Many people know the simple and cheerful phrase “everything that fits into your mouth is useful.” However, this, unfortunately, is not the case. That is why this article will discuss such a food product as sour cream: the benefits and harm.

A few words about sour cream

If anyone doesn’t know, sour cream is a dairy product that can be obtained by fermenting cream with the help of various lactic acid bacteria. It has been eaten in our country for a long time, both in its pure form and as a sauce for many dishes. But sour cream appeared in Europe after World War II.

Foreigners called her “Russian cream.” It is noteworthy that today it is not produced in all countries on such a large scale as ours. Most often in Europe it is produced in small quantities.

Calorie content of sour cream

Separately, you need to consider how high-calorie a product such as sour cream is. So, you need to take into account its fat content.

• 10% fat: 100 grams of product contains 115.4 kcal.
• 15% fat: 100 grams of product contains 158.9 kcal.
• 20% fat: 100 grams of product contains 202.8 kcal.
• 30% fat: 100 grams of product contains 290.8 kcal.

If we talk about homemade sour cream, then it contains on average 235.65 kcal, which is 11% of the daily requirement for a healthy adult.

Composition of homemade sour cream

So, sour cream: the benefits and harms of this food product. What components does it consist of?

1. Vitamin complex: E, B, C, PP.
2. Biotin, which is often also called the vitamin of youth.
3. Beta carotene.
4. Useful organic acids.
5. Potassium, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, zinc, iodine.
6. Pure water.
7. Natural sugar substances.
8. Animal protein.

The benefits of sour cream for an adult

You definitely need to tell us why such a food product as sour cream is so useful.

• Sour cream is much easier and faster absorbed by the human body than plain milk. In addition, it is considered very nutritious.
• Very useful for people who have weak digestion or no appetite. It also helps to cope with problems such as anemia.
• Sour cream is a probitic product. It helps fight the results of putrefaction in the intestines by increasing the number of beneficial bacteria.
• It has a great effect on human hormonal levels.
• Traditional healers say that a spoonful of sour cream and honey can improve your mood and give you strength and energy.
• This is a good remedy for treating sunburn.
• If you regularly eat carrots with sour cream, the body's resistance to various infections significantly increases.
• By consuming tomato juice with sour cream, you can prevent the occurrence and development of cancer.

Sour cream: benefits for men and men's health

You definitely need to talk separately about the benefits that sour cream has on the male body.

1. This is an excellent remedy not only for maintaining, but also for increasing potency.
2. Specially prepared sour cream for men, the so-called biosour cream, turns out to be very useful. When manufactured, it contains a special leaven that has a positive effect on the body of the male representative.
3. It helps maintain a man's figure and appearance in order.
4. Sour cream gives strength to muscles, which is so important for every man.

About the benefits of sour cream for women and women's health

So, sour cream. The benefits of this food product for men - we figured it out. What is its benefit exclusively for women?

1. Sour cream perfectly regulates hormonal levels. This is especially important for ladies, since they most often suffer from such “fluctuations”.
2. This food product is widely used in cosmetology. Multiple masks for skin and hair are made based on sour cream.
3. Sour cream, despite its high fat content, is beneficial for the female body during periods of dieting. After all, it has a great effect on intestinal function, preventing constipation.

About the benefits of sour cream for children's bodies

It will not be a secret to anyone that sour cream is also very useful for children. So, it should be introduced into the baby’s diet from about one year of age. However, at this time it is best to give it as sauces and additions to various dishes. In this case, you need to take sour cream with the lowest fat content.

Homemade sour cream in its pure form can be given to children from three years of age. At this time, the baby’s gastrointestinal tract has developed enough to tolerate such a fatty product without harm to its own health. Other benefits of this food product:

• The components of sour cream - calcium, iron, potassium and phosphorus - have the most positive effect on a growing child's body.
• Sour cream in combination with other foods, such as carrots, perfectly increases the immune system's defenses.
• The complex of organic acids and vitamins has a positive effect on the growth and development of not only bone but also muscle tissue of the baby.

To whom and for what reasons can sour cream be harmful?

Having considered the many-sided benefits of sour cream, we also need to talk about for whom this food product may be dangerous.

