Has anyone tried water kefir?

[Luisa22]

I'm sorry, I seem to be doing an awful lot of posting recently. I hope I'm not making a nuisance of myself :/

Has anyone tried water kefir?

I am a bit scary about taking probiotic capsules with billions of bacteria, because to my logic, it's a huge plunge and the one thing I don't want to do is make myself feel any worse. Even one capsule is a lot and once they're inside, there's no taking them out if things go pear shaped.

Running on the old saying "better the devil I know, than the one I have no idea about". My tummy can be over sensitive sometimes.

But I have never tried kefir. I know for a fact (not being a milk person -any form of milk just turns me off) -that femented milk would be even worse. I don't think I'd even be able to swallow it without gagging.

(Wow I sound like a right snowflake don't I?)

But water kefir...hmm, that might be possible, and I can just sip a bit and see how it goes with my tummy the next day, and so on. And maybe graduate to drinking more each day.

There are some lovely flavours of it available too. I looked on an organic website where the ingredients are wholesome.

But what I'd like to ask here is, has anyone found any benefit from drinking kefir? Either water or milk types?

[marthaalice]

I have never tried it but very interested to see any responses. Don’t ever think you are a nuisance, your questions and answers are helpful to lots of people. X

[Jackie1612]

sorry, I have never tried it. I agree with Marthaalice, you are definitely not a nuisance!

[xjrs]

Hi Luisa22 , you are defo not a nuisance as the others say. You have raised an interesting point especially since many of us can't tolerate dairy and I have been looking for dairy free kefir, but I think that they tend to be coconut milk based (which is high in saturated fat). I did try dairy based Kefir, but it just made my constipation worse. I need to avoid dairy since it seems to block me up.

Do you have any links to the products that you are suggesting, since I am curious too?

[spabbygirl]

Hi Luisa, I don't think you're being a pain, anything that helps us learn and starts a chat is great I reckon!!! I have kefir of all sorts and love it and I do find the tablets helpful, the things is we have been so trained by people who sell cleaning products that bacteria are bad for you that when doctors start looking at the benefits of bacteria it makes people wary, understandably. But the right sort of bacteria always have been helpful to us, our skin is covered with bacteria and they do a good job of fighting off any intruders that might cause an infection. the same is true in different areas of our body, lots of recent research is showing just how helpful they are in our gut, they break down parts of what we eat so we can get to the vitamins. Professor Tim Spector has done some fab research on the subject & he has lots of easy to read info on it on the internet if you google him. I take a probiotic by wild dose that is good for bloating but I find it also helps for my sore diverticulitis too. You say once you take these tablets or kefir you unleash the bacteria in your gut you're stuck with them you can't get rid of them if you want, but you can, many antibiotics will get rid of them, they are called 'broad spectrum' and kill a wide range of bacteria but be warned, taking antibiotics often causes tummy upsets because they take away the good bacteria as well as the bad. Antibiotics are a great thing and wonderful when you need them, but often you need to replace the bacteria after. I think you have to try these things and see what helps you, each tummy is different and will respond in its own way which is why medics can't say 'take xxx' to help, but read Tim Spector & similar, its really interesting and there's more than one way to get more bacteria into you, the right sort of bacteria in the right place is a great thing.

[Luisa22 in reply to spabbygirl]

Yes, I do hear you about "happy bacteria". And I know they are all over the place in our bodies doing some wonderful things. It;s just that sometimes I have paradoxical reactions to some things. What is super good for everyone can be horrible for me. So I have to be so careful and feel my way inch by inch.

And I avoid antibiotics. With the exception of amoxycillin which just makes me exhausted and nauseous (the last time I took that was in 2006) -any other ones have made me quite ill in the past. I haven't taken any since 2006..

So I would hate to put myself in a position where the only possible way out was to take antibiotics.

[Luisa22]

Thanks for letting me know I'm not a nuisance! That is very encouraging, you lovely people.

This was the site where I saw the water kefir

abelandcole.co.uk/drinks/so...

Scroll down a way to find the water kefir.

They all look so tasty, interesting and nice. But these people are a bit expensive, even though their products are well liked locally (south west England) But I'm sure organic water kefir drinks would be available all over the place, in organic deliveries, or health food shops. (though probably not available in Asda or Tesco?)

I don't often make the 10 mile round trip to town, so rarely go in the health food shop there. It's just slightly possible they might have it and it might be cheaper.

But for something that's less of a treat and possibly medicinal, I wouldn't mind paying an amount I wouldn't normally pay for any other soft drink. Plus I'd intend to only have small amounts at first, see how that went, and increase if all was well. It would be well worth it if it helped for my tummy!

[b1b1b1]

I have never heard of water kefir, but maybe it is not available in the US. O do drink lactose free low fat milk kefir, but only in very small amounts. I will just take one sip per day. I don't know how much this helps, but it does not hurt me or make things worse.

[Bobb1e]

hi Luisa, I haven’t seen any water based Kefir around here. Did you try it? There is a small chocolate coconut one in the local supermarket, but the rest are milk based which is a no no for me.

I’ve been trialing Biokult probiotics, they are cheaper than Alflorex and I split the capsule open and sprinkle some of the powder onto food. That way the dose is spread around the day. You don’t even need to start with a whole capsule that way. I wasn’t sure if it was helping on a day to day level but I noticed my tum got much more reactive when I had forgotten to take it for a few days. So on a daily basis I would say it’s worth trying. Boots, supermarkets etc stock it. x

[Luisa22]

No I haven't tried water kefir yet. Mostly for practical reasons (getting into town to the health food shop to see if they have it...having no car for a couple of weeks,,,and the place online where I could order it is generally so expensive for groceries, I'd have to place an order for delivery and all I want from them is one bottle of water kefir to try!) But next time I can drive into town I'll have a look in the health food shop.