Power Foods - Kefir - What is it?
8:35 AMI have seen Kefir in the supermarkets and normally ignored them. Spoke to a few of my work colleagues and found out that they have been taking a lot of home made kefir products to keep their immune systems up. They say it works miracles on keeping them healthy when they are close to being sick.
When you have kids, you are share the love and the sickness too...
What is Kefir?
- A sour-tasting drink make from cow's milk fermented with certain bacteria.
- Made from Milk Kefir grains mixed with milk (that has lactose - milk sugar) to allow the bacteria strains to grow.
- Can buy Kefir milk products from supermarkets and the cost is about 3.8 to 5 dollars for 1 L bottle
- Milk kefir grains are a combination of live bacteria and yeasts that exist in a symbiotic matrix on a surface of a complex polysaccharide with a casein core. Kefir grain make-up can vary depending on culturing location and conditions, resulting in a highly variable community of lactic acid bacteria and yeasts.
Following is a list of bacteria and yeast strains found to comprise kefir grains from different regions and through 2 different scientific studies.* The strains listed may include numerous subspecies and variants.Bacteria Strains Common to 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 thermophilusYeast Strains Common to Milk Kefir Grains
Candida humilis
Kazachstania unispora
Kazachstania exigua
Kluyveromyces siamensis
Kluyveromyces lactis
Kluyveromyces marxianus
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Saccharomyces martiniae
Saccharomyces unisporus
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