1. It is not recommended to eat sour cream for people with stomach ulcers or gastritis with high acidity. And all because of the presence of organic acids in this food product.
2. Store-bought sour cream can be harmful due to the presence of preservatives, which are simply necessary for its long-term storage.
3. Sour cream is a very high-calorie product. So it is contraindicated for overweight people.
4. In large quantities, sour cream is harmful to those people who have problems with the liver and gall bladder. To prevent these problems, this food product is best eaten in the first half of the day.
5. People who have problems with the cardiovascular system should eat sour cream with caution. And all because this food product contains cholesterol, which can settle on the blood vessels, preventing their normal functioning.
6. The combination of sour cream with the following food products is considered the most harmful: fried potatoes, cereals and baked goods.

for those who love quality

Natural sour cream, made according to GOST, has a patented name “Sour cream”. This is a fermented milk product obtained by fermenting natural cream with a special starter consisting of beneficial microorganisms. An important stage of production is daily ripening under special conditions, and only then does the unique taste and famous consistency appear. Healthy sour cream Quite capricious and quickly deteriorates. Therefore, the shelf life of the product is short, only 14 days.

A less expensive method of making sour cream, according to specifications, when manufacturers in every possible way simplify and speed up the production process. Instead of cream and sourdough, they use cheap milk powder, palm oil, starch and other thickeners and preservatives. And on the shelves of our stores, along with natural sour cream, its “doubles” appear.

To choose natural healthy sour cream, read the label carefully, only with the mark manufactured according to GOST and the inscription “the number of dairy microorganisms at the end of the product’s shelf life is at least 1x107 CFU/g” is a truly useful product.

Remember: the shelf life of real sour cream is no more than 14 days, since it is a “living” product. If you see a shelf life of more than 2 months, know that such a product was prepared by deep pasteurization, and nothing useful was preserved in it.

The product's name.

If the label says “Smetanka” or “Smetanochka” instead of the name “Sour Cream”, then this is not a natural product, but a sour cream product, however, it is written in a subtle way so that not every consumer pays attention to it.

for those who love quality

The saying that good sour cream is in which the spoon stands, is not so important now. With modern production using various thickeners and stabilizers, it is easy to achieve this product property. It is better to determine the quality of sour cream by pouring it from glass to glass; the natural one will form a slide with diverging waves. A product with chemical additives will form clumps and spread evenly and quickly over the surface.

The appearance of sour cream will also say a lot about its quality..

The surface of the natural product should be smooth and shiny, white or slightly creamy in color.

Proper sour cream has a slightly sour milk taste and when consumed should coat the tongue. If it lies on the tongue in a lump or spreads, then this is a product of not the best quality.

Based on fat content, sour cream is divided into several types:

- low-fat (10,12, 14%), low-fat (15,17,19%), classic (20, 22, 25,28,30,32, 34%), fatty (35, 37, 40, 42,45 .48%) and high-fat (50, 52.55, 58%). Recently, experts have been inclined to believe that milk fat has beneficial properties for our body.

Remember, an opened package of sour cream can be stored for no more than a day, even in the refrigerator.

for those who love quality

When choosing healthy sour cream in the supermarket, take the packaging from the refrigerator shelf, which is located in the back, it is colder there and it is better preserved. Moreover, a product with a late production date is always placed in the front row so that it is sold out faster.

You can check the quality of sour cream at home.

— If you dissolve a spoonful of sour cream in a glass of hot water, the natural product will immediately begin to dissolve and will not produce sediment, while a low-quality product will fall in a lump to the bottom.

— Put a few drops of iodine on the sour cream, the product turns blue, which means a lot of starch was added to it.

Requirements for ideal sour cream.

Name "sour cream"

The inscription GOST - made from cream and sourdough.

Shelf life no more than 14 days

White in color (light cream shade)

The taste is slightly sour, the surface is shiny.

