Kefir blended with fruit: a tasty range to promote gut health

Kefir is packed with protein, calcium, vitamins B12 and K2, magnesium and probiotics, making this fermented drink increasingly popular in support of gut health and digestion. Hearing about the benefits of kefir, Bronwen del Paggio decided to grow Milk Kefir grains to help her children with stomach-related issues that have become so common as a result of over-processed and over-refined foods. The results that she experienced for her children were too good not to share widely, and in 2014 she founded Numesa.

Numesa was started as a one-man artisanal operation in 2014, now offers a complete range of Numesa Kefir products, and continues to grow by developing products with the benefits of kefir.

The probiotics are the strongest health benefit that kefir has to offer. Probiotics play an important role to balance bacteria in the gut. Food (containing too little fibre, and too much sugar), illness and stress all impact your gut health, and the intestines can become a breeding ground for harmful bacteria, leading to disease. That’s why it’s critical to take care of gut health. Probiotics can help to:

• improve the healthy bacteria ratio in the gastrointestinal tract’s environment
• treat or prevent diarrhea, especially following antibiotic treatment
• treat irritable bowel syndrome, or relieve symptoms
• reduce or prevent gastrointestinal infections, or increase recovery from them
• prevent and treat vaginal infections
• prevent and treat urinary tract infections

Bronwen is passionate about the benefits of kefir, and developing different flavours to make it interesting for different palates: “You’re not drinking something just because it’s good for you, we make every effort to make it taste good too!” Numesa is blending in real fruit syrups and whole fruits into the kefir, to create a range of tasty drinks. All of them packed with probiotics that have been developed using live culture grains that promote gut health.

Bronwen is not stopping there yet, and with business asset, Lauren Gander she’s continuing with research and development to create products with great taste, in order make kefir interesting for a wider audience that is looking to improve their health. Numesa now employs 5 fulltime employees and supports a community-based part time labour force.

Apart from milk kefir (made with raw milk sourced from local dairies), Numesa offers a vegan range with Numesa Water Kefir and Coconut Water Kefir. And even your pets can benefit from the nutritional value of kefir, with the ‘Kreature Kefir’ product. If you’re not quite ready yet to jump onto the kefir train, the Numesa Kefir Honey Yogurt is a great start to add nutrients to your diet, or Spring into Summer with this Sensational Pineapple Mango Smoothie! Recipe and picture credit: Numesa Kefir

Ingredients:

• 1 cup frozen fresh pineapple pieces
• 1 cup frozen fresh mango pieces
• 1 cup Numesa Milk Kefir
• 1 cup coconut cream
• 1 Tbsp macadamia nut butter
• 1 Tbsp chia seeds

Blend until thick, smooth and creamy. Garnish with chopped cashews, sunflower seeds and cacao nibs.

Vegan option – substitute Numesa Milk Kefir with Numesa Pineapple Mango Water Kefir.

Numesa is available in most health stores in the greater Gauteng area, and is looking to expand their retail footprint. Jackson’s and Spars/KwikSpars in the north of Johannesburg as well as artisanal and health food and vegan eateries stock Numesa Kefir products. Kreature Kefir is available at selected retail stores but mostly through suppliers and distributors of natural, raw food for animals.

Numesa is using the OmniBlend V 2ltr Pro to blend their real fruit syrups and fruits with the kefir to ensure a smooth and fully blended texture.