Not related so much to the OP, but the Crohn's/yogurt thing...
I've had Crohn's since adolescence, and I've found that eating yogurt (with live cultures!) seems to keep things working well. I recommend a purpose-built yogurt maker. I got one for about $15 from Amazon. And Vivtek skipped an important step: you've got to kill any bad stuff in the milk first. Heat it to 180 degrees, just before boiling. Then be sure to let it cool to 110 before introducing the culture, else the heat will kill the culture.
Along with this, you should be aware that what you eat and drink has an effect on your intestinal flora (I think this is part of what Vivtek was getting at). That is, the friendly bacteria like to have access to certain kinds of foods. And on the other hand, other intake may change the environment in a way detrimental to the good stuff, or even to encourage the not-so-good stuff. These relationships can be difficult to see, because the effects aren't noticeable until quite some time after the food is eaten.
Ha! I didn't skip an important step - I told him to buy organic milk! Organic milk is ultrapasteurized, and thus sterile out of the box. Although, granted, I should have drawn more attention to that point. After the first questionably cheesy-smelling batch of yogurt, he would have really cursed my name.
Buying ultrapasteurized saves a lot of hassle - you don't even need the thermometer any more at all.
We used a purpose-built maker until I dropped the plastic jar on the floor - the resulting yogurt explosion covered the entire kitchen with a relatively evenly distributed polka-dot pattern, floor, walls, ceiling, everywhere. The kids really, really tried hard not to laugh.
I considered buying another, but with four of us in the family, making two quarts at a time just wasn't enough throughput; the gallon-jar solution works great for me. I'd already been switching over for some batches, so I retired the yogurt maker entirely after the explosion.
Most milk is pasteurized so the heating step isn't needed to kill bad stuff. It does have another affect: it denatures the proteins and makes for a thicker and creamier yogurt.
I've had Crohn's since adolescence, and I've found that eating yogurt (with live cultures!) seems to keep things working well. I recommend a purpose-built yogurt maker. I got one for about $15 from Amazon. And Vivtek skipped an important step: you've got to kill any bad stuff in the milk first. Heat it to 180 degrees, just before boiling. Then be sure to let it cool to 110 before introducing the culture, else the heat will kill the culture.
Along with this, you should be aware that what you eat and drink has an effect on your intestinal flora (I think this is part of what Vivtek was getting at). That is, the friendly bacteria like to have access to certain kinds of foods. And on the other hand, other intake may change the environment in a way detrimental to the good stuff, or even to encourage the not-so-good stuff. These relationships can be difficult to see, because the effects aren't noticeable until quite some time after the food is eaten.