The Mystical Kefir: A Journey into Gut Health

We've wrapped up dinner and venture into the night.
Nighttime is the best time for probiotics and prebiotics.
In upcoming articles, with Hashem's help, we'll delve deeper into the topic.

First, let's talk about kefir. Some of you might know it as the yoga mushroom or Tibetan fungus – it has many names.

The origin goes back hundreds, maybe even a thousand years. This bacterium/fungus culture was discovered in a goat's gut sac, and as its medicinal qualities were realized, it was propagated and passed from person to person, and generation to generation.

I first heard about kefir from a friend’s husband.

For years, he suffered from severe migraines and recurring throat infections. The person who gave him the kefir said it would change his life. Over four years, he felt fantastic, free of migraines and throat infections. About a year ago, when the migraines began to creep back, he resumed taking kefir, and again, they disappeared.

Incidentally, the friend's mother remembers from her childhood in a small Georgian village that any time someone was unwell, with no doctors or medicines available, an aunt would give the child kefir, and they'd get better.

So how does it work?
Say hello to flora.

Our body houses about 100 trillion friendly bacteria—roughly ten times more than the number of cells in our body. This assembly of bacteria, weighing about a kilogram and a half of our body weight, is known as intestinal flora (although not all are concentrated in the intestines).

In recent years, bacterial flora has been extensively studied by researchers and scientists—with astounding results!

It turns out that this flora affects our immune system, hormones, cravings, weight, and even our mood.

So if I really, just really, crave something sweet.... It's not really me, it's the flora.

Healthy flora, healthy body.
But when the flora isn’t healthy? We feel tired, frequently ill, possibly overweight despite a healthy diet and exercise. Some may suffer from mood swings, depression, or even severe autoimmune diseases like Crohn's and colitis.

I browsed the internet, stumbled upon fascinating articles and videos.
Countless health site articles, even a video about a new trend in Caesarea—kefir instead of Botox parties, for anti-aging treatments.
On Shmuel Zeidel's site (yes, the very same founder of "Coordinated Reflexology" treatment), there’s a story about a Polish professor who cured his liver cancer thanks to the Tibetan mushroom.

Sounds too good to be true... even a bit surreal. Besides, it's known you can't trust everything online. As I've unfortunately seen, many onscreen claims, even in the news, don’t match reality.

So I dusted off my English, shook off the cobwebs, and logged onto the academic site PUBMED.
This site is considered reliable, publishing scientific studies. I searched for tibetan milk mushroom and Kefir, visited several university sites to research more and learn from the wisdom of non-Jews about this fungus.
I was amazed by countless articles and studies that came up. I delved into study after study, microbiologists, pharmacologists, doctors, etc., have explored the topic, and findings are astonishing:

They claim yogurt made from kefir contains numerous probiotic strains (more than any capsule you'll take), enzymes, amino acids, vitamins, minerals—calcium, magnesium, B vitamins, including B12, vitamin K, vitamin A, vitamin D, antioxidants, etc., etc.

They argue that due to this enormous nutritional value, kefir can help with:

• Skin issues
• Digestive problems
• Respiratory system
• Obesity
• Stress conditions
• Lactose intolerance
• Autoimmune diseases
• Joint diseases
• Internal inflammations Inflammation

Furthermore, kefir also:

• Promotes a healthy immune system
• Delays aging processes- Anti-aging
• Is antibiotic against bad bacteria, probiotic to friendly bacteria, and antifungal
• Lowers cholesterol
• Balances blood sugar
• Detoxifies

So how much does this miracle cost?

You don't buy kefir—you receive it for free from someone who has it.

A small teaspoon amount is given, beige-white in color, and you start to grow it like a pet; feeding and washing it once a day.

Once the fungus grows to the size of a small cauliflower and is milk-white, it can be passed to others who need it and promise to care for it well.

I decided I wanted some too, but I had a kashrut problem. Originally grown in goat guts? Surely non-kosher. Passed from person to person until it reached the Holy Land—who knows what non-Jewish milk was used.

I consulted rabbis, one after another, until I met Rabbi Shlomo Levy, shlita, head of the Torah core and chair of the hesder yeshiva in Rishon Letzion. The Rabbi thoroughly researched the topic, returning after a few weeks.
In our conversation, he noted that kefir is based on the same principle as sourdough.
And this is true.

For those unfamiliar, sourdough is a culture of spores, grown at home, handed from generation to generation.
When baking bread or any yeasted pastry, a little sourdough is added instead of yeast.
A few years ago, there was a highly publicized divorce trial in Italy.
The husband, a renowned chef, was sued by his wife for a get.
The reason—when a fire broke out in their home, instead of running upstairs to save their two sleeping children, the chef chose to rush to the kitchen to save his 200-year-old sourdough.

Returning to the Rabbi's answer.
Since kefir has undergone numerous rounds of jaelonia feeding from Jewish milk, the kefir is kosher and permissible without any worry, although during Passover it is preferable to store it aside in the refrigerator and not use it (I add that everyone should consult their own Rabbi).

I was thrilled, and now I am the proud owner of this pet named Kefir.
Since I don't yet have enough experience and/or knowledge about its efficacy, I'd appreciate those who are familiar or have tried it to share their experiences with our readers and myself in the comments below.
Should there be enough interest and responses, with Hashem's help, in the next article I'll compile readers' feedback, along with instructions on how to grow kefir with pictures and/or video.

Until then, lots of health,
Chen Tovi