Kefir -- Wonder Food

 A very happy W sporting a kefir smoothie moustache!

It's true.  Kefir is a wonder food.

"I wonder what kefir is!"

"I wonder why in the heck someone would actually drink that!"

"I wonder what good it will do my body today!"

When I first heard about kefir, I was adamantly opposed to it.  My understanding was that it was along the lines of curdled milk.  Seriously? 

Who in their right mind would drink curdled milk?  Makes me throw up a little in my mouth just thinking about it.  Ugh.

This summer, however, I've done a complete 180.  I've gotten educated about it, and my family's been drinking it for nearly two months now.  And.it.rocks.

I must give credit where credit's due.  Dear Lydia N. came over one evening to bring dinner to my Daddy (How sweet!).  She didn't know that we'd moved to town and were living with him, so it was a pleasant surprise to get to visit with her.  I've known her (from a distance) since I was a pre-teen.  Lydia was one of the "older" girls (maybe 5 years...not so much now!) that every younger girl hoped would take notice.  She was so very sweet, gentle and kind.  A Jesus-loving, hippie-cool kind of girl.  The esteem I held her in then has obviously carried over to today.  :-)

Anyway, in the course of our visit, kefir came up.  I could not believe that she had her family drinking it!  She, very graciously & gently, explained how it had umpteen jillion probiotics (Yes, I exaggerate.  Just ask my Daddy about that one.) - several times that of yogurt (our homemade yogurt has 5-7 probiotics); how it can have probiotics that deal with yeast infections and also staph infections among others. 

I was impressed, to say the least, but not necessarily ready to run out to get some kefir grains to start my own culture at home.  Not, that is, until AB got a rash around her mouth that appeared to be a yeast infection gone wild.  (The girl sucks on two fingers a good portion of the time.  We're trying to break her of that, but not successfully as of yet.)  She had been eating yogurt, but that hadn't taken care of it.  It got worse.  I remembered Lydia saying that kefir would help take care of a yeast infection.

I made a late night call to see if she had any grains.  Bless her heart, she and her husband were heading out of the country the next day, but she took the time to make some calls, locate some grains, and even deliver them to my house.  What a sweet lady!

So...we tried some bottled kefir from the store while the grains were getting acclimated after being frozen.  It was yummy.  No, really.  Yummy. 

I was sold on the bottled kefir (particularly since it was on sale!), but it only had 10-12 probiotics.  It would have more if I cultured it myself.  So that's what I did.  :-)  That whole experience will be the next post in this Kefir series.  (I can't believe I just typed that -- series -- feels a little presumptuous!)

I do want to let you know, that this stuff is worth it. 

• The rash around AB's mouth is cleared up!
• My intestines are much happier with me now.
• My Daddy has a "dermatological issue" that the dermatologist said he would have to deal with for the rest of his life with medication.  It had just flared up before we started the kefir.  He hadn't put his meds on it yet, and it cleared up after the first kefir smoothie...with no medication applied!
• I shared some grains with a friend, and her husband has been a longtime Nexium user that couldn't go more than two days without taking it.  After drinking kefir for a couple of days, he stopped taking it and didn't need it for five days.

I'm looking forward to sharing how easy it is to culture kefir and enjoy it daily!