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Water Kefir: A Fun and Fizzy Soda Alternative

Water KefirLooking for an alternative to soda and sugar-laden fruit juices? Hoping to find something your kids will enjoy? Fermented beverages offer taste, fizz, and fun in a variety of flavors and forms!

Fermented beverages include dairy kefir, kombucha, beet kvass, and water kefir. The water kefir recipe below can be adapted to suit your tastes and preferences.

Water kefir requires three basic ingredients: Starter, sugar, and water. Don't worry if sugar is not part of your daily diet. The sugar is "eaten" by the grains or starter, and the drink is transformed into a probiotic boost to your immune system.

Ingredients:

  1. Starter. This can be in the form of water kefir grains (small gelatinous masses of beneficial bacteria and yeasts) which multiply and provide kefir indefinitely, or starter packets which eventually must be replaced.

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Health Benefits of Lacto-Fermented Foods

To understand the virtue of lacto-fermented foods, it's important to understand the digestive process itself. Two things happen when we eat. First, ingested foods are broken down. Second, nutrients are built up. If the breaking-down process is incomplete, the building up will not happen correctly.

In her book Making Sauerkraut and Pickled Vegetables at Home, Annelies Schoneck explains the role of lacto-fermented foods:

What is astonishing is that lactic acid contributes to both processes—that of decomposition and that of reconstruction. On the one hand it supplies digestive juices in the form of organic acids that help break down the foods we eat, and on the other hand it activates the metabolic processes whereby these foods are transformed into new living substances.

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Health Benefits of Kefir

Hippocrates said that our food is our medicine and our medicine is our food. Nothing illustrates this more than the probiotic food kefir. Kefir is made using "grains" to ferment any kind of milk (goat, cow, coconut, etc.), incorporating their beneficial organisms to create the cultured product. The grains look like clumps of cauliflower but are actually clusters of healthy yeasts and bacteria.

Kefir is pronounced Ke-Feer', according to the dictionary, but is more commonly pronounced Kee' fir or Keff ' ir. It means "feel good" in Turkish. It is a complete protein and is high in minerals and vitamins, especially the B vitamins. Homemade kefir contains up to 35 strains of good bacteria and yeast (as opposed to yogurt, which contains a handful). Bottled kefir purchased at the store may contain up to 10 strains, but often includes unwanted additives. Kefir, therefore, is best when it's homemade.

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Quotes

"In my moldy home if I left the wet clothes in the washer they would get musty very quickly and I'd have to re-wash... Sometimes I'd run a load, go to work, and they'd be musty when I returned that evening."

– Anonymous

"Our family has been out of our home for 9 months due to mold... I am so scared and weak from all of this. We have lost friends; family members don't understand."

– Anonymous

"The ERMI mold test as well as your helpful articles and Toxic Talk Tuesday programs have helped us avoid a terrible mistake in purchasing a new home."

– Angela

"The entire time we lived in our (mold-infested) house the kitchen sponge would get musty smelling within 3-4 days. It was so strange. I had to buy a pack of sponges nearly every week."

– Anonymous

"I'm new at this, but today I cleaned my bathroom with baking soda and vinegar. It's much better not having those strong chemical smells afterwards."

– Anonymous

"I've been living in a mold-infested home for 13 months... I was going CRAZY! Finally figured it out... Just a few days of recovering in a mold-free home and I feel AMAZING!!!"

– Lauren

"I started finding myself sitting on the floor in rooms of my house and not remembering how I got there, what I was doing before, or how long I had been there."

– Brenda

"Both of my sons went downhill quickly and coughed for months... They both lost their ability to read, had profound vision disturbances, and had phenomenal gastric issues."

– Lee

"My daughter has had many blood samples taken to test for everything imaginable and her doctor just seems puzzled. Everything comes back normal."

– Anonymous

"I have been sick for almost 6 months now and doctors were not able to figure out why. I finally put it all together after going away for vacation for a week and suddenly my symptoms were going away."

– Anonymous

"My symptoms persisted and eventually turned into lethargy and depression. At the age of 26, I required a nap every evening after work."

– Jennifer

"We were having a lot of health problems and had been to the doctor countless times... we had large circles of slimy greenish-black mold on the bathroom ceiling, where it had caved in a few months before."

– C.

"I knew it was mold, but doctors kept telling me I had anxiety. I was sitting in my office and could not remember who I was talking to, or what we were talking about."

– Brenda

"...at age 35 or 36 I started to become allergic to everything, and I got asthma at age 36... I went to doctor after doctor after doctor and was desperate for help, but nobody could help me."

– Mia

"We had some water leaks in our home... we never thought we needed to clean out and remove the floor, the ceiling, or the drywall... my two small children and I have remained constantly sick for years in this home."

– Mia

"My daughter started having digestive problems... heart palpitations... coughing episodes... muscle/joint pain... asthma/allergies... Her doctor finally advised me to check for mold in our home."

– Anonymous

"I had been struggling with headaches, head fog, breathing difficulties (unable to get a full breath), constant scalp tingling, migraines, nausea, feeling spacey/detached, and severe itchy skin."

– Anonymous

"We all suffered from headaches, hormonal body temperature fluctuations, brain fog, fatigue, difficulty breathing, thrush, rashes, and yeast infections... we vacated our home two weeks ago."

– Anonymous

"I was skeptical at first that these (natural cleaning) products would work, but they work better than the stuff I buy at the store! We will soon be moving to the personal care products as well!"

– Jennifer

This site is dedicated to a true friend and mother — Barbara Dell Kessel (1929-2009)