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All About Kombucha Health Benefits
As a Kombucha Drinker, Tell Me More About It’s Health Benefits!
Over the last few years, the popularity of kombucha in Thailand has exploded! It’s known for it’s health benefits and great taste too – you will experience a taste that’s a little bit sweet, a little bit sour. But with all the health claims and benefits everyone talks about, let’s talk about kombucha health benefits in practical and real world terms rather than fancy marketing talk eh?
1. Kombucha Can Help You Lose Weight
Here at KombuchaWOW, we make our kombucha with a blend of black, green and white teas. When we focus on studies around green tea though, there are medical studies that show it boosts your metabolic rate in the short term, so it makes sense that it could help you lose weight.
In fact, there are several studies (one here in Thailand) that show green tea may help reduce body fat, especially in the belly area.
One of these studies was a 12-week randomised controlled study involving 240 people with obesity.
In this study, those in the green tea group had significant decreases in body fat percentage, body weight, waist circumference, and belly fat, compared with those in the control group.
2. Kombucha Contains Probiotics
You take tea, sugar and a SCOBY (a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast) and you mix them together, and leave for at least a week. During this week, the fermentation begins and continues for as long as there’s a sugar source for the yeast in the SCOBY to feed on. Now as part of that fermentation process, healthy probiotics are produced in the kombucha. Probiotics provide your gut with healthy bacteria. These bacteria can improve many aspects of health, including digestion, inflammation and even weight loss.
The sourness of kombucha comes from the acetic acids which are also found in vinegar. There’s also a large amount of Lactobacillus that’s in our KombuchaWOW, and it’s these that give the gut-friendly protection. Several other healthy acidic compounds such as gluconic acid are also produced. If we focus back on the probiotics though – there’s only a measurable amount of probiotics at the early stages of fermentation, which then the levels go down as the fermentation continues. So if you take kombucha that’s been fermented for 3 weeks, then the probiotic level is actually very low.
Why choose 3 weeks as my example?
Well, it’s all down to alcohol levels. You cannot have kombucha without a trace amount of alcohol as when you give yeast a sugar source, their byproduct is alcohol. You can brew the kombucha for longer, but then your probiotic levels go down.
It’s a balancing act.
If you want higher probiotic levels in your kombucha, then sadly you have to accept higher levels of alcohol. This is something that most healthy people don’t want in their daily drink, for obvious reasons. Here at KombuchaWOW, our Thailand kombucha factory ferments for a full month so we can control the alcohol levels. There are still probiotics in our kombucha, and they are still beneficial to you. But we know you want a zero alcohol drink to enjoy daily so probiotics are important but truthfully; They’re not as powerful as most other kombucha people and brewers and brands would tell you! I know right, shock!
3. Kombucha Contains Antioxidants
Tea is one of the healthiest beverages on the planet.
This is because tea – especially green tea – contains many bioactive compounds, such as catechins and polyphenols. These polyphenols are natural compounds and are powerful antioxidants that have health benefits, such as reducing inflammation and helping to fight cancer. Catechins contain a chemical called epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), which has it’s main benefit of helping repair cell damage and reducing inflammation.
KombuchaWOW is made from a blend of black, green and white teas at its Thailand kombucha factory. It is these teas that primarily give the high levels of antioxidants found in its kombucha range.
There are also medical studies that show that drinking green tea regularly can increase the number of calories you burn. This helps to reduce belly fat, improve cholesterol levels and help with blood sugar control – which in itself, leads to a more stable appetite without resorting to eat additional snack foods between meals. So weight loss or maintenance can be easier if the Drinker chooses kombucha over a sugary soda alternative.
Finally, more medical studies also show that tea drinkers have a reduced risk of prostate, breast and colon cancers. Green tea is higher in benefits than black or white tea, but these benefits are still found across all teas.
4. Kombucha May Reduce Heart Disease Risk
Throughout the world, it’s still heart disease that is the leading cause of death.
Heart disease has two main markers that Doctors look for:
- LDL – “bad” blood cholesterol
- HLD – “good” blood cholesterol
We all have cholesterols in our blood – most of which is made by our bodies, and largely governed by our own genetics. But not all blood cholesterol are made the same! Rat studies(1)(2) show that kombucha can greatly improve those two markers of heart disease (“bad” LDL and “good” HDL), in just 30 days.
In fact, green tea drinkers have up to a 31% lower risk of developing heart disease(4)(5)(6), a benefit that may also apply to kombucha providing it is made with a good percentage of green tea in its fermentation stages.
5. Kombucha May Help Manage Type 2 Diabetes
With over 300 million people worldwide affected by it, and almost 10% of the Thailand population; Type 2 diabetes is considered by many as a lifestyle condition and is characterised by high blood sugar levels and insulin resistance or an inability to produce insulin.
A study in diabetic rats found that kombucha slowed down the digestion of carbohydrates, which in turn , reduced blood sugar levels. It also improved liver and kidney function.
Kombucha made with green tea is likely to be even more beneficial, as the green tea itself has been shown to drastically-reduce blood sugar levels.
In fact, a review study of almost 300,000 individuals found that green tea drinkers had an 18% lower risk of becoming diabetic, whilst another study in Japanese individuals found that those who drank the most green tea had an approximately 42% lower risk of type 2 diabetes.
6. Kombucha May Help Improve Brain Function
Green tea does more than just keep you alert, it may also help boost brain function.
The key active ingredient is caffeine, which is a known stimulant.
Research has consistently shown that caffeine can improve various aspects of brain function, including mood, vigilance, reaction time, and memory.
Caffeine affects the brain by blocking an inhibitory neurotransmitter called adenosine. This way, it increases the firing of neurons and the concentration of neurotransmitters like dopamine and norepinephrine.
However, caffeine isn’t the only brain-boosting compound in green tea. It also contains amino acid L-theanine, which can cross the blood-brain barrier.
L-theanine increases the activity of the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA, which has anti-anxiety effects. It also increases dopamine and the production of alpha waves in the brain.(7)(8)(9)
Studies show that caffeine and L-theanine can have synergistic effects. This means that the combination of the two can have particularly powerful effects in improving brain function.(10)(11)
Because of the L-theanine and the small dose of caffeine, kombucha made with green tea such as KombuchaWOW! may give you a much milder buzz than a regular cup of strong coffee.
Many people report having more stable energy and being much more productive when they drink green tea, compared with coffee.
Phew! What a list, right?
As you can see all about kombucha health benefits here – there’s quite a few! Science changes almost daily, so we’re excited to be Thailand’s Number One kombucha and be at the front of this research into our favourite drink. We are especially excited about seeing all the new scientific evidence that kombucha has even more health benefits than we already know.
One thing though – a LOT of Thailand kombucha on sale, can very high levels of alcohol if it’s made at home (usually around 3% ABV – same as a can of beer!), and they can also be full of sugar if they have not been fermented for long enough OR where the brewer has included sugar in their second fermentation (2F) to get carbonation bubbles. So many of the things we talked about kombucha health benefits above? Well, they’ll be negated if there’s high sugar and high alcohol.
You won’t have to worry about this when you drink KombuchaWOW! though – we always send our kombucha samples to laboratories in Bangkok and Had Yai to test for alcohol, sugar and quality!
We will come back to this article often as it’s one of our most popular blog posts with people like you searching for all about kombucha health benefits – we’re just as interested in them as you are!
Right, off for a bottle of our KombuchaWOW Mixed Berry kombucha to celebrate finishing this article!
Cheers!
Nate