Many years ago, I'm thinking 7 or 8, I started reading about this new thing called kefir. I was able to get my hands on a few grains, and for no better reason than to experiment with it, I started drinking it. After a few weeks, I noticed that problems I had never paid much mind to started clearing up. After 25 years, I no longer needed to buy a dandruff shampoo. Symptoms that left me concerned about acid reflux stopped bothering me.
I drank homemade kefir for awhile, but eventually switched to store bought because of taste and convenience. (It tastes like a yogurt smoothie.) Meanwhile, my grains were abandoned, and then mistakenly thrown out. However, I never felt that the store bought grains were quit as sufficient.
Last week, I bought new grains locally off of Craigslist.org.
The process of making kefir is really quite simple--you take the kefir grains, add twice as much milk in a glass out plastic (I'm not a purist) pitcher and let them sit for 12 to 48 hours. The time depends on the room temperature. The longer it sits the "better" it is for you. Certainly the more sour it is. But it also has more time to turn the lactose into lactase.
Kefir is a powerful probiotic and unique mixture of beneficial microorganisms, including more than thirty different bacteria and yeasts. These include: Lactobacillus kefyr, Lactococcus lactis, Lactococcus cremoris, Lactococcus diacetylactis, Leuconostoc cremoris, Candida kefyr, and Saccharomyces. "Kefir also contains high levels of vitamin B 12, which is a common deficiency in immuno-compromised patient populations and vegetarians."
I feel the health and wellness seeping over me and I didn't even know I was sick.
