THE HEALTH BENEFITS OF KEFIR

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I love kefir!  Seriously. I can’t shut up about it so I figured maybe I should get it all out of my system at once in this post.

It’s such an amazing beverage that offers so many benefits to your body.  I drink homemade raw milk kefir every morning in a green smoothie.  And so do my kids! Except that I give them homemade kefir made from pasteurized whole milk.  

Kefir is made by adding kefir grains to milk.  Want to know what some of the awesome benefits of kefir really are?

HEALTH BENEFITS OF KEFIR

Kefir is rich in calcium, protein and many B vitamins and can contain up to 61 different probiotic species that aid in digestion and gut health while also being low in lactose.  So low in fact that many lactose intolerant people can drink kefir with no issues.

You may be familiar with yogurt as a probiotic food, however, kefir is a much stronger source of probiotics.  Probiotics, such those in kefir, can help restore the balance of friendly bacteria in your intestinal tract.

Specific probiotics in kefir are thought to protect against infections.  One in particular is the probiotic Lactobacillus kefiri- which is only found in kefir.

Here are two studies that demonstrate that this probiotic can protect against the growth of many harmful bacterias, including Salmonella, Helicobacter pylori and E. coli.

• Safety Characterization and Antimicrobial Properties of Kefir-Isolated Lactobacillus kefiri
• Meta-analysis of the efficacy of probiotics in Helicobacter pylori eradication therapy

Kefir is even known to improve allergies and asthma symptoms by suppressing the inflammatory immune response.

WHAT ARE KEFIR GRAINS?

Kefir grains are a tough sort of gelatin-like, cottage cheese-looking groupings that some people like to say look like cauliflower.  To me they look more like cottage cheese.

These little groupings contain a combination of beneficial bacterias and yeasts that live in a symbiotic clustering.  The location and culturing traditions used in the fermentation process can change the type of bacterias and yeasts that multiply.

I use these kefir grains and they have worked beautifully!  If you take care of your kefir grains, they can last you forever.  If you find that you want to know more, I wrote a post about how to make delicious homemade kefir using kefir grains.

BACTERIA AND YEAST COMMONLY FOUND IN KEFIR GRAINS

Here is a list of the bacterias and yeast that are common in kefir grains comprised from two different regions.  Kefir grains can vary greatly in different regions and made by different people. The list comes from these two studies below.

• Microbiological study of lactic acid bacteria in kefir grains by culture-dependent and culture-independent methods
• Analysis of the microflora in Tibetan kefir grains using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis

Every batch of kefir grains will vary in some of the bacterias found, but this list will give you a general understanding of the probiotic potential of your kefir.  

Also, these bacterias are the family strains and do not include many of the subspecies and variants.

BENEFICIAL BACTERIA STRAINS COMMON IN MILK KEFIR GRAINS

Lactobacillus acidophilus Lactobacillus brevis Lactobacillus casei Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. delbrueckii Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. lactis Lactobacillus helveticus Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens subsp. kefiranofaciens Lactobacillus kefiri Lactobacillus paracasei subsp. paracasei Lactobacillus plantarum Lactobacillus rhamnosus

Lactobacillus sake Lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis Lactococcus lactis Leuconostoc mesenteroides subsp. cremoris Leuconostoc mesenteroides subsp. dextranicum Leuconostoc mesenteroides subsp. mesenteroides Pseudomonas Pseudomonas fluorescens Pseudomonas putida Streptococcus thermophilus

BENEFICIAL YEAST STRAINS COMMON IN MILK KEFIR GRAINS

Candida humilis Kazachstania unispora Kazachstania exigua Kluyveromyces siamensis Kluyveromyces lactis

Kluyveromyces marxianus Saccharomyces cerevisiae Saccharomyces martiniae Saccharomyces unisporus

This list can also be found at here as well, but I wanted to include it due to how awesome it is in showing the probiotic benefits of kefir grains.

KEFIR HEALTH BENEFITS ARE WORTH THE EFFORT

You guys, it is so easy to make homemade kefir.  And it tastes so similar to plain yogurt!

You can add some maple syrup to sweeten it or even honey and drink it.  Or you can make a smoothie as I do every morning for breakfast.

The many health benefits of kefir are worth the effort!  How do you like to drink your kefir?