Thread by @aayurarogyam

Why you should avoid Packet Curd :
Curd is a vital ingredient of our daily diet and it is a essential fermented probiotic food to ensure proper digestion of the food we eat

Per Ayurveda , there are different type of curds

-Thick Semi Formed Curd
-Sweet Curd
-Sweet & Sour Curd

-Sour Curd
-Very Sour Curd

-This classification is purely based on the probiotic culture growth on the curd and the age of the curd

-Each curd has different benefits to your health and used for treating different ailments

- Very Sour Curd is the most beneficial curd to our body as it increases the digestive fire /biological fire /Agni that exists in your body

- Proper balance of the digestive fire is key for maintaining good gut health
-Healthy gut bacteria means healthy immune system

-Packet curd is not curd at first instance as it is formed by monoculture of single microbial culture rather varied microbial culture like how it is made at home
-This is done to ensure curd is not turning sour so fast and limits the culture growth & long shelf life

- Another method is coagulating the milk or cheese to curd using a enzyme called "Rennet "

-Rennet Coagulation is mostly widely followed diary practice as it is quick ,cheap and easy

- Vegetarians should avoid this as Rennet enzyme is derived from the stomach of young calf

-Rennet is natural enzyme secreted in the rumen of the calf so that it digest the mothers milk quite fast by converting it to curd

-Digestion of milk is quite complex than curd that's why in our culture we consume diary products mostly in coagulated form like curd ,paneer,khoa

-Rennet curd is firmer; it’s more robust compared to homemade curd

-The more it is added the more the solid curd becomes by loosing the whey content
- The strength of rennet in the curd allows us to chop it into little pieces (curd slices !) and it get moulded to container

Dairy industry has gone step further mostly sell the Curd as " SET CURD" with always the word Set in Fine print or smaller font

SET Curd means = Less Fat Content [Milk ranging 1-4%] + More SNF [Solids Non Fat content 11- 20 %]

Solid Non Fat [SNF] is can be anything of the below to make the curd more thicker ,firmer and non sour

-Tapioca Starch
-Corn Starch
-Arrow root powder
-Guar gum
- Gelatin Powder [unsure its veg source or animal source]

-So these packet curds will be more thicker ,sweeter ,less sour than homemade dahi

-These never get very sour quite easily too as miniscule percentage of preservative added [hydrogen peroxide to slow the culture growth and maintain texture

-These curds will never contain packaged date but only use by date as it is up to the maker to decide the preservative strength for shelf life
-These packet curds does more harm to your health than what it is suppose to be

-It taste good & look pure but no good to us

- These curd should not given to kids,elderly, people with digestive disorders , diabetes ,obesity and other lifestyle diseases

After all, Curdling curd is a simple and easy process which can be done at home overnight quite easily at least in India

Eat healthy & Be wise !