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Fly with Reuteri

If you're planning to travel by plane and you want to keep enjoying the benefits of l. reuteri yogurt, you might have gotten sticker shock from the price of l. reuteri probiotics. MyReuteri* costs $46 to $83 for 30 capsules, depending on the CFUs (colony-forming units, or the number of viable microorganisms). If you're thinking about economizing by putting some yogurt in a sturdy container and taking it with you, you can do that. I'll break down the pros and cons and look at some alternatives. 

Photo from Unsplash.

Cost

Yogurt might be less expensive than probiotics, but it isn't free. A half-cup serving costs about 70¢ to make if you start with a previous batch. It contains about 90 billion CFUs if fermented for 36 hours. 

This is a lot less than $5.56 for two capsules of 50 billion CFU MyReuteri, but for a one-week vacation, you'd only save $34 by eating yogurt instead. (You can freeze any unused capsules for later.) 

Furthermore, the yogurt would have to go in a checked bag. The TSA considers yogurt a gel, and you cannot take containers of gel larger than 3.4 ounces (less than half a cup) on a plane. If you aren't already checking a bag, it might cost around $40 to check it depending on the airline and class you're flying. (I don't know if the TSA would allow lots of little containers of homemade yogurt on board.)

Risk

Bad things can happen when other people and machinery handle your luggage. I used to be an engineer for a firm that designed baggage handling systems. I saw so many delayed bags, damaged bags and bags that came open in those systems, especially around busy holidays, that I've stuck to cheap but sturdy luggage I can carry on. 

Damage can even happen on a bus. I was leaving Albuquerque when my sister put a jar of her homemade strawberry jam in my duffle bag. When I got home, there was jam and broken glass all over my clothes in the bag. It was the middle of the night, but I had to clean up the glass and wash my clothes before bed to have a clean uniform to wear the next morning. 

Even if you're not using a breakable container, a TSA agent who opens your bag--and your sturdy container of yogurt--and doesn't fully snap the lid back on is going to get yogurt all over your clothes and toiletries. 

If your bag gets lost for a few days, you might have to throw away the bag and everything in it. 

Alternatives

A few Inner Circle members have discussed freeze drying yogurt (requires over $1,000 worth of equipment), air drying yogurt (a complicated, time consuming process yielding an unappetizing looking result), and I even tried making a yogurt frosting to put in muffins (lots of time and effort, and not enough CFUs per muffin. But the result was tasty and super-cute.) 

Conclusion

MyReuteri might be expensive compared to other probiotics, but for a short vacation, you wouldn't save much money by bringing your own yogurt--in fact, the capsules might even be cheaper. And you definitely won't have to clean any yogurt out of your suitcase. 

*I'm not an affiliate of MyReuteri or Dr. Davis. 

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