On the packaging there is an inscription: “the number of milk microorganisms at the end of the product’s shelf life is at least 1x107 CFU/g”

Forms a “slide and waves”

Dissolves in a glass of hot water, without sediment

When making a purchase, remember the rules for choosing a high-quality and useful product;

- read the label carefully;

- an opened package of sour cream can be stored for no more than a day, even in the refrigerator;

— you can check the quality of sour cream at home;

- expiration date of the present and healthy sour cream no more than 14 days;

- pay attention to the appearance of sour cream;

Remember. If you were sold a low-quality product and the store refuses to return your money, contact your local branch of Rospotrebnadzor of the Russian Federation.

Anecdote on topic!!!

The husband is leaving on a business trip, and his wife is under suspicion. Well, she thinks I’ll control her;

I took the jar natural sour cream and put it under the bed. And he tied a spoon to the bed.

I checked - if one person lies on the bed, then the spoon does not reach the sour cream,

and if there are two, it’s all covered in sour cream. Left.

He arrives, and his wife meets him and invites him to the table;

He thinks: Now let’s check how you behaved; Looked under the bed

and there is oil in the jar.

Happy and quality shopping!

Sour cream(Proto-Slavic sъmętana, from sъmětati - to remove, throw away) is a traditional Russian dairy product made from cream and special starter culture. Before the invention of the separator, sour cream was made quite simply: after 2-3 days, the top layer was removed from sour milk and kept in a cool place.

Despite its fat content and high calorie content, sour cream is absorbed by the human body much more easily than the cream from which it is produced, or milk, since its proteins change their properties during the ripening process. That is why nutritionists advise people with weak stomachs to consume sour cream rather than milk or cream.

Origin

Residents of some countries call sour cream “Russian cream”. The world recognized it thanks to Russia, and sour cream became widespread after World War II.

In 1874, German engineer Werner Lehfeldt designed a separator. The milk entering this unit is divided into two streams under the influence of centrifugal force - skim milk and cream. A special starter is added to the cream to make sour cream. When the fermented cream reaches the required acidity, it is cooled to 8 degrees Celsius and left to ripen - after a day the fermented milk mass turns into thick sour cream.

The nutritional value

Sour cream is very satisfying: the caloric content of a product with 25% fat content is 250 kcal per 100 g, 20% fat content is 206 kcal, 15% fat content is 162 kcal, low-fat - 181 kcal. Just a few spoons of this fermented milk delicacy are enough to provide the body with the daily need for many vitamins: A, E, C, D, PP, group B, H (biotin), beta-carotene.

Macro- and microelements in sour cream are also present in abundance. Of the former, potassium and calcium are the most valuable, followed by phosphorus, sodium, chlorine and magnesium. Among the microelements, iron, fluorine, zinc, iodine, manganese, copper, molybdenum and cobalt should be noted. In addition, sour cream contains a lot of complete animal protein, carbohydrates, organic fatty acids and natural sugars. All these nutrients are perfectly absorbed by the body.

Use in cooking

Sour cream is good both on its own and as part of any dish. It is added to soups and salads, served with casseroles and puddings, pancakes, pancakes, cheesecakes, dumplings, dumplings. Fish, meat, and vegetables are stewed and baked with it. Sour cream with cottage cheese, honey, and jam is tasty and healthy.

Cream for cakes and pastries is made from sour cream, it is added to dough for pies and other baked goods, and it is used to season fruit desserts. A glass of fresh sour cream, whipped with sugar, will not only delight you with its taste, but will also help relieve the effects of stress and relieve depression.

Application in medicine and cosmetology

Sour cream contains a lot of calcium, which helps strengthen bones, teeth and nails. The product is recommended for use for stomach ulcers and intestinal colitis, is used to prepare compresses for rheumatism and radiculitis, and is also included in the diets of people who have suffered long-term illnesses. Sour cream stimulates appetite, regulates the functioning of the intestines and stomach.

In cosmetology, sour cream is no less popular. It goes well with all kinds of berries, fruits, vegetables and other skin-healthy ingredients. Masks and creams based on sour cream tighten pores, smooth out wrinkles, refresh and whiten the skin.

Contraindications

Sour cream is a fairly fatty product. It is not recommended to abuse it by those who want to lose weight, as well as by people suffering from diabetes, heart and vascular diseases.

