What’s Kefir And why should you Consume it?
Milk Kefir, due to its probiotic content, calcium, B vitamins like biotin, folic acid, and vitamin K, is considered a highly gut-friendly super food. Be it bloating, gas, or even acid reflux, kefir is a panacea for all gut-related issues. You can either buy readymade milk kefir or make it at home. It is advised to prepare milk kefir using organic milk as it is richer in nutrients and texture. Easy to get home delivered, cow milk, in fact is the most commonly used milk for making kefir. As it is vat pasteurized (as opposed to UHT pasteurization), a low-temperature method of heating milk to kill pathogens, the enzymes that help make digestion better stay intact. It is the closest possible option you can use instead of raw milk, which is said to have some health risks associated to it, besides the benefits. Other types of milk that you may use include goat milk, sheep milk, coconut milk etc.
So, why should you invest your time, money, and efforts in preparing kefir, especially when you have similar probiotic options like curd, yogurt etc? Let’s understand.
Live and Active Culture with More CFU
Let’s start with simplifying the terms first. Live and active cultures refer to the microbes found in fermented foods, making them highly probiotic i.e. a powerhouse of gut-friendly bacteria. Kefir has 12 different strains i.e. sub-types of active and cultures and Colony Forming Units (CFU) somewhere between 25-30 million. Yogurt or curd, on the other hand, can have anywhere from 1 to 5 strains with 6 billion CFU, which is more than twice the amount of probiotics. Probiotic foods, such as kefir, can help treat diarrhea caused by an antibiotics or infections, says a conducted in Oct, 2017.