corrado: Um, then you're buying milk that has been, that pasteurized. So what happens is, um. I'm gonna talk about the Almighty Day. They the dairy industry, right? They go around and collect all the milk, put it all together in one big tank. So you don't even know like the quality of that milk versus the quality of that milk, meaning the.

[00:33:30] Monica Corrado: Different cows give you different amounts of fat. There are dairy cows. People know about that. There's dairy breeds, right? There are jerseys and guernseys and Swiss browns and air shires, and those are the traditional dairy cows. They give very high milk fat. That's what we're supposed to be drinking.

[00:33:48] Monica Corrado: Yeah. But in the us, especially Holsteins, which are the black and white cows, which are seen all over a certain organic brand. Um, their branding is black and white cows, which [00:34:00] I don't think is very positive since black and white cows have been bred Holsteins to give you big quantity and low quality.

[00:34:08] Monica Corrado: Right? So they put all the milk together. We don't even know if it's good or it's not. And then they pasteurize it. so not so again, they are destroying the enzymes. They're killing all of the beneficial bacteria. Yeah, they are denaturing the proteins. Yeah. And then they're serving you. They're giving you this milk.

[00:34:28] Monica Corrado: Now this is whether it's organic or not, folks like, right, at least organic, the cows haven't been given GMO grain and soy and corn and all this other stuff, but whether it's organic or not, this is the process. And then you and your children and your family drink milk that has dead bacteria in it. Isn't that lovely?

[00:34:50] Monica Corrado: Yuck. I mean, you, they're not it out for you folks. They're just leaving it in there and then they wonder why, quote unquote, milk is [00:35:00] inflammatory. Commercial milk is inflammatory. It's highly inflammatory because. This is one of the reasons, and again, I'm saying all milk, whether it's organic or not, if it's pasteurized, this is what's happening.

[00:35:12] Monica Corrado: So, so real milk is an incredibly healing food. You know, it's so good for, um, probiotics, for beneficial bacteria, for enzymes, for calcium. I mean, you lose the calcium when you are. A good percentage of the calcium is lost when you pasteurize also, so it's just not the same, you know? Looks like milk. Tastes like milk.

[00:35:36] Monica Corrado: I don't know. I wouldn't call it milk anymore.

[00:35:39] Dr. Katie Deming MD: No, absolutely. Well, and this is one of the things, so for my listeners who are healing cancer, I don't recommend drinking straight milk, even if it was raw milk because of the lactose, right? So the way that I teach my clients to have dairy is if it's cultured. So either [00:36:00] cultured kafi or cultured yogurt, but made with. For this reason. So the tell people where they can find how in their state they can find raw milk.

[00:36:11] Monica Corrado: yes. They can go to real milk.com, REAL milk.com. As I said, that's a project of the Western, a price foundation. Price has been, as a foundation, has been working to get raw milk to be legal in the US for, I don't even know, at least 20 years, maybe longer. Um, and you just go put your state in and your zip code in and you can find if there's any raw milk near you.

[00:36:37] Monica Corrado: Now, if there are states where it's still not legal to buy raw milk, so there's, there's, there are the states where you can buy the buy raw milk in the store. That's like Pennsylvania, California, those are lovely. You just walk in the store and there's the raw milk right next to the other hem stuff. Um, or you also have what's called a cow share [00:37:00] state.

[00:37:00] Monica Corrado: So that's what Colorado is a cow share state. There are several cow share states, and what that does is, uh. You become, um, a cow share member. So you pay the farmer, you pick out a farm, you can go visit all these farms. Total transparency. You can meet the cows, you can talk to the farmer. You could see how clean it is.

[00:37:22] Monica Corrado: Like all these wonderful things. You sign up for a cow share and you pay a monthly fee, and that gives you the legal right to drink the milk from the cow. And actually Colorado's um, cows share laws are like the model for so many other states because it's so well written.

