Booch enthusiasts are using the fizzy sensation to establish positive life trends. Here are 10 of the most surprising health benefits of kombucha.
Kombucha's rise in popularity isn't exactly out of the blue. As the established health benefits of kombucha continue to pile up, today's booch enthusiasts are using the fizzy sensation to establish a variety of positive life trends. The result has been a kombucha renaissance where consumers enjoy better nutrition along with more mouth-watering flavors than ever before.
But even though the health picture is becoming clearer all the time, misinformation can cloud our understanding. So, what are the most recent health updates involving kombucha? Are there any new benefits researchers are surprised about? Every time kombucha gets put under the microscope, we seem to find even more reasons why it's one of the best healthy beverages for integrating into an overall healthy diet and encouraging positive life changes.
Our guts are a critical battleground of microorganisms that affect a wide range of bodily functions. Even our brain health is linked to the gut, and the total effect of a balanced gut microbiome can't be overstated. One of the critical ways to give our guts what they need to flourish is through consistent intake of probiotics, which are an essential feature of the best kombuchas on the market.
Because of the probiotics contained in kombucha, researchers are exploring some related benefits, such as:
Boosting our probiotic intake is an excellent way to encourage a balanced gut microbiome, but not all methods are created equal. A 2023 study showed that probiotic supplements—in addition to being very expensive—are inferior to the naturally occurring probiotics you can expect to find in kombucha. While some kombuchas do include supplemental probiotics, the best raw kombuchas deliver probiotics in the most effective form.
Encouraging good forms of bacteria is one of the gifts of probiotics, as this creates the diverse microbiome our body craves. This process also does something else: it restricts bad bacteria from running amok. The wrong types of bacteria can cause a number of potential health problems, from increasing inflammation across the body to enhancing the risk of allergies, obesity, and diabetes.
The probiotics in kombucha help stop the growth process of those bad bacteria, allowing the good bacteria to establish an equilibrium. Having too much of the bad bacteria can even lead to the wrong type of weight loss and malnutrition, as your body ends up competing for resources. When you have a buildup of bad bacteria in the gut, it can lead to a decline in your immune system and a decreased ability to fight off infection.
People who eat diets filled with processed foods and sugar may have a greater chance of developing an overgrowth of bad bacteria in the gut. While fermented, probiotic-rich food and drink like kombucha can't fix that balance, it can serve as an important part of an overall healthy diet that contributes to this balance. With the bad bacteria restrained, the gut can function to the best of its ability, establishing a pathway to a much healthier outlook.
Antioxidants are another potent tool that your body uses in many different ways, which is why so many nutritional experts recommend antioxidant-rich diets. In addition to helping with digestion, antioxidants are believed to lower oxidative stress. High levels of oxidative stress can even cause DNA damage and cell tissue destruction. This can lead to diabetes, certain forms of cancer, heart disease, and various neurological disorders.
To combat oxidative stress, experts suggest making antioxidants a key part of your dietary foundation. While we have known about antioxidant properties in green tea for some time, there's also evidence that black and red teas also contain substantial levels of antioxidants. Kombuchas that use a green tea base likely contain the most antioxidants, but booch drinkers across the board can benefit.
It's also important to point out that kombucha should not be the sole source of antioxidants. Foods that contain natural amounts of Vitamins C or Vitamin E (e.g., strawberries and raspberries) are also excellent ways to improve antioxidant intake. This is why adding kombucha smoothies to your nutritional regimen can be such a game changer, combining kombucha with other great sources of antioxidants.
When you think about the health benefits of kombucha, you may focus primarily on the physical benefits. However, kombucha may offer a number of mental health benefits, too. An imbalanced microbiome in the gut can lead to higher overall levels of depression, anxiety, and various other mental health issues. Keeping our guts in balance with probiotics can be a great way to stave off mental health issues that can wreak havoc on our lives.
Regular or excessive consumption of sodas can damage your overall health in many ways. Most notably, soda contains a high amount of sugar, which can lead to:
Switching out soda for kombucha can be revolutionary for your health. While a single 20-ounce bottle of soda can surpass daily sugar recommendations, a typical kombucha bottle has roughly 25% of the sugar you should ingest in a day (or less). This lets you enjoy a full bottle of booch and still have plenty of room for the leftover birthday cake in the breakroom.
