5 Health Benefits of Craft Brewed Kombucha | Organic Mechanic

August 27, 2018

True craft kombucha, like ours at Organic Mechanic, is a simple blend of water, organic teas, and organic sugar, fermented with a SCOBY (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast).

The bacteria and yeast convert the sugar/tea mix into a host of acids, probiotics, C02, alcohol, minerals and vitamins. Giving you a slightly sweet, tangy and bubbly beverage that makes you feel amazing.

At Organic Mechanic we all love our kombucha and how it makes us feel. Because there’s a lot of hype around this 1000+ year old beverage at the moment due to its health properties and benefits we wanted to know what’s just hype and what's actually true? We took a deep dive into the ‘Science of Kombucha’ to let you know.

Firstly all of these studies were done on true craft kombucha that I mentioned earlier. Anything that contains sweeteners, preservatives, syrups etc besides the basic 4 ingredients isn't kombucha. So I can’t speak for their “health benefits”.

Secondly, to date, all of these studies are ‘animals trials’ none have been performed on humans. In other words what we know about kombucha comes from feeding it to rats or petri dishes.

Lastly whilst kombucha is amazing it's not going to fix a bad diet and lifestyle. But it can play a big part in a holistic lifestyle and might even be the start of your healthy journey.

1. Good for your gut!

So yes, as we all know kombucha is FULL of good bacteria called probiotics^[1]. So if you are eating a healthy diet full of fruits, veggies and fibre (prebiotics) all these good bacterias will be able to find a home in your gut biome. A healthy gut means great digestion, weight loss and reduced inflammation^[2]. Some will even go as far to that gut health can influence your mood!

2. Full of antioxidants

Oxidation is a natural chemical reaction that occurs in our body creating free radicals which can damage our cells - we all know this process as aging. Antioxidants are compounds found in brightly coloured vegetables that slow down oxidation, think vitamin C, E etc.

Well good news, studies show that Kombucha has ‘potent antioxidant properties’^[3].

The majority of antioxidants come from the polyphenols found in the black and green teas used to brew the kombucha. But it is through the fermentation process that important vitamins like C are created making it more potent than the unbrewed teas ^[4].

Your cells and liver will thank you for drinking kombucha!

3. Decreases blood sugar levels

That's right, a study from 2012 found that kombucha has the potential to be used in the prevention and treatment of diabetes ^[5].

By using diabetic rats they found kombucha to be a strong supressor of increased blood sugar levels. Not only that, they also found it to reduce the absorption of the bad LDL cholesterol.

Put simply, kombucha helps the pancreas to heal and do it’s job of successfully controlling your blood sugar levels - which is extremely important for a healthy body!

4. Kills bad bacteria!

Kombucha is full of great acids, mostly acetic acid like what you find in vinegar. During the fermentation process it’s PH can go from a PH of 5 to around 3-2.5 when bottled. This is very acidic making it difficult for bad bacteria to grow and survive.

This means kombucha has the potential to be used as a antibiotic. It was found to have a marked decrease on strains of salmonella, e.coli and Staphylococcus^[6]

Another study showed its antifungal qualities on strains of yeast like candida^[7]

So getting a dose of booch in the morning might help you from getting sick!

5. Fights cancer

It seems like a stretch but it’s true, well it's true on cancer cells exposed to kombucha in a petri dish.

A study in 2013 took prostate cancer cells, exposed them to kombucha and found it ‘significantly decreases the survival of prostate cancer cells, by inhibiting angiogenesis’, which means it stops blood vessel growth in cancer cells ^[8]

So whilst we definitely can't say kombucha cures cancer, the facts are pretty simple. It contains properties which may be beneficial to our health. We won’t really know until some solid studies are done.

But ignoring, we know when we drink a cup of ice cold booch it makes us feel amazing and happy. That impact on our wellbeing is a lot more powerful than we give it credit for. So continue to enjoy real, good quality kombucha in moderation, it tastes great and who knows, you are most likely receiving some health benefits from it!