[00:37:39] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Oh, I didn't, I didn't realize that, that it's the reason why you have to do the cow share is because that's what makes it legal for then you to buy or drink that milk is because you own into the cow share. Ah,

[00:37:53] Monica Corrado: a part of that cow. That's my cow. Yep. Yes. That's how it works. Yeah. So, you know, and, [00:38:00] and there are some states where we're still working on, getting the raw milk legislation passed. And what you'll see is there, there will be often, there will be this interim, um, stage where there, where, where there will be able to sell raw milk, but they'll have to label it for pet consumption only. It's just a way around getting it out to the consumers. The one, so just don't be worried, like, oh my God, they only sell it for pets. Well then talk to the farmer and they'll be like, yeah, yeah. That's, that's the one that we're selling. Right. For your pet and for you. Um, there's one other thing I wanted to bring up about this, which is really important.

[00:38:34] Monica Corrado: Which is that when you drink raw milk, it's not that you're going off and getting milk from a back alley, from some dirty, you know, like, oh, I'm gonna die. Like, yeah. So what are you doing? Raw milk farms. Have far stricter sanitary laws, like what standards is a better word, standards that they have to [00:39:00] make, um, in order to sell their milk or, or in order to be a cashier or whatever they have.

[00:39:05] Monica Corrado: Their standards are far higher than any of the, the, uh, conventional ones. Why? Because the conventional ones can have sick cows giving milk into that big vat, and as long as they pasteurize it. It can be used

[00:39:21] Monica Corrado: and then you get to drink that lovely dead bacteria. So, I just wanna say, right, so, so the regulations, the standards for raw milk dairies are very high, like higher than any of the others ones are, uh, for, for the reason that, you know, they don't want to, they don't want anybody getting sick.

[00:39:40] Monica Corrado: They want everybody to be well when they drink their beautiful raw milk. Truly and indeed. So that's, it's a really important thing for people to understand. The other, the other thing is that, um, this is a really good one. Like if you see this, it's really cool. I think, so people will say, oh, raw milk made me [00:40:00] sick. Raw milk. There's nothing wrong with the milk folks. I mean, the amount of cases of people that have gotten sick with raw milk is like minuscule. It's all over the real milk.com website. You can go look it up. How many cases came from, you know, how many, how many people have gotten sick from raw milk over the last hundred years?

[00:40:15] Monica Corrado: Right. It's all right there for you to see. It's a very, very small amount. Mostly people are getting sick from things like salad and cold cuts and all this other garbage, right? But people get so excited when they find their raw milk and they find their cow. Not that anybody, everybody has to go see their cow.

[00:40:34] Monica Corrado: Many people will never see the dairy or the cow, but you can. Right? Because they invite you there. Right? But people get so excited to have this raw milk that they'll drink eight ounce, they'll drink a big glass of milk, and then they'll go get sick. Why? Why would that happen? Because it's live folks, it's a live food.

[00:40:55] Monica Corrado: It is full of healthy bacteria, and if your body is not used to eating [00:41:00] probiotic foods, you will vomit. Because you just brought in too much at one time. Right. And that's really important because raw milk will get a, a bad wrap. Oh, it made me sick. Yeah. Well, how much did you drink? Oh, I don't know. I drank a glass or two the first day.

[00:41:15] Monica Corrado: Another glass, right? Like no, no, no. Just like the yogurt. To have respect for the potency, this beautiful live healing food and the live bacteria, the beneficial bacteria in that raw milk. I have one more thing. I know I just said one more two times ago, but this is really important stuff. I'm a culturing dairy girl.

[00:41:38] Monica Corrado: I love it. Um, and so, uh, here's the interesting thing about pasteurization. Raw milk slash real milk versus pasteurized milk. When that milk comes outta the cow, it is full of beneficial bacteria, which can and do, uh, [00:42:00] protect the milk from pathogens. That's part of why it's there. And. When you pasteurize, which, oh, by the way, is sterilize, folks don't, don't look at this.

