Building a Strong Immune System

Here's an article I wrote that will be published in the November edition of North Denver News. The green coconut water kefir healed my reoccuring skin problems from the inside out.

Every moment there is an inner battle inside our bodies, all that is healthy and balanced confronting invasions from exposure to foreign bacteria. The media likes to hype up the flu fear. Taking a proactive approach to in building your immune system strength is the best way to stay healthy in the winter months. One of the ways this can be accomplished is by using a strong probiotic such as kefir or the lactic acid bacteria acidophilus. Probiotics keep the intestines strong to increase our odds of winning the battle with pathogens. For a probiotic to be effective it needs to pass through our stomach into the intestine without being diminished by stomach acid.

Until recently, refrigerated pill form acidophilus was the most powerful way to get the benefits. The most common dietary approach was to eat yogurt containing live bacteria. There is an even more effective form of probiotic available now in the form of green coconut water kefir. Lactose and sugars in traditional kefir and yogurt products counter act the potential benefits as they trigger a response in the digestive process that reduces the potency of the bacteria by the time it arrives in its ultimate destination, the intestines. Kefir preserved in green coconut water doesn’t trigger this response. The green coconut water itself has a load of positive nutrients for our bodies including potassium, magnesium, calcium, iron and studies indicate it promotes health in the digestive tract.

Antibiotics are powerful as they kill unwanted bacteria in our body but they also destroy the positive bacteria in their effort to give our immune system the upper hand. Antibiotics don’t decipher between good and bad bacteria. They leave our body in a recovered but weakened state and more susceptible to the next bug that comes along. Following the use of antibiotics with a strong probiotic for a month can restore the body’s natural strength.

A local Denver company Inner-Eco started producing green coconut water kefir this year. Vitamin Cottage has been carrying the product since the spring and Whole Foods began carrying it in October. It is most effective to take the kefir on an empty stomach, first thing in the morning waiting 20 minutes before eating or right before bed. The kefir is so packed full of live cultures, one ounce a day makes a 16-ounce bottle last for two weeks. In addition to use as a general strengthening for your immune system there are lists of positive results from people with more chronic illness such as overgrowth of Candida (yeast infections), colon cancer, irritable bowl syndrome, and children who have learning disabilities. People with chronic illnesses benefit most from ramping up to larger doses of kefir (two to four ounces a day), for longer periods of time as they need to “reset” the balance in their body having a history of declining healthy bacteria.

Inner-Eco has put good use to the coconuts they drain of milk by donating the husks to the Rocky Mountain Wild Animal Sanctuary for animals to eat the green coconut meat. The next step for this women owned business is to acquire a coconut cracking machine to harvest the coconut meat and sell it to businesses that use it in their products. They plan to compost the husks as it makes a great soil additive. To learn more about Inner-Eco check-out their website or join for their fan club on Facebook.