Nancy got me curious about making your own kefir and its healing benefits to the intestines. I wanted to get more probiotics than the two species my supplements are giving me. Kefir has something like 40 different beneficial probiotics!

I found this website to locate someone in my area for kefir grains. Kefir grains are not grains at all, but the organisms and structure they create to make cauliflower looking blobs.

http://www.torontoadvisors.com/Kefir/kefir-list.php

We did a trade off in town, and I've been making dairy kefir ever since. I donated a couple of dollars, so it was really cheap. I think it's been helpful, but it's only been about two weeks since I got them. Anything to compete with those bad bacteria in my gut!

I'm curious about making coconut milk kefir. I'm hoping Nancy will chime in here. Nancy, did you rinse your kefir grains in water before transfering them over to coconut milk, or does it matter? Does it take longer to make kefir in coconut milk than it does in dairy milk?

Nancy, I'm also wondering if you eat your kefir grains and have you noticed the healing benefits from that? I accidentally got a small one that I didn't filter out once and it seemed really chewy.

If you want to learn more about kefir, this is the "everything you wanted to know about kefir, but were afraid to ask" website. The information and layout can be a little overwhelming, but there's a lot of good info there.

http://users.chariot.net.au/~dna/kefirpage.html

Please chime in with your personal experiences with kefir!

Claire

Thanks for the link, Claire. I have not a thing to add to the thread, knowing nothing at all about kefir, but thanks to your link, hopefully I won't be such an ignoramus in the future.

I had kefir all last winter and it really did improve my gut we have goats and I am ok with goat milk ( but not cows milk ) so we just made it from that - raw unpasturised milk of course as heating milk destroys the enzymes

once summer came ( I am in australia it is summer now ) the heat made the kefir much stronger and it smelled more of alcohol ........ I noticed my hands were much number and eventually stopped the kefir to see if it was the alcohol - which it turned out it was. I cannot tolerate alcohol at all

so back to yogurt at least for the summer and I notice my gut has got worse again

koz

Hi Koz,

Wow, lucky you to have raw goats milk! I have the same problem with the alcohol in the kefir if I let it go too long. I discovered this the hard way over the weekend.

What I do is let the milk sit about 24 hours with the grains, then I strain out the grains. I then let the kefir "finish off", consuming the rest of the lactose at room temperature for another day. I've figured out that for the winter months, 4 days total is the maximum I can let it go at room temperature. I'm wondering if you can let your kefir sit less time so you don't get the increased alcohol production in the warm months? I've sometimes noticed my kefir done in as little as 12 hours. Or, you could just make your kefir in the frig. It might take a little longer, but you would have less of a chance of it producing a lot of alcohol. Let us know if you try it!

Claire

Thanks for the links and the tips.

I think I'm ready to jump in with coconut milk now.

I've contacted one of the people on the list. We'll see if it's still and active 'donor'.

It would be nice if I could eventually become a donor for other people who also don't tolerate dairy well.

From what I have read, if you have a true living kefir culture, it won't sustain for ever on coconut milk, but if you you rotate it with dairy milk every 4 weeks or so (you don't have to drink the dairy if you don't want to) it will continue to thrive! I have not yet tried it. I would love to try dairy kefir, but I react so badly to dairy, it would be a very bad idea. And I haven't gotten myself motivated enough to start the water kefir or coconut kefir. In the meantime I have probiotics that I can't even remember to take on a daily basis! Oh I need someone to come and organize me! One of these days, though...we'll be on the kefir bandwagon!

Nancy seems to be doing very well with coconut kefir.

She is the one who is inspiring me to finally get off my butt about committing to the project.

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...ighlight=kefir

I really don't want to do this but I may have to! LOL! I spent hours yesterday trying to find a vegan, gf, sf, corn-free probiotic for my child. Nada!

Given my fear of having things explode (still haven't worked up the nerve to buy a pressure cooker -- years of my mom telling me, "Mustn't touch ... very dangerous!" have done a number on me), I haven't tried to make kefir. There is also something you can make called rejuvelac. It is usually made with wheat or rye, I think, but I've seen a recipe using cabbage. http://editor.nourishedmagazine.com....juvelac-recipe
There's always kim chee as well. But getting your child to drink fermented cabbage juice or eat kim chee may be a nonstarter

I have a brand of probiotic I bought at Whole Foods, FloraMore, which says on the label: "Contains no yeast, wheat, corn, soy, gluten, salt, dairy, animal products, binders, fillers or artificial ingredients." This is what it does contain:http://www.renewlife.com/flowmeter.cfm?meter=375
It says on the label that the FOS "promotes growth of healthy bacteria." It also shows other ingredients (not on the web site ) of rice flour and vegetable capsule (vegetable fiber and water). There are some online sources shown on the web site, plus a customer service number, if you don't have a Whole Foods nearby or it doesn't stock this. Another contact number for the company, not shown on the web site, is 1-866-450-1787.

DianeR

The best one is Metagenics Ultra Flora DF (for Dairy Free). I included the link for the powdered version, but you can buy capsules too. This is what I use, in addition to the kefir. Usually, you can only buy Metagenics through a health care practitioner, but we have a pharmacy called Pharmaca where you can get it. Try to find a health care practitioner in your area who carries the Metagenics products if you are interested. They are some of the best quality supplements I've ever purchased, but they are not cheap!

I decided to add kefir because the Ultra Flora only has two organisms. Kefir has something like 40 beneficial organisms. That's why I think yogurt is limited too, and Koz's experience seems to verify that. I figure that I need more than just 2 probiotic organisms for my sensitive gut . I'm going for the "more the merrier" approach!

Claire