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A Love Affair With Coconut Kefir Soda
Coconut Water
Coconut water makes fabulous kefir soda. I love how it tastes, and how easy it is to make. It has 10 times the probiotics and 5 times the probiotic yeasts that kefir sodas made with fruit juices have. You can have 236 billion good bacteria in a cup! (See our lab results below.) In the early days of making cultured foods, coconut kefir was a huge part of my daughter Maci's recovery from food allergies and IBS. It was something she really liked and she would have a glass with a slice of fresh lime. It helped soothe the pain in her gut caused from IBS and food allergies while eliminating the overabundance of Candida in her body, too.
Coconut water is the clear liquid found inside a young, green coconut. It is loaded with essential nutrients for the body: vitamins, minerals, amino acids, organic acids, enzymes, and antioxidants. Coconut water is a wonderful beverage and even more beneficial when you culture it into kefir.
You can drink coconut water to help restore electrolytes that exit the body if you experience dehydration. One glass of coconut water contains high amounts of potassium - about 400-600 milligrams. The average person needs about 4,700 milligrams of potassium each day, but most people are deficient in potassium. Because of its high potassium content, coconut water has been studied and found to contain benefits for controlling high blood pressure.
Lab results Of Kefir soda Starter
These are the results for the two recipes that we tested after 4 days of fermentation with our Kefir Soda Starter. Your results may differ depending on the specific ingredients that you use, the fermentation times and temperatures, and other variables. Made with coconut water, it has over a billion good bacteria in a cup! Coconut water can have some sugar; but when you make it into kefir soda, it reduces the sugars by 85% in about 4 days. Once the soda is done and bubbly and you place it in the fridge, it continues to ferment more slowly and can go to zero sugars. It will also taste nice and tart.
Health Benefits of Coconut Water
Kidney Stones
Because of its high potassium content, coconut water makes it an effective remedy for kidney stones, calcium crystal stones that can form in the kidneys and travel through the urinary system. [1]
Anti-Anxiety
Coconut water contains GABA, a neurotransmitter that has a relaxing, anti-anxiety, and anti-convulsive impact on the body. Coconut water contains vitamins C, B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B7, and B9 (folate), along with magnesium which all support the adrenals and keep the body in balance.
Controlling High Blood Pressure
In a 2005 study, twenty-eight hypertensive subjects who drank coconut water daily for two weeks showed a reduction in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure. For the group receiving the mixture, the largest decreases in mean systolic and mean diastolic pressure were 24 mmHg and 15 mmHg respectively. Subjects who only drank water showed no improvement.[2]
Anti-Aging
Very helpful components in coconut water are cytokinins which are a class of phytohormones. It was found that some cytokinins showed significant anti-aging, anti-carcinogenic, and anti-thrombotic effects.[3,4] One of the cytokinins, kinetin, was found to have strong anti-aging effects on human skin cells.[5]
Controlling Candida
S. boulardii is one of the probiotic yeasts in our kefir soda starter. It is unrelated to the yeast Candida albicans and other Candida species. When you have Candida proliferating, it will decrease the acidity of the gut making it susceptible to harmful bacteria and yeasts. S. boulardii exerts the opposite effect producing lactic and other acids known to inhibit potentially harmful Candida yeast species. [6]
Coconut water also contains caprylic acid, an anti-fungal fatty acid which is very effective for bringing Candida in the body back into its rightful place. This is one of the reasons we started drinking coconut water kefir so many years ago. We found it quite effective as the good microbes ate the extra sugars out of the coconut water and turned it into probiotics. This helped restore a healthy yeast balance to our bodies.
Refreshing taste
Coconut kefir soda has a wonderfully refreshing taste that I love. It is super easy to make and I have many options for you to fit it into your lifestyle. Your family and friends will enjoy the taste and you can even mix this drink with a little sweetener or a splash of lime if you prefer a sweeter taste.
The best way I can describe coconut water kefir is "soothing" - it's calming to my central nervous system and to my mind. So whether it's the abundance of potassium, probiotics, or extra vitamins and minerals, I am grateful for what it does for me. I like to create my own calm through the foods and beverages I consume and then invite others to enjoy them, too. It makes life more meaningful
Coconut Kefir Soda recipe!
Coconut Kefir Soda
Equipment
- 32-ounce bottle Make sure you use thick glass bottles made for brewing. Craft store bottles will explode.
Ingredients
- 1 packet Kefir Soda Starter - or ½ cup soda from a previous bottle
- 2 cups Coconut Water - fresh or store-bought with 20 carbs per 8 ounces. See description for more info.
- 2 cups Water, spring or filtered with minerals
- 2 teaspoons sugar - (optional - only add if your coconut water has 11 carbs or less per 8 ounces of coconut water)
Every ingredient with a link was selected by me to make it easier for you. I may receive a small affiliate commission if you buy something through my links. Thank you! ❤️
Instructions
- Add the Kefir Soda Starter packet to your coconut water and stir till dissolved.
- Add your coconut water and starter to a 32-ounce bottle. Using a funnel makes it easier. (Make sure you use thick glass bottles such as Grolsch. Bottles bought at craft stores can explode.)
- Fill the rest of the bottle with water leaving an inch of room at the top.
- Allow it to ferment for 3-5 days or until bubbly and fizzy. If your home is 75°F or warmer, it will usually take 3-4 days. Colder homes can take 5 days or longer, but you'll need to check it by popping the top and see if it's getting fizzy. It will start to bubble out the top if it does.
- When it's done, you can pour in a glass and enjoy right away or place it in the fridge. Keep it stored in the fridge or it will continue to ferment and get overly fizzy and hard to pour. Burp daily & consume within 1-2 weeks for the best flavor and most benefit.
Re-Culturing From Your First Bottle
- You can use ½ cup of this finished kefir soda as a starter to make a new bottle. Add 1¾ cups coconut water and 1¾ water to a 32-ounce bottle and ferment again. It should only take half to a full day to ferment. Check it often as it ferments faster!
Listen To My Podcast
Coconut water makes fabulous kefir soda. I love how it tastes, and how easy it is to make. It has 10 times the probiotics and 5 times the probiotic yeasts that kefir sodas made with fruit juices have. You can have 236 billion good bacteria in a cup! It reduces the sugars to almost zero and is only made with 3 ingredients. Find out more in the podcast.
References:
- Karthikeyan, J., & Samipillai, S. S. (2010). Sugarcane in therapeutics. Journal of Herbal Medicine and Toxicology, 4(1), 9-14.
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15892382
- https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/14/12/5144
- Vermeulen, K.; Strnad, M.; Kryštof, V.; Havlicek, L.; Van der Aa, A.; Lenjou, M.; Njis, G.; Rodrigus, I.; Stockman, B.; Van Onckelen, H.; Van Bockstaele, D.R.; Berneman, Z.N. Antiproliferative effect of plant cytokinin analogues with an inhibitory activity on cyclin-dependent kinases. Leukemia 2002, 16, 299–305. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]
- Rattan, S.I.S.; Clark, B.F.C. Kinetin delays the onset of ageing characteristics in human fibroblasts. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 1994, 201, 665–672. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2868213/
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