This weeks “Eat This Today” should actually be labeled “Drink This Today”, but for the sake of uniformity, we’ll stick with the first choice. You have your sports drinks that promise save you from dehydration, fatigue and cramps. Than there’s the special ionized and electrolyte enhanced waters that promises to restore your body to optimal conditions. These different drinks may actually be living up to their promises and preventing you from a meltdown, but how many drinks take the proactive approach of aiding your digestion, metabolism or immune system? Kombucha (kom-BOO-cha) is a fantastic drink that harnesses the power of good bacteria to help make your body a well oiled machine. Kombucha is a tea that is fermented and cultured for a certain length of time, in order to produce good bacteria. Your body (especially your gut) is filled with bad bacteria that constantly fight against you, Kombucha’s good bacteria will wage another World War against those bad guys.
Why So Good?
Kombucha has been said to support cells, skin, hair, nails, metabolism, digestion, immune system and liver function. The amino acids and antioxidants help to restore the body and place it into an optimum balance. The good bacteria (from Kombucha) enters your body and fights against that bad bacteria, this is what many call a probiotic. Probiotics have gotten a lot of talk lately and Kombucha is one of the best probiotic drinks there is.
How To Eat
Considering that you likely won’t want to personally ferment some tea in order to get the positive affects from Kombucha, store bought brands will suffice. The most popular brand is likely GT’s Kombucha called Synergy. You will likely start to see these in every single Whole Foods and also in other health stores. The flavored Kombucha has a taste similar to the intended flavor on the bottle, really carbonated soda and wine. Since it is actually fermented, there is a slight bit of alcohol in there, which gives it the winey flavor. Don’t be detoured if you burp a lot while drinking Kombucha as the fermentation will have you feeling almost like you drank a highly carbonated drink.