[00:42:12] Monica Corrado: This pretty word came from Louis Pasteur, right? Pasteurization is sterilization, which means that they're sterilizing the milk. They're killing everything. There are no longer any good guys or beneficial bacteria to protect against pathogens that could enter at any point during the packaging process.

[00:42:35] Monica Corrado: And the bottling process and the transportation process and you know, et cetera, et cetera. So it's just a really interesting thing, like, let's, let's pull the lens way back and think about what's really going on here. They're sterilizing the milk and therefore it no longer has its protective beneficial bacteria.

[00:42:55] Monica Corrado: Now again, I know you said you don't recommend, suggest that [00:43:00] your, um, patients, um. You know, drink liquid milk and I don't have people do it either because of the lactose, right? So, but start with the best quality thing you can find. Start with this beautiful raw milk. Start with cow or sheep or goat. People have camel milk at this point, right?

[00:43:20] Monica Corrado: Cow sheep. You can't handle cow. Try goat. You can't handle goat. Try sheep. This is really worth it, folks. I mean, the nutrition in the milk is really, really important for our bodies, for our bones. Cultured yogurt cultured, right? So kefi and yogurt are the best, uh, most bioavailable source of calcium that you can find.

[00:43:43] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Yeah.

[00:43:44] Monica Corrado: It is not kale people. It's not kale. Watch the kale. It'll wreck your thyroid. But that's another story for another time. So, so culture it to yogurt, culture it to kefi.

[00:43:56] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Yeah. And I think, you know, everyone's asking me what's the best, [00:44:00] we, we've already had this conversation before, but like, what's the best probiotic to buy? And I'm like, none of them. Culture, you know, doing kefi and doing fermented vegetables or tonics is like. This is we, we can get this all from real food and it's so much better for us.

[00:44:18] Dr. Katie Deming MD: This is how we're designed. We weren't designed to take probiotics and pills. This is how you fix your microbiome. You fix your gut is by eating these foods, but you know, sterilized milk, just think about it. It's like, you know, that is basically, you know, you wouldn't take your breast milk and sterilize it and then give it to your baby, right?

[00:44:40] Monica Corrado: Right. That's really good. No, you would not. I pray you wouldn't. I mean, who knows what people are doing these days?

[00:44:46] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Well, Monica, as always, it's

[00:44:50] Monica Corrado: So fun.

[00:44:51] Dr. Katie Deming MD: So fun. Such a privilege. I learned so much. I, what I love about hanging out with you is you're such a wealth of knowledge that you've been doing these things [00:45:00] for decades and. Yeah, and so for me, it's so valuable to have you teaching me, but then also teaching my listeners. So thank you so much for being here. Tell people where they can find you. Also, um, you know, Monica is working with my clients too, so those people who book consults with me and are working with me have the opportunity to work with Monica through my clinic.

[00:45:25] Dr. Katie Deming MD: But tell people how they can find you on the internet and on Instagram, all those places.

[00:45:31] Monica Corrado: yes, yes. So find me@simplybeingwell.com. That's my website, simply being well.com. Uh, you can also find me at the New Biology Clinic if people are doing that right? I, but simply being well.com. I have courses and books and all sorts of good things on Instagram. It is. Mc simply being, well, because it's Monica Carrado, right?

[00:45:54] Monica Corrado: But um, and then on Facebook I have Ask the Gap Chef Facebook group [00:46:00] for people on gaps. And I also have a YouTube channel so people can learn lots and lots about all these things. Um, yeah. Come, come see me.

[00:46:08] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Okay. I love it. Well, thank you so much again, Monica, for being here.

[00:46:12] Monica Corrado: thank you. It's always a pleasure. Love talking with you about all the things that I am passionate about.

[00:46:18] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Until next time.

[00:46:19] Monica Corrado: Until next time.

[00:46:20] ​

[00:46:20] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Thank you for being here today. Please enjoy a previous episode of Born To Heal, and if you found value in our conversation, please subscribe and share with someone who might benefit. Have questions, drop them in the YouTube comments or message me on Instagram or links are in the episode description. And remember, just like me, you were born to heal.