Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Kefir

Maybe I should preface this post by saying that as someone with qualifications in a hard science, I am very cynical indeed about what I view as crackpot science - chrystals, reike, homeopathy, vegetarianism. In short if Prince Charles approves, I know its nonsense.

So here I am recommending something. Kefir. I was given a plant by a German woman in the Canaries and she took no hostages. So I tried it and it really does seem to have settled my turbulent stomach. Michale Mosley investigated it and the report is here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38800977 . Something to do with probiotics.

You put the plant ( mine is called Kevin! Well you lot give names to cars!) in milk at about 20C and 24 hours later you have something that looks very much like yoghurt. It isnt yoghurt - its actually fermented milk of the sort they drink in the Caucasus. I bung it on the morning muesli. And a few days later the stomach started to feel better with less reflux and no pain. Might be co-incidence but Mosley suggests not.

From one scientist to another, this is not "mumbo-jumbo". If it is working for you, don't stop.

The Kefir culture removes the lactose in milk and in doing so produces the "gut friendly" bacteria found in Yakult and the like.
The health of your gut bacteria is critical to good health, as is becoming increasingly recognised by medics.
There are a number of other pro-biotic foods, including kimchee and sauerkraut.

And talking of gut health...(not for the sensitive...)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fecal_microbiota_transplant

Not Crackpot. Huge amount of quality mainstream published peer reviewed scientific trials relating to the effect of bowel bacteria on health.

Good read: The diet myth by Prof Spector: http://www.tim-spector.co.uk/

From The BMJ

http://gut.bmj.com/content/61/Suppl_2/A104.1

I have had a kefir "plant" for some time but I'm not currently using it. It is reposing in the freezer in a nest of powdered milk.

The story of kefir and how it arrived in Russia and then spread to the rest of the world is quite interesting. It involved espionage, kidnapping, and ultimately a court case. The "mother" of kefir, commonly called kefir grains, is a mass of soft white jelly nodules generally about the size of a jelly bean. Kefir is actually a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeasts. They slowly increase from batch to batch and at a certain point you can divide them and give away half. You normally don't eat the grains but you can if you wish. I used to blend my strained kefir with some fruit or jam before drinking it.



Kefir grains

All those little bottles of fermented milk products that you buy in the supermarket have their origins in kefir. The big difference is that in oder to sell something commercially they have to define it and generally select one of the many types of bacteria that one would find in kefir. Even more refined versions can be purchased in a pharmacy in a concentrated form. They are often prescribed to help restore stomach bacteria following a course of antibiotics.

A real ginger beer "plant" is a very similar thing and is sometimes known as "water kefir" or "sugar kefir". I am not referring to the type which is made using powdered yeast, powdered ginger and sugar but the type that has nearly clear "grains" similar to kefir. The origins of the "kefir" type of ginger beer plant are unknown but it was probably brought from Asia or India by British soldiers.

This type can be used with dried figs or other flavouring fruits and sugar for those who do not like ginger (or milk).



Water kefir (or ginger beer) grains.

To make ginger beer you must, of course, add water, the juice of ginger, and sugar. Then after a period of fermentation the liquid is filtered and bottled and the process starts again. A spoon of sugar is added to each bottle for the secondary fermentation but after 2 days they must be refrigerated to block the fermentation and avoid exploding bottles.

In the end I stopped making it because I was starting to get problems with high blood sugar levels.

After reading this I am a bit tempted to see if I can revive my kefir grains that are in the freezer.

Interesting - I didnt know that you could freeze the kefir plant. Certainly mine went on strike in the aircraft hold on the way back from Tenerife. Looks just like yours by the way but is half the size.

Sourdough bread culture is much the same, I have one that has kept going now for 3 years.

I bake every 2nd week and refresh the starter, after 3 days growing it goes in the fridge. Keeping the ferment below 10c keeps the "sour flavour elements" under control, so my bread is only very slightly sour.

Natural everything is best, processed bakers yeast is much more active and aggressive, but in my view the resultant bread is harder to digest. Commercially yeast us used for speed, my bread can take 12 hours between mixing and baking, so the dough develops SLOWLY!

I don't need much but every time I look I seem to have less dough

Not mine! I should have credited the photo to Wikipedia.

Without wishing to enter this subject without knowing the exact problem, I had a problem about 4 years ago. Doc said it was viral trots, and to take a week off work to let nature take its course. Duly done but things were less controlled thereafter. Colonoscopy with the “While you’re here we’ll do an endoscopy inspection too.” Top end, different camera, not fun.
Anyway all clear given, but no resolution.
Offered Imodium generic capsules as permanent solution.
A Swedish reasearch oncologist relation recommended SYMPROVE, a commercial product spun out of University of London. Water based solution of 4 gut bacteria taken on a empty stomach. A very simple logical solution to the gut imbalance my viral infection had set up. www.symprove.com
No drugs, so not prescribed. Full academic UK medical research to my best belief. If you’ve got the trots and have had the all clear it’s worth a go.....so to speak.

Have you tried smoking it yet Howard?

Now I think on - they have been going on about this on the Archers - Tom and his staff have been making it in different flavours