What is kefir?

Milk Kefir is a fermented milk product, almost like yogurt, it’s made using Milk Kefir grains. Milk Kefir grains are invaluable gems that have been around for centuries, passed on from generation to generation and safeguarded for the health benefits they have to offer. It is said that these treasures come from the Caucasus Mountains, a mountain region found between Russia & Georgia, many centenarians from that region attribute their long happy years to this phenomenal gelatinous “grains” used to ferment milk.

..but really … What is milk kefir?

Milk Kefir is a probiotic beverage that’s traditionally made with goats, cows, camel or horse milk, depending on where in the world it’s cultured. And in recent years I’ve found that Kefir can be made successfully nut milk too.

Kefir is made by using your choice of milk and, as mentioned before, a culture called Kefir Grains. Although it’s not grains at all; it’s a complex polysaccharide with a casein core composed of a combination of beneficial bacteria and yeasts (not all yeast and bacteria are bad) that works together in a symbiotic matrix. These grains look like small little clouds or cauliflower florets.

See how to make Milk Kefir by going here.

Milk Kefir almost taste like plain yogurt, sometimes it may have a tarter taste to it depending on the type of grain and fermentation time. Milk Kefir may not be as thick as yogurt but it has much more probiotics than Yogurt does. Milk Kefir has up to 52 different strains of probiotics and yogurt may have anything from 3-7 probiotic strains.

Some people may ask why the number of probiotic strains is so important. Simply put each probiotic strain has a different function and contributes to your health and well being. Another reason is that the good bacteria, also known as probiotics, work better in numbers and that’s how they get rid of pathogens and colonise your gut. There’s this study that has been done on the effects pasteurized cow’s milk had on breast cancer cells and the effects kefir vs yogurt had: at a dose concentration as low as 0.63% kefir showed a 29% inhibition of cancer cells and yogurt began to show antiproliferative effects at only 2.5% dosage. Whereas with Kefir at a 2.5% dose, it decreased breast cancer cells by 56%!