You might think a fruit salad is not something that could fill you up for breakfast or replace porridge, but this fruit salad may actually keep you full for longer.  The combination of seeds, walnuts, kefir and fruits provide densely packed nutrition, is rich in omegas, rich in enzymes and probiotics and can stabilize blood glucose levels giving you a slow release of energy through the morning.

Kefir Fruit Salad

Ingredients:

Chopped organic apple

Banana Sliced

Pear finely chopped

Raspberries (optional)

Whole walnuts crushed

2 Spoons Raw Organic kefir

½ - 1 tsp cinnamon powder

1 tbsp Lucuma Powder

Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

Small coconut slices or desiccated coconut.

Note: Introducing Raw Kefir into the diet should be done one tsp-tbsp per day increasing slowly over days to allow the gut flora to recolonize with the healthy bacteria.  Uncomfortable symptoms of bloating and general dysbiosis may be experienced otherwise.  

Directions

Place all chopped fruit in the bowel.  Crush a handful of walnuts over the fruit and sprinkle powders evenly over the top.  Next drizzle kefir followed by toasted pumpkin seeds.  (these should be lightly toasted and only enough for immediate use as once toasted the oils can quickly become rancid.)  Juice of a fresh orange can be used to make the kefir go further around the dish.   You can mix all the ingredients around and blend in all the flavours or leave in layers like image illustrates.  This allows a little surprise with each mouthful as the individual ingredients can be tasted separately with each bite. 

What is Kefir

Kefir is a culture that looks like cottage cheese except more transparent.  The cultures feed from the milk sugars (lactose) in milk which becomes thickened & resembles a watery yogurt.  Kefir grains multiply and grow as time goes on so you can eventually build up quite a store of grains and share them on to friends and family.  You can get cultures passed onto you, buy them online or from health food stores.  You can also buy kefir yoghurt ready made from Health Food Stores or from a farmers market.  Raw Milk products are becoming more in demand in Ireland due to the superior nutrition, enzymes and probiotics present in it.   Kefir made from raw milk  may contain up to 50 strains of bacteria and yeasts.  Compare this to yoghurt which is only likely to contain up to 3 strains and often they are just prebiotics i.e. they add food for existing friendly bacteria to feed from.  Raw Kefir & Yoghurt is best as the pasteurization process will kill all the cultures. (unless the culture is added afterwards).

Bacteria are fascinating once you get to studying them and deserve a whole post to themselves.  Bulgaricus is a strain that lives in the intestinal wall that likes to mop up toxic waste from bacterial infection. Bifidobacterium breve is essential for colon health, especially if you’ve taken antibiotics. Studies have found that many digestive problems coincide with low levels of B. breve.  In some cases supplements maybe necessary to replenish gut flora and choose the correct probiotic strain.

Siobhán Shinnors is a Vital Nutritionist, Master Herbalist & Iridologist and has been working with Nutrition for over 20years.