When choosing sour cream, pay attention to its shelf life. For a natural product it lasts no more than a week. If the shelf life is stated to be up to several months, it means that the sour cream was processed at high temperatures and, therefore, there is nothing useful left in it. And don’t be lazy to read the ingredients: real sour cream contains nothing but cream and sourdough. When the product is purchased, you can check its quality at home: sour cream prepared in compliance with technological standards immediately dissolves in hot water.

A spoon sitting in sour cream, it turns out, is not necessarily a sign of a quality product. Sometimes this is just an indicator of how much streptococci and stabilizers were added there.

Why sour cream can be thick or thin, experts tell us on the portaleda. ru :

Sergey Klyuchnikov, commercial director of the AgriVolga company, Uglich:

“It’s very simple to make sour cream that contains a spoon: you need to buy a packet of stabilizer from a large foreign company and pour this powder into the appropriate container. In three hours the sour cream will be thick and beautiful. And if you use a stabilizer on an ongoing basis, it will always be the same. The fact is that the thickness of sour cream depends on various factors. Firstly, seasonality: in winter the fat globule is larger and the sour cream is denser, in summer the sour cream is thinner. When we switch from winter milk to summer, customers complain: your sour cream has become thinner. Secondly, sourdough. It consists of a set of microorganisms, and, for example, if there are too many thermophilic streptococci in it, then the spoon will stand in sour cream, although there will be no taste. And if there are too many flavor-forming lactococci, then the sour cream will have a pronounced creamy taste, but it will be thinner. Another nuance: even if you stir very thick sour cream for half a minute, it will definitely flow and lose its structure. But if a stabilizer is added, stir it for at least half an hour, it will still be thick.”

Natalya Klimova, senior technologist at SAPK-Moloko, Sukhinichi:

“Sour cream comes in different forms. You will never put a spoon in 10% sour cream in your life, at least not in our 10%. The thickness of sour cream depends on many things. From the fat content - the more there is, the thicker the sour cream. It depends on whether it is ripe or not: freshly packaged, naturally, it will be liquid, and when it sits in the refrigerator, the fat will harden and the sour cream will become thicker. Using one starter you can make thick sour cream, and using the other - liquid. Density also depends on seasonality: depending on the season, we change the temperature of pasteurization and homogenization so that winter sour cream is not too different from summer. If you actively stir thick sour cream with a spoon, it will become liquid. You can do the following experiment at home: add salt to thick sour cream and stir: then the curd will be completely destroyed. Stabilizers are also often used in industry - there is a large range on the market, and, as far as I know, the most commonly used are guar gum and locust bean gum. So a spoon can stand in sour cream, but it doesn’t have to.”

It’s interesting that sour cream is known to everyone as a healthy food product, but not everyone knows that it is often used in cosmetology and folk medicine. There is hardly a family that does not use sour cream for dressing salads, as a sauce for dumplings and dumplings, as an additive to borscht or solyanka, and how delicious strawberries with sour cream are, and many sauces and creams are also prepared using this dairy product.

Sour cream is an Old Slavonic product and in Europe until recently it was called “Russian cream”. Vitamins and minerals in cream are beneficial for the body of men and women.

The very name of this fermented milk product reveals the essence of its preparation, since in the old days, what was called sour cream was swept from the surface of sour milk, and what remained in the clay jar was called yogurt, a low-fat product in the form of cottage cheese. Homemade sour cream is very useful, as it is a natural product and is valued by everyone for its excellent organoleptic and taste qualities. However, we should not forget about the harm of excessive consumption of homemade sour cream, which has a high fat content; the abundance of milk fats provokes the deposition of cholesterol in the blood vessels of both women and men, and also contributes to their fragility. Low-fat cottage cheese neutralizes the effect of the product very well in this sense.

What are the benefits of sour cream for the human body? This dairy product is rich in calcium and vitamins. In addition, milk proteins, when exposed to lactic acid bacteria, become easily digestible.