The top kombuchas also don't contain artificial sweeteners, which have raised suspicions among health experts in recent years. Ditching sodas high in sugar or artificial sweeteners is much easier when you have a healthier alternative like kombucha to rely on.
Despite the many health benefits of kombucha, it is not a miracle weight-loss product. Green tea, however, is known to contribute toward boosting weight loss efforts and helping you drop stubborn belly fat. Kombucha brewed with green tea may also help in that area, including increasing overall calorie burn. While kombucha isn’t a weight loss supplement, green tea-based kombucha can be a great alternative to soda and other sugar-filled drinks that make it difficult to lose weight.
Once again, we see how impactful kombucha can be as the beacon of a healthy lifestyle. Kombucha can be a path away from diets too high in sugar—all while providing key nutrients that can increase both physical and mental health. Booch is also a great post-exercise choice. With its hydration qualities and ability to mix with high-antioxidant fruits, kombucha can be the perfect treat after working up a sweat. Staying active (and losing weight) gets much easier when you have something to look forward to after a workout.
Kombucha can’t overcome a diet high in sugar. But its tea properties make it a delicious option that may also help regulate blood sugar when kombucha consumption is folded into a healthy overall lifestyle. Green tea in particular has been shown to improve blood sugar levels and decrease the risk of developing metabolic disorders.
Research has also shown that black tea lowers blood sugar levels, especially for prediabetic adults. While more research is needed on the other teas used in kombucha, the positive impact of green and black tea is worth noting.
The health benefits of kombucha include the idea that it can potentially help ward off high blood pressure and help maintain cardiovascular health. Nearly 50% of U.S. adults have hypertension, which is a condition that develops due to uncontrolled blood pressure. This can lead to a higher risk of stroke, kidney disease, and various heart-related ailments that reduce an individual's overall health.
For example, when bad cholesterol levels are too high, it increases the chances of a stroke or heart attack. Correspondingly, kombucha is linked to decreasing bad cholesterol and improving good cholesterol, possibly due to its high probiotic content.
And while cholesterol issues might be inherited, more often they are directly related to nutrition and lifestyle choices. Although kombucha can't eliminate cholesterol and blood pressure issues, it can be an important building block for making healthy decisions.
Caffeine is often misunderstood. Going above 400 mg of caffeine daily can be an onramp to increased anxiety, restlessness, sleep disorders, an elevated heart rate, and more. Unfortunately, many of us begin approaching the recommended level soon after we refresh our morning coffee and then completely blow past the guidelines with an afternoon latte.
But this doesn't mean that we need to eliminate caffeine from our diets either. Staying above 50 mg and below 300 mg of caffeine in a day can have considerable benefits, especially for active adults who never seem to get as much sleep as they'd like to. A burst of alertness and concentration can be especially helpful for professionals and parents trying to make it through the slog of the day.
For those seeking moderation, kombucha is one of the best ways to keep caffeine levels in check. An average 14-ounce bottle of kombucha has some caffeine but has significantly less than a generic cup of coffee, which usually clocks in near 100 mg for an eight-ounce cup. In fact, kombucha drinkers can enjoy their ginormous coffee in the morning, swap out a coffee for a kombucha in the afternoon, and still finish well shy of daily recommendations.
Coolers have gone through a major transition in recent years. Gone are the days when beer and cocktails were the only available beverages. Non-alcoholic alternatives like seltzers, mocktails, and kombuchas provide healthier options for barbecues and get-togethers, allowing guests to stay on track with nutritional goals while still stimulating their taste buds. Even in restaurants, kombucha has become much more widely available in recent years.
This trend is especially good news for those who typically expend too many calories on alcohol. Exchanging some alcoholic beverages for kombucha will lower caloric intake, increase probiotics and antioxidants, and reduce alcohol-related liver damage. An incomplete list of the benefits of trimming alcohol intake includes:
While researchers are still trying to discover all the health benefits of kombucha, what we already know makes it an excellent supplement to any lifestyle. Here at Brew Dr., we focus on making the best raw kombucha available, giving our customers the ideal combination of taste and nutrition in every bottle. Take a look at our diverse flavor lineup and find the drink that will help you experience all the advantages of adding kombucha to your life.
