Milk kefir ~ what it is and why you need it in your life (belly)…

Let’s explore the benefits of milk kefir

Milk kefir, or dairy kefir, is a wonderful way to naturally boost your immune system and overall health, all by improving the health of your gut bacteria. Probiotics and prebiotics are a hot topic in the health world today, and for good reason! We are learning more and more just how important gut health is to your overall health and happiness. Let’s dig in and learn what we can about on this fabulous probiotic product ~ milk kefir.

Milk kefir is a living culture that grows in and ferments milk. Because the culture is made up of a multitude of strains of beneficial micro-organisms, kefir can boost your gut health, in turn possibly improving your overall health.

The milk kefir culture is often referred to as “grains,” but this is simply a description of what the culture looks like. Kefir does not contain any wheat or other grain in it. In fact, happy, healthy milk kefir grains often look a lot like milky cauliflower heads!

Let’s do a quick dive into the microbiome

This summary is a little long but stick with me:

“The microbiome is the community of microorganisms (such as fungi, bacteria and viruses) that exists in a particular environment. In humans, the term is often used to describe the microorganisms that live in or on a particular part of the body, such as the skin or gastrointestinal tract. These groups of microorganisms are dynamic and change in response to a host of environmental factors, such as exercise, diet, medication and other exposures.

The microbiome is the collection of all microorganisms, bacteria, fungi and viruses. Well, we used to think about the bacteria that colonized humans as bad. We always thought of them as pathogens, and we wanted to try to destroy them and thought that was the real benefit of antibiotics. But now we recognize that there also are good microbes, or commensal microbes, that provide needed help to the human and similarly would provide benefit to the environmental source. So, for humans, bacteria that live in your gut help in the digestion of food, and bacteria that live on your skin help to break down the lipids to produce natural moisturizing factor for your skin. These microbes that live on your skin or in your gut also are wonderful in providing colonization resistance. They’re basically taking up all the space so that the pathogens that might want to try to invade humans don’t have the opportunity, and that’s really our greatest protection against microbes that want to colonize us but don’t help in our health.” https://www.genome.gov/genetics-glossary/Microbiome Julie Segre, Ph.D. Chief and NIH Distinguished Investigator, Translational and Functional Genomics Branch

How does milk kefir fit into this?

If our overall health depends greatly on the health of our digestive system, then it makes sense to be mindful of what we ingest. Oftentimes dis-ease starts with an unhealthy gut. Essentially, the stronger your microbiome, the better your health can be. Milk kefir, as well as other probiotic rich products, can boost your health by strengthening your microbiome. Milk kefir clocks in with an impressive 59 strains of probiotics – 5 times more strains than yogurt and a much richer, more diverse, (not to mention whole foods source) than a store-bought probiotic supplements.

Milk Kefir uses

We drink a 1/2 cup daily – usually in the evening to help promote restful sleep . Does it help? Honestly, I’m not sure that there’s a way to quantify that, but it sure doesn’t hinder our sleep! It can also be used as your liquid in any smoothie recipe. Besides drinking it, the second most common use we have for it is in baking. Milk kefir can be use 1:1 in any recipe calling for buttermilk. I LOVE real buttermilk, but don’t currently have a cow nor make butter, and the store-bought stuff is just not the same. Milk kefir is an excellent replacement! We use it in sourdough buttermilk biscuits, baked pancake, and more! I also use it as my culture when making chevre – a delicious, spreadable goats cheese. SO GOOD!

In my next kefir post, we’ll explore where to obtain your grains, and how to make it.

*Spoiler Alert* it’s super easy!

Have you tried kefir yet? Or maybe you have your own thoughts or experiences to share? I’d love to hear what you think — feel free to leave comments or questions below. Cheers to better health!