posted
I know some people make their own yoghurt, I think GiGi has posted on it (?)
As far as Kefir, to get the real benefits you just need some real (live) grains.. which are not in stores.
Once you have those, it's pretty easy to culture this most potent probiotic! I do this instead of yoghurt.
I don't take capsules anymore, kefir, kombucha, and/or Apple Cider Vinegar (and GiGi's sauerkraut) are much better probiotics and they serve as food/nutrition as well.
posted
it is also very easy to naturally and wildly ferment cabbage to make saurkraut which is totally loaded with probiotics and vitamins. Costs about 50 cents for cabbage salt and water.
Pomegranite
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dontlikeliver
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 4749
posted
Dana,
You get the grains, which are like a dry powder in a small sachet, sprinke it in luke-warm milk, then whisk it up and let sit for about 24 hours at room temperature. Fermentation happens in the warm (not fridge).
I still use probiotics also.
DLL
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5dana8
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
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posted
Thanks pomegranite My body can't digest saurkraut just yet. I did read GiGi's post on it a while back and it is a great way to replace some flora.
Dontlikeliver Thanks for the info on how to ferment the grains at room temp! Do you add anything else to your's other than the grains ,like yogart?
Gael1111 Thanks for your information on where to purchase it at whole foods. I hope this is an online service...I have to check. My healthfood store went out of business a while back, and now I purchase everything on line.
I have been trying to eat more salads as a natural way of geting unprocessed fod into my system.
my system is has very little flora left becuase dispite being on a very stick anti-yeast diet and taking tons of probiotics I still have yeast problems.
12 years of being on abx will do that to me and now I have been working really hard on replenishing.
Take care and thanks again. dana
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5dana8
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posted
Does any one know if drinking buttermilk
along with kefir and yogart
could help in replacing flora? (of cours along with tons of probiotics)
I have read that buttermilk was an old timey remedy.
Thanks
-------------------- 5dana8 Posts: 4432 | From some where over the rainbow | Registered: Sep 2005
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posted
If you check out Dom's site I posted up there somewhere..
That's the real Kefir, the one with the most probiotics.
That is only made with real grains, not powdered or dried or store bought (tho there is a woman on ebay who cultures them with goat's milk, and last I tried, her grains were excellent)
Made with real grains is the only way to get 'medicinal' benefits IMO. When you drikn REAL kefir, you see immediate results. My children started sleeping through the night and had immediate improvement in BM's that was amazing. They won't go a day without it, on their own accord. Eastern Europeans have this in their house and drink it every day for breakfast. The Caucus mountain folk have used it for a thousand years. There is no comparison to real kefir. Anything used for hundreds of years has merit, IMO. You would have to eat pounds of yoghurt or commercial kefir and take tons of probiotic capsules to get the results from a few ounces of this stuff. All the 'science' is on Dom's site as ro the exact bacterial makeup.
I have live grains, but only enough to mail a batch off to someone every two weeks or so.
Once you get your own grains, they will keep propogating, and you will never need new ones again (if you care for them properly, which is easy) .. and you can then share them as they grow.
There is also a Yahoo list called REAL Kefir Making (RKM) where you can post for grains.
Everyone shares them for free, just the cost of postage.
Mo
Posts: 8337 | From the other shore | Registered: Jul 2002
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posted
So even if you buy PLAIN kefir in the store, which has 12 grams of sugar, it's OK for yeast?? I try not to ingest anything with that much sugar content and I avoid dairy.
Reassure me here!!
-------------------- --Lymetutu-- Opinions, not medical advice! Posts: 96222 | From Texas | Registered: Feb 2001
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posted
I'll give my simple unserstanding, and then some info I based it on..
Basically (and again, I can ONLY speak for live, real kefir, not the store stuff - and this info below is re: real kefir ONLY as well)
The grains, the probiotic clusters.. 'eat' the milk and they grow.. digesting it sort of, thereby eating much of the sugar, and turning it into something far more digestable for us.
