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Kefir benefits for our health are several, and its popularity has steadily increased in the past 10 years. Let’s see what are kefir’s benefits:

Kefir is great in balancing the bacterial flora residing in the intestine and acts as a probiotic, stimulating the intestine’s immune system with beneficial effects on the entire body’s immune system. Furthermore, kefiran, the water soluble polysaccharide present in kefir grains, contains substances that also have prebiotic effects.

Kefir enhances the immune system, this is due to the action of its bacteria and yeasts that colonize the intestine, but also because of our body’s reaction to the kefiran dissolved in kefir.

Kefiran inhibits the growth of tumor cells: this has been proven through a series of scientific tests involving feeding kefiran to a batch of laboratory rats. It is not clear yet what has caused the positive results and no tests have been conducted on humans so far. So this kefir benefit is still under investigation.

Kefir is easily digestible also by people affected by a lactose intolerance. A large portion of the population does not digest lactose, the main sugar contained in milk, properly. Kefir’s bacteria allow the enzymes needed to digest lactose to reach the bowel. During the fermentation process, nonetheless, the quantity of lactose present in kefir is reduced.

Kefir has antibiotic properties: The lactobacillus species present in kefir produce several substances that protect our system from yeasts and harmful bacteria, i.e. candida albicans.

Kefir seems to have a positive effect in reducing cholesterol levels. Some studies suggest that kefir consumption produces a moderate reduction in the levels of cholesterol, but such studies have not been confirmed yet and other studies suggest that the effect is instead very small.

Finally, one of the most uncommon of kefir benefits, the lactobacillus rhamnosus that can be contained in kefir, reduces the presence of streptococcus mutans, the main bacteria responsible for dental caries.