What are the benefits of Kombucha?

Kombucha is an ancient fermented tea drink that's hard to describe until you taste it. Kombucha benefits your mind, body and overall health.

You feel the first benefit of drinking kombucha immediately: the taste. It’s how we first fell in love with the drink. That, and the remarkable benefits to mind and body that start when kombucha lands in your gut.

What is kombucha good for? As your body digests kombucha, there are two categories of benefit. Those derived from its probiotic impact on your gut biome, and benefits from its powerful active ingredients.

The impact through your gut biome is vast. That's because our gut is a foundational part of our overall health. In the last decade, the work of scientists and registered dietitians has shown this beyond doubt.

But the gut is also a sensitive place. All fermented products like kombucha produce living cultures and organic acids which can improve our gut diversity and functionality. But kombucha is more than a regular fermented product.

As you'll see, its benefits extend to concentration, heart health and more.

The advantages of kombucha

1. The gut biome.
   Kombucha contributes to a healthy digestive system.
2. Improved concentration and mental health.
   Active ingredients in kombucha help you to focus without feeling wired.
3. An immune-boost.
   Good immune function starts from a healthy gut.
4. A low-sugar alternative to soft drinks.
   Kombucha is naturally low in sugar, and can reduce sugar cravings.
5. Antioxidant properties.
   MOMO Kombucha uses a blend of three teas known for their antioxidant effects.
6. Probiotic remedy after antibiotics.
   Kombucha will help your gut return to full health after your treatment.
7. Heart health.
   Kombucha may reduce bad cholesterol.

First: Make sure it's real kombucha

In this article we'll be discussing the benefits attainable from drinking raw, unfiltered kombucha, like MOMO.

Kombucha is made by fermenting sweetened tea using a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast (SCOBY). This much is true for all kombucha; however, after fermentation, things can change.

Many kombucha brands sell kombucha that is either super fine filtered, pasteurised and even brewed from concentrate. This reduces or eliminates the live cultures that make kombucha such a powerful drink. Why do brands do this to lovely, natural kombucha? Usually it's to achieve a desired sweetened flavour, or to make it stable on a room-temperature supermarket shelf.

As a general rule of thumb, if it needs to be stored in the fridge it's real kombucha. Only real kombucha will endow its benefits upon you.

The gut microbiome

The evidence keeps piling up. In recent years, the human gut - our entire digestive system - has revealed more of its secrets to us. We’ve known for a long while that our guts are rich with microbial life. In your body right now, there are ten times more bacteria cells than human cells.

What we didn’t know was quite how sensitive, and how vital, those colonies of bacteria are for our everyday lives. Inside every one of us is a microbiome swarming with friendly microbial life.

Our gut microbiome has a symbiotic relationship with the body. That means that our gut bacteria actively help our bodies to function at its best. Bacteria like Bacillota, Bacteroidota, Actinomycetota, and Pseudomonadota play an integral role in the normal digestion of our food. Your microbiome's health intricately links to the health you feel and experience on the outside.

Gut-health scientist Tim Spector compares the gut microbiome to a pharmacy. These microbes pump out thousands of different chemicals that are vital for our bodies - provided they are fed the right foods.

Last year, a ZOE Study looked at an intervention where people consumed more fermented food. After ten weeks, gut inflammation markedly reduced, and the microbiome's diversity increased.

Improved concentration and mental health

The active ingredients present in kombucha can work to lift your mood and brain function.

Kombucha contains a small amount of the stimulant caffeine; about half that of a cup of tea. Also present is a special amino acid, L-Theanine. An anxiety reducer, it's responsible for that calming feeling a cup of tea can bring. Perhaps that’s why some of our customers refer to MOMO as meditation in a bottle.

When combined, caffeine and L-theanine develop a new power. They act to enhance your concentration and boost your mood. Kombucha helps you get stuff done.

A healthy gut gives you even more heady benefits. The gut constantly communicates with your mind, earning the nickname "second brain." Much like the bacteria and yeast of a SCOBY, your gut and brain have a symbiotic relationship, connected to each other through the vagus nerve.

Remarkably, the gut produces up to 95% of our body's serotonin. Seratonin is a vital chemical, responsible for your mood, sleeping patterns and more. Kombucha has the potential to anchor your mind.

Boosting your immune system

80% of our immune system is in the gut. That's because your digestive system is a frontline in fighting off infections.

A healthy gut has two benefits for your immune system.

First, a flourishing ecosystem of healthy bacteria stops the bad ones from getting a foothold. Second, your gut is responsible for powering your immune system. The two systems interlink.

As a source of probiotics, kombucha helps your body to build fresh cells for your immune system. This includes all important T-cells, which constantly work behind the scenes to make sure you aren't getting ill.

Kombucha isn't going to give you super-powers. What it will do is help your immune system function at its best. A contributor to stopping illnesses before they get going.

Low in sugar

You can usually trace the yumminess of soft drinks back to sugar or artificial sweeteners. For our Kombucha that's not the case.

The fermenting process consumes most of the sugar in kombucha. The delicious, tangy flavour of kombucha has little to do with sugar at all. Instead, its the tangy kick of acetic acid, and the

Our customers report lower sugar cravings after regularly drinking kombucha.

A word of warning: watch out for kombucha advertised as “zero sugar”. Many of these drinks are stuffed full of artificial sweeteners which can have a detrimental impact on the gut.

Antioxidant properties

We use three organic loose-leaf teas to make our kombucha: Sencha, Assam and Pu-erh.

These are green and black teas rich in nutrients, all packing an antioxidant punch. Antioxidants help to neutralise free radicals in the body. Free radicals damage your cells, so limiting them helps your overall health and can prevent signs of ageing.

Probiotic remedy after antibiotics

Kombucha is a fermented drink, buzzing with life. That makes it a probiotic.
A course of antibiotics kills off the nasty bacteria that cause infections. It does this by killing off bacteria of all kinds - good and bad. To get back to full health, it's important to replenish the good bacteria quickly.

Drinking kombucha acts to restore your gut health to its former glory. It seeds your stomach with friendly bacteria. If you eat the right stuff alongside - vegetables, other fermented foods - you'll give yourself the best chance of a quick recovery.

Protecting against heart disease

Heart disease is the world’s leading cause of death. Kombucha may help to slow its onset. Scientific evidence backs it up.

Cholesterol is one of the main causes of heart disease. Cholesterol has two types: "good" HDL cholesterol, and "bad" LDL cholesterol. Ideally, you need a low level of "bad" cholesterol, and a higher amount of "good" cholesterol.

A 2015 study shows that kombucha might positively impact both types of cholesterol. Within 30 days, kombucha had reduced the bad cholesterol and increased the good cholesterol. Researchers conducted this first study on rats; humans are next.

The benefits of tea are more established. Green tea lowers HDL cholesterol in humans and improves overall heart health. Green tea is a principal ingredient in MOMO Kombucha.