Kefir

Cultured products of very much a part of our everyday lives. They keep your digestive system healthy so you can digest the foods you eat among many, many other things.

Both kefir and yogurt are cultured milk products...

...but they contain different types of beneficial bacteria. Yogurt contains transient beneficial bacteria that keep the digestive system clean and provide food for the friendly bacteria that reside there. But kefir can actually colonize the intestinal tract, a feat that yogurt cannot match.

Kefir contains several major strains of friendly bacteria not commonly found in yogurt, Lactobacillus Caucasus, Leuconostoc, Acetobacter species, and Streptococcus species.

It also contains beneficial yeasts, such as Saccharomyces kefir and Torula kefir, which dominate, control and eliminate destructive pathogenic yeasts in the body. They do so by penetrating the mucosal lining where unhealthy yeast and bacteria reside, forming a virtual SWAT team that housecleans and strengthens the intestines. Hence, the body becomes more efficient in resisting such pathogens as E. coli and intestinal parasites.

Kefir's active yeast and bacteria provide more nutritive value than yogurt by helping digest the foods that you eat and by keeping the colon environment clean and healthy. Because the curd size of kefir is smaller than yogurt, it is also easier to digest, which makes it a particularly excellent, nutritious food

Meet our cute little Kefir grains. These are alive and grow if they are taken care of. They are part of the family! When they get big enough, we can share them with others who are looking for better health. Our grains came from a start that is hundreds of years old.

Every morning as part of our breakfast I make a kefir shake. You need to start out slow because this stuff is very vigorous in getting rid of bad yeast and the die off from the bad yeast can make you feel sick. I started out as giving everyone 1oz and slowly added more every two weeks until the adults get one cup and the kids gets 1/2 cup. Kefir has a zing to it and is very sour so adding fruit is very important to getting kids to love it.

So every morning I strain the culture from the night before and put it into the shake. I take the kefir grains and put them into another jar and add 4 cups of milk and let it ferment on the counter for another 24 hours until breakfast the next morning. I do this every day. It's really easy. Kefir likes the same temp as humans do so you don't have to heat it up. Just pour it into the jar and forget about it until the next morning.

Kefir is very easy to digest even if you have allergies to milk. I knew a lady who was very sick and was terribly allergic to milk. Desparate to find something to help her ( she had tried just about everything else) she finally decided to try Kefir. She started slowly and eventually could drink several cups a day. After a few months of Kefir and changing her diet to a much healthier diet she looked great. I didn't even recognize her because she was so sick before hand, very thin and unhealthy looking. Kefir had helped heal her digestive system.

Our Kefir Shake Recipe:

2 cups of milk (if you can't drink unfermented milk, then don't add it. Maybe you can try water or a little juice?). You can also use goat milk if you prefer.

2 bananas

2 servings of frozen fruit (peaches, berries, pears)

2-4 Tbs of raw honey

2 Tbs of acerola cherry powder (I add this for a whole food vitamin C to help keep the family healthy. You don't have to add it)

I blend this together until really blended. Then I add about 5 cups of kefir and pulse it about 2 times.

It's ready and YUMMY! It has a sweet zingy taste.