By Vanessa Wilkerson, Healing the Body
Kombucha is a raw and living drink revered as the “Immortal Health Elixir” with good reason. It possesses seven noteworthy health-boosting ingredients that can change your life.
Soon, you’ll discover why many celebrities, such as Madonna, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Halle Berry, and others “in the know” have been drinking it for years.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, author and Nobel Prize winner, credited kombucha with curative properties in his book, The Cancer Ward. Influenced by this, Ronald Reagan is said to have consumed a liter per day following his bout with cancer.
Once you experience the appeal of this refreshing beverage full of bubbly zing and loads of nutrition, you might start to wonder: “Why haven’t I heard of this stuff?” Here’s 7 reasons to drink kombucha.
Kombucha’s 7 Life-Enhancing Ingredients
1) Enzymes
Enzymes, abundant in kombucha, are essential for proper digestion. They help your body to break down and assimilate vital nutrients from your food.
They drive many biological processes that maintain life. They assist the body in energy production, nutrient assimilation into the cells, oxygen intake, balancing hormones, reducing inflammation, slowing aging and much more.
2) Antioxidants
Antioxidants are most commonly known for their anti-aging properties. They act like tiny “Pac-men” by eating up free radicals caused by oxidative stress.
When antioxidant levels are insufficient, free radicals cause cell damage with “extensive damage to DNA, protein, and lipids.”
This process is often the cause, and by-product, of aging and degenerative disease, such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, immune-related illness, brain dysfunction, and cataracts, to name a few.
Kombucha, rich in age-defying antioxidants (and enzymes), offers great help in the challenge of obtaining our necessary health sustaining nutrients while facing today’s denigrated soil and food supply.
3) Polyphenols
Polyphenols are antioxidants, but also much more: termed “lifespan enhancers,” they are known to ward off many degenerative diseases.
They are particularly noted to aid in illness related to oxidative stress, such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, and the many neurodegenerative diseases (e.g. Alzheimer’s, Parkinsons’s, Multiple Sclerosis, Lou Gehrigs, Huntington’s, etc.).
4) Probiotics
70% of immune function takes place in the gut. When your gut’s delicate ecosystem becomes imbalanced due to stress, illness, or poor food choices, your body’s natural defense system (a.k.a. immune function) is greatly compromised. This reduces your body’s ability to absorb essential nutrients, fight pathogens, and excrete harmful toxins.
“Pro-biotics” (meaning “for life”) are beneficial microorganisms found in the gut, essential in maintaining a healthy digestive tract and body. Kombucha contains more than a dozen strains of these beneficial bacteria.
5) Glucuronic acid
Glucuronic acid is known to assist the liver in detoxification by binding both environmental and metabolic toxins. Pubmed research shows glucuronic acid to be effective in cancer prevention, as well as being anti-carcinogenic (along with glucaric acid, also present in kombucha).
Glucuronic acid is also one of the few agents that can detoxify petroleum-based products, such as plastics, herbicides, and pesticides.
6) Glucosamines
Glucosamines are essential for building cartilage. They increase joint health by increasing synovial fluids such as hyaluronic acid, which aid the prevention and treatment of many arthritic-type conditions
One thousand kombucha drinkers were polled, revealing that 51% of those who consume kombucha regularly, experience relief from joint pain and increased flexibility.
7) B-vitamins
“Lack of energy” is by far the most infamous human complaint today, thereby predicating worldwide stimulant abuse. Stress is considered the precursor to most illness, and noted by many doctors and health gurus as the #1 killer.
B-vitamins help your body to produce energy from food, and further assist the body’s ability to deal with stress and depression. Kombucha contains many of the B-vitamins, including B-12, which is present in very few foods.
Given this extensive list of benefits available to you, are you craving kombucha yet?
How to get your hands on some…
Kombucha can be purchased at most health food stores, and is even served “on tap” at many progressive restaurants. Making it at home wins my vote, as it allows you to consume therapeutic quantities while being easy on your pocketbook.
It’s a great alternative to today’s sugar-loaded, highly caffeinated beverages since it sufficiently delivers a “pop” in flavor and energy, while simultaneously delivering health, rather than toxins, to the body.
Given its refreshing taste, it’s even a great alternative to beer or wine, and can be a pleasing beverage for those who wish to reduce their alcohol intake. Serve it up in a cold mug or wine glass, then you’ll really have something to toast to!