The other aspect is that the bactreria in real kefir is the kind that makes War on bad Candida overgrowth and other bad bacteria in the entire digestive tract. This is amazing for digestion and thereby, immune function. There are 'good yeasts' that also take care of balancing the 'bad' ones. Yeast is not bad, just certain species, and even those only when they are out of control.
The explaination to what I am saying is appended directly below, and then at the bottom I am linking the nutritional make-up of real Kefir, aside from the the bacterial..
Mo
*******************************
Typical Microflora Isolated from Batches of Kefir Grains Divided into Four Genus Groups
LACTOBACILLI Lactobacillus acidophilus Lb. brevis Lb. casei Lb. casei subsp. rhamnosus Lb. casei subsp. pseudoplantarum Lb. paracasei subsp. paracasei Lb. cellobiosus Lb. delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus Lb. delbrueckii subsp. lactis Lb. fructivorans Lb. helveticus subsp. lactis Lb. hilgardii Lb. kefiri Lb. kefiranofaciens [reclassified as Lb. kefiranofaciens subsp. kefirgranum subsp. nov] * Lb. kefirgranum sp. nov ** Lb. parakefir sp. nov ** Lb. lactis Lb. plantarum
STREPTOCOCCI/LACTOCOCCI Lactococci lactis subsp. lactis Lc. lactis var. diacetylactis Lc. lactis subsp. cremoris Streptococci salivarius subsp. thermophilus S. lactis Enterococcus durans Leuconostoc cremoris L. mesenteroides
YEASTS Candida kefir C. pseudotropicalis [can utilize lactose] C. rancens C. tenuis Debaryomyces hansenii *** [can utilize lactose] Kluyveromyces lactis [can utilize lactose] K.. marxianus var. marxianus [can utilize lactose] K.. bulgaricus K.. fragilis / marxianus Saccharomyces subsp. torulopsis holmii S. carlsbergensis S. unisporus Zygosaccharomyces rouxii *** ACETOBACTER Acetobacter aceti A. rasens
Units Count of Microbes in Gram Stained Kefir Grains
Bacilli [single cells, pair, chains] Streptococci [pair, chains] Yeast [single cells] The Means Range Bacilli 66, 62-69% Streptococci 16, 11- 12% Yeast 18, 16- 20% [10]
Evolution Cycle [sequence] among Genus Group of Organisms of Kefir During the Culture Cycle
Encyclopaedia of Food Science, Food Technology and Nutrition [1993] [pp. 1804-1808] Edited by R Macrae, RK Robinson, MJ Sadler.
* Vancanneyt M, Mengaud J, et. al. [2004]. Reclassification of Lactobacillus kefirgranum Takizawa et al. 1994 as Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens subsp. kefirgranum subsp. nov. and emended description of L. kefiranofaciens Fujisawa et al. 1988. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol. 2004 Mar;54(Pt 2):551-6.
** International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology 44 (3) 435-439 [1994] *** T Loretana, JF Mosterta and BC Viljoen [2003] Microbial flora associated with South African household kefir. S. Afr. J. Sci. Vol. 99 No. 1/2
**** Rea, MC, Lennartsson T, et. al.[1996] Irish kefir-like grains; their structure, microbial compositoin and fermentation kenetics. J. of Applied Bacteriology 81 [1] 83-94
List of Bacterial Names with Standing in Nomenclature - Genus Lactobacillus
END NOTES :Candida albicans has never been isolated from kefir grains, for conditions make it impossible for this particular opportunistic yeast to flourish. Certain yeasts of kefir include Candida as part of the nomenclature [name]. These yeasts are not opportunistic yeasts such is the case with C. albicans, but instead are classified as Generally Regarded As Safe [GRAS]. Such yeasts may in fact have the potential to keep C. albicans in check in the host.
