5 things you should know about kefir and your microbiome

Inside your gut, at this very moment, there are trillions of live bacteria, fungi and viruses, known as your microbiome. Imagine these gorgeous tiny organisms like the Amazon rainforest: trees, flowers, rivers, fish, lizard, deer, jaguars, butterflies, monkeys, frogs and tigers, all existing in a complex natural system.

Hopefully this ecosystem is biodiverse and thriving. But like any natural ecosystem, the one inside your gut is fragile, and can be damaged. Your microbiome is under constant attack by the assailants of modern life: sugar, stress, antibiotics and environmental toxins. Taking a course of antibiotics, for example, is like pouring bleach into the Amazon River – it kills all the fish. Except in this case, the fish are the delicate gut bugs that populate your immune system!

When this happens, you can experience a negative cascade of events that will spiral out from your gut microbiome to influence every area of your body: skin, bone, muscle, digestion, immune system, hormone regulation, brain health, mood, cholesterol, glucose control and nervous system.

Many modern complaints including IBS, anxiety, depression, allergies, asthma, eczema, psoriasis, arthritis and diabetes can be traced back to damage in your microbiome. But how can this fragile, complex system be protected and restored?

The fastest and most efficient way to repair your microbiome is by drinking goat’s milk kefir. Kefir is a traditional fermented milk drink originating from the Black Caucasus Mountains, where the inhabitants were famed for their long-lived vitality. In 1908, Ellie Metchnikoff, known as “The Father of Modern Immunity”, won a Nobel Prize for his work showing that the bacterial microbiota found in kefir contributed to health and long life.

In January 2017, Dr Michael Moseley of BBC 2’s Trust Me, I’m a Doctor, found that kefir was the most effective of any probiotic food on the market. He found that live, traditionally-made kefir is more effective than “supermarket” varieties, which may be pasteurised and contain sugar or sweeteners, which will degrade the power of the probiotics.

Like your microbiome itself, kefir is a natural synergy of many different types of yeasts and bacteria, all living and thriving in their own environment and increasing in numbers over time. This makes kefir far more powerful than any man-made or desiccated probiotic, which may only contain a few strains of bacteria that are dying off as time goes on.

Here are 5 benefits of pure goat’s milk kefir for your gut:

• Kefir is better than yoghurt because it can actually repopulate the good bugs inside your microbiome. Dr Michael Moseley’s NHS studies found that, unlike yoghurt, the strains of bacteria in kefir actually survive the digestive process to have a powerful effect inside your gut.
• Milk kefir is more potent than water kefir because dairy is the most powerful base for probiotics. Water-based kefir, made with “water kefir” grains, produces a far less powerful synergy of bacterial strains.
• Goat’s milk kefir is easier to tolerate than cow’s milk kefir. Goat’s milk is considered to be a hypoallergenic “functional food.” In contrast, cow’s milk contains the highly allergenic A1 casein, which can further inflame the gut, acting as a common trigger for many autoimmune conditions.
• Kefir made with real grains is more powerful than kefir made with a powdered starter. Kefir grains are living organisms, and fermenting the goat’s milk with the grains at room temperature is what produces the powerful live culture effect. If it doesn’t say on the label that it’s made with real kefir grains, it probably isn’t.
• Unflavoured kefir is better than sweetened kefir. Sugar and sweeteners kill off good bugs in kefir just as they do inside your microbiome, so flavoured kefir is going to be less beneficial than pure, tart kefir. You can blend it up with fresh fruit or 100% pure stevia to make it more palatable; consume this immediately so that the cultures are not harmed by the fructose in the fruit.

For more from Chuckling Goat’s co-director, Shann, check out her articles here!

Any questions? Contact one of our Nutritional Therapists via live chat, weekdays from 8 am to 8 pm.

Questions? Talk to a Nutritional Therapist on live chat!