The nutritional value

The calorie content of this product depends on the fat content of the cream; in the old days, sour cream could have a fat content of up to 32%; today, in production, the fat content can be adjusted and a dietary fermented milk product can be obtained. So 100 grams of sour cream contains different amounts of calories, depending on the percentage of its fat content:

Sour cream with 15% fat content is considered the most neutral; according to nutritionists, it is better to replace mayonnaise, which is popular in our countries, with such a product and use it instead of butter in some dishes. This popularity is easily explained by the balanced composition, where per 100 grams of product there are:

Vitamins

What vitamins are in the table:

per 100 grams of product	vitamin content mg
Vitamin A	0.088
Vitamin B2	0.12
Vitamin B3	0.07
Vitamin B6	0.02
Vitamin B9	0.01
Vitamin B12	0.04
Vitamin C	0.9
Vitamin E	0.3

Vitamins in the product are represented by group B, as well as fat-soluble A, E, D. A considerable amount contains vitamin PP and choline, which neutralize the harm of sour cream to blood vessels and internal organs, provided that it is consumed in moderation.

Minerals

Speaking about minerals in sour cream, first of all, I would like to remind you of the large amount of calcium - 140 mg per 100 grams of product, potassium, phosphorus, chlorine, sulfur, as well as magnesium, zinc and iron are also present. It is minerals such as calcium that make sour cream such an indispensable product in baby food, and the beneficial properties of cottage cheese with sour cream are simply invaluable for a growing body. In addition, this combination of products is useful for pregnant and nursing mothers, and cottage cheese is also indicated for elderly people whose bodies do not retain calcium well.

What minerals do you see in the table:

Health benefits and harms

The beneficial properties of sour cream for men have long been known; its ability to increase potency is explained by the fact that animal proteins in combination with organic acids and fat-soluble vitamins restore the body's strength, normalize hormonal levels, and improve sperm quality. In a combination of sour cream and beer, the benefits are doubled, since beer, provided it is natural, contains B vitamins, as well as substances that increase the flow of blood to the pelvic organs, thereby causing a persistent erection.

But do not forget that a protein shake such as beer and sour cream is harmful for men who are prone to obesity, as they lead to rapid weight gain. In this case, it is better to exclude beer altogether from a man’s diet and consume an equally effective and healthy carrot salad with sour cream.

The benefit of sour cream for the fairer sex is its ability to increase hemoglobin, normalize hormonal levels, resist stress and help improve mood. Such a combination as cottage cheese with sour cream will be beneficial by strengthening health and restoring the natural beauty of a woman’s face and hair.

With increased acidity of the stomach, cottage cheese with sour cream can cause harm and cause a feeling of heaviness and heartburn, and beer in combination with the product will add appetite and improve your mood.

The use of sour cream in cosmetology

Natural village sour cream, the benefit of which lies in the presence of live lactic acid bacteria and the absence of preservatives, is used to prepare masks for the hair, face and décolleté.
Facial sour cream is useful for dry skin, as well as a whitening and regenerating agent.

The ability of milk fat to dissolve vitamins such as A and E makes sour cream an ideal basis for nourishing, regenerating and vitamin masks for the face and hair. Such products are used at home and even in some salons by cosmetologists who prefer natural cosmetics. As complementary ingredients, you can use honey, carrot juice, egg, oatmeal, cucumber juice, banana, beer and much more, depending on the type of facial skin and the effect you want to achieve.

At the same time, we should also not forget that if the skin is prone to acne and has increased oil content, sour cream for the face is harmful, since in combination with sebum and contaminated pores, it can aggravate skin problems.

We must not forget that since ancient times, yogurt, like sour cream for hair, has been usefully used for hair and giving curls strength and shine, as well as for hair loss. Lactic bacteria are able to nourish weakened bulbs, so such a mask, by the way, will be useful in case of increased hair loss, as well as to stimulate their growth. For men prone to early hair loss, nourishing masks are extremely useful.

How to choose the right sour cream

When choosing sour cream, you should give preference to a natural product; good sour cream contains only animal fats, and the presence of vegetable fat in the composition transfers this product to the category of sour cream containing. The harm of sour cream in this case is that with the same fat content, the amount of proteins is much lower, in addition, the absence of choline in the sour cream product leads to the fact that fats are not completely absorbed and can lead to disruption of the liver, as well as provoke pancreatitis.