References:
10. Molska, I. ; Kocon, J. ; Zmarlicki, S. [1980] Electron microscopy studies on structures and microflora of kefir grains. Acta Alimentaria Polonica. 6 (3) 145-154 [Dep. of Food Tech., Warsaw Agric. Univ. Warsaw, Poland].
11. Toba, T.; Arihara, K.; Adachi, S. [1990] Distribution of microorganisms with particular reference to encapsulated bacteria in kefir grains. International Journal of Food microbiology. 10 (3/4) 219-224. [Lab. Of Anim. Products Tech., Fac. Of Agric., Tohoku Univ., Tsutsumidori-Amamiyamachi 1-1, Aobaku, Sendai 981, Japan].
12. Microorganisms in Processing of Dairy Products pp. 284.
13. Encyclopaedia of food science, food technology, and nutrition. [1993] pp. 1804-1808. Edited by R Macrae, RK Robinson, MJ Sadler.
14. Rosi, J. [1978] Kefir micro-organisms: yeasts. Scienza e Tecnica Lattiero-Casearia 29 [2] pp. 59-67.
15. Garrote, Graciela L., et. al. [2001] Chemical and microbiological characterisation of kefir grains. Journal of dairy research vol 68, No. 4, pp. 639-652.
16 Sedova, NN. [1974] Detection and quantitive determination of Shigella sonnei in milk and milk products. Voprosy Pitaniya No. 4, pp. 42-45.
This link has the nutritional make-up in the end product. Kefir tastes a little like buttermilk, but has allot more 'good guys' in it.
Posts: 8337 | From the other shore | Registered: Jul 2002
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quote:Originally posted by 5dana8: Does any one know if drinking buttermilk
along with kefir and yogart
could help in replacing flora? (of cours along with tons of probiotics)
I have read that buttermilk was an old timey remedy.
Thanks
I have a friend who had a bad yeast infection which was undiagnosed for years... he swears by buttermilk, thought the pills were a waste of time and yougurt wasn't quite as good.
Posts: 207 | From san francisco, ca | Registered: Mar 2005
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WildCondor
Unregistered
posted
I drink kefir every day, 6-8 ounces, blueberry is really good. I also like the plain. I LOVE the Greek yogurt Fage, and the Australian brand wallaby, I rotate all my brans and love them all except for the yucky sugary ones. Activia is good too. Going to go have some now!
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dontlikeliver
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posted
Hi Dana,
No, I do not add yogurt, because essentially Kefir IS yogurt.
The only thing I do is when it is fermented and chilled in the fridge afterwards, I add a little bit of decaf coffee and stevia and it is like a coffee shake.
I can't buy it any other way in the UK, they do not sell it in any stores ready made of flavored.
DLL
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5dana8
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
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posted
Thanks for all your replys guys!
I went searching all of my on line sites like vitacost ect..( No healthfood stores around here any more)
I tryed the whole food place but they don't sell online and the site given above is for selling grains only.
Because I just wanted to try some manufactured kefir before I got into fermenting my own
and can't find an on line place to by a sample.
anyone know where?
Thanks!
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5dana8
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
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posted
Thanks don'tlike liver
Is the kerfir you make and drink clear then?.
Some of the ones pictured looked like a milk base?
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dontlikeliver
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 4749
posted
No, it's not clear. It looks, tastes like yogurt pretty much, but thinner.
You make it with milk, so it's milk colored.
DLL
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posted
Dana, Go to www.mercola.com and type in "kefir" in the search. You can order the starter powder. DLL says to mix it in milk. I THINK I'm capable of doing that!
-------------------- --Lymetutu-- Opinions, not medical advice! Posts: 96222 | From Texas | Registered: Feb 2001
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5dana8
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 7935
posted
Thanks lymetoo
I just ordered a started kit
and will let you know if there is any trick to this.
Take care
-------------------- 5dana8 Posts: 4432 | From some where over the rainbow | Registered: Sep 2005
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