Acidophilus

Aajonus stated directly that commercial probiotics, including acidophilus, are treated with industrial solvents during manufacturing. He gave a specific example using bromelain and papain, enzymes derived from papaya and pineapple, explaining that pharmaceutical and supplement manufacturers dissolve these substances in kerosene for two to four days as part of the extraction process. The resulting product then contains kerosene residue. He applied the same critique to acidophilus, stating: "Same thing with the probiotics that they offer? Absolutely. All that acidophilus? All of it's treated."

He described the effect of kerosene and similar solvents on the body as tissue destruction. Solvents eat away at cellular tissue, contract the adrenal glands, and function as a poison rather than a nutritive or probiotic agent. He compared the effect to pouring gasoline or kerosene on the skin, noting that it dries out and dissolves cells, effectively burning them. In his view, taking commercially produced acidophilus was therefore not a neutral act but an act of introducing a solvent-laden substance into the digestive tract, which would damage tissue rather than support bacterial colonization.

While Aajonus rejected commercial acidophilus preparations, he acknowledged the strain itself as one of three necessary bacterial cultures for complete predigestion of dairy. He described this in the context of kefir, explaining that a properly made kefir containing the bulgaricus, coccus, and acidophilus strains provides three different bacteria that collectively break down protein, fats, and carbohydrates and sugars respectively. When all three strains are present and living, everything in the dairy product is predigested and therefore easier to utilize.

He specifically recommended this type of kefir for people with digestive problems, acid stomach, the elderly, and anyone who does not absorb nutrients well, because the predigested state of the nutrients reduces the burden on the body's own digestive capacity. The key qualifier throughout this recommendation was that the kefir must contain the actual living bacterial cultures performing their work, not a pasteurized or chemically treated substitute.

Aajonus described a direct and observable relationship between lactobacillus bulgaricus and acidophilus in the context of how he handled his own milk. He noted that he takes his milk out the night before he intends to consume it, stating that it digests better for him when it has been given time to work. He explained that when the milk is left out, the lactobacillus bulgaricus can become active and, without a sufficient relationship with acidophilus, it will digest the fat first. The result is that the milk becomes slightly bitter and, in his words, slightly foul.

His description makes clear that acidophilus and lactobacillus bulgaricus function in a cooperative relationship within raw milk, with each performing different aspects of the predigestion process. When acidophilus is absent or insufficiently active, the bulgaricus operates alone, producing the bitterness that Aajonus observed in his own milk. He stated he did not mind this outcome personally, noting that digesting the fat first was fine for his body, but this description reveals that the ideal relationship between the two bacteria involves both being present and active together.

He also noted that this kind of bacterial activity in milk, the bitterness that comes from bulgaricus working without acidophilus, is similar in principle to what one finds in strongly fermented or aged cheeses, making the comparison to German cheeses that produce very pungent odors.

Aajonus described the process of traditional cheese making in terms that involve acidophilus as a functional bacterial agent. He explained that the standard process of making cheese involves taking dairy, making it into curds and whey, filtering, drying the curds, and placing them in a cave. He noted that instead of putting active acidophilus into the milk, cheesemakers introduce a mold to predigest it in the same way that bacteria would. His framing was that mold and acidophilus perform equivalent functions in this context, both serving to break down and predigest the dairy components. He stated: "Instead of putting active acidophilus in the milk, you're introducing a mold to predigest it the same way as bacteria. So that's the only way you can eat hard cheeses, that you can digest them, is if there's mold in them."

This passage establishes that in Aajonus's framework, active acidophilus introduced directly into milk and the mold introduced in cave-aged hard cheese are understood as parallel biological mechanisms for achieving the same predigestive outcome on dairy. The presence of one or the other is what makes hard cheese digestible.

In a practical preparation context, Aajonus referenced acidophilus implicitly when discussing raw milk that has been left out overnight. He contrasted the state of milk that has had time to develop its bacterial culture with the milkshake he prepares for himself, describing the milkshake as representing a state where acidophilus is simply present without the additional activity of the lactobacillus bulgaricus. His comment that "it's just a milkshake" in reference to the acidophilus relationship suggests that acidophilus in its basic state within fresh raw milk is a baseline condition, whereas the fuller bacterial development that includes bulgaricus working alongside it represents a more advanced state of predigestion.

To understand Aajonus's position on acidophilus fully, it must be placed within his broader teaching that bacteria are the primary agents of digestion. He held that 80 to 90 percent of digestion is bacterial, with the bacteria consuming food particles and their excrement and secretions constituting the digested food that the body then absorbs through the lacteal system. In this framework, introducing dead or chemically compromised bacteria through commercial supplements does nothing to support this process. Only living bacteria, whether present naturally in raw milk, kefir made with active cultures, or other raw fermented dairy products, can perform the actual digestive work.

His critique of commercial acidophilus was therefore not merely about the solvents used in its manufacture, though that concern was explicit and primary. It was also grounded in the understanding that the entire probiotic supplement industry, by its reliance on industrial processing, is fundamentally incapable of delivering what it claims to deliver, because the processing kills or chemically contaminates the very organisms that are supposed to provide benefit.