(NaturalNews) A sizable segment of the Caucasian population living throughout North America seems to have lost an important piece of its cultural food heritage during the progressive settlement of the New World. But traditional kefir, a cultured milk beverage believed to have originated on the northern slopes of the Caucasus Mountains more than 1,000 years ago, remains one of the most powerful healing foods in existence -- and though it seems to have gone out of style for a while, kefir is making a remarkable comeback in the modern age.

Possibly discovered by accident, kefir most closely resembles yogurt in terms of its nutrient and probiotic content, though it is much less viscous in texture. Kefir made the traditional way has a naturally effervescent "zesty tang" flavor due to the culturing process, in which fresh yeast strains consume natural sugars in milk such as lactose and convert them into simpler sugars like glucose and galactose, which are much easier for humans to digest.

During this fermentation process, other beneficial substances are produced as well, including vitamins and minerals, digestive enzymes, amino acids and billions of beneficial probiotic bacteria, which science has shown can help thwart all sorts of chronic illnesses including cancer. Traditional kefir is a functional healing food, in other words, and one that you may want to incorporate into your diet for improved health and well-being.

More on how to make traditional kefir at home is available here:
Users.Chariot.net.au.

Consuming kefir can help heal the gut, improve immune function and prevent cancer

Though science has yet to explain, in full detail, precisely how kefir improves health outcomes, considerable research has shown that it does, in fact, help. And one area of major interest is kefir's apparent ability to help thwart the development of various cancers, presumably by improving the microflora environment in the gut through which nutrients are assimilated into the body.

Multiple trials involving mice have shown that kefiran, a unique polysaccharide produced by the cauliflower-like "blobs" commonly known as kefir "grains," exhibits considerable anti-tumor activity. Oral administration of kefiran to test animals, in fact, revealed that it provokes a positive immune response in mice that helps reduce inflammation.

Consuming kefir has also been shown to heal the gut of conditions like ulcerative colitis, as well as related conditions like irritable bowel disease and Crohn's disease. Be sure to check out the following story about how one individual from Australia successfully treated his bowel condition using kefir grains:
Users.SA.Chariot.net.au.

Kefir has also been shown to help in the treatment of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, constipation and diabetes. But where this functional food really shines is in the area of cancer, with studies having shown that kefir extracts are capable of targeting and destroying malignant cancer cells while protecting healthy cells.

A 2007 study out of China, for instance, demonstrated the anti-proliferative effects of kefir extract on human mammary cancer cells, as well as normal human mammary epithelial cells. After just six days of exposure to kefir, cancer cells stopped spreading, the study found.

"The present findings suggest that kefir extracts contain constituents that specifically inhibit the growth of human breast cancer cells, which might eventually be useful in the prevention or treatment of breast cancer," the authors wrote.

Similar research out of Japan revealed that kefir consumption prompts the body to produce 14 times more interferon-beta, a glycoprotein excreted by cells throughout the body to combat viral infections, and possible cancer cells as well.

"[K]efiran, and in fact kefir grains and kefir are useful as functional food to prevent or control common occurring diseases of the modern age," explains the following source covering virtually everything related to the proper way to culture, consume and benefit health-wise from kefir:
Users.Chariot.net.au.

Sources for this article include:

http://users.chariot.net.au

http://users.chariot.net.au

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov