Tag Archives: kombucha

Kombucha! Fizzy goodness!

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Kombucha

We’ve always known that our gut has some sort of influence over us…. “I’ve got a gut feeling”, “It was just a gut reaction”, “I just went for it – it was a gut instinct”. And interestingly these are about feelings, and about emotions.

We’ve known for a long time that a healthy gut has a good effect on our physical health, and science, relatively recently, has been uncovering compelling evidence that our gut biome effects our emotions and therefore our mental health. I wrote a little about it here.

I’ve been exploring fermented foods as we know that they support a healthy gut biome and I’ve discovered the wonderful drink Kombucha! Kombucha is a ‘live’ drink – full of stuff that, it is said, to improve your gut biome.

Kombucha brewing with the scoby (two of them actually) floating on the top

The origins of Kombucha are uncertain. It is thought to have originated in the Far East, probably China, and has been consumed there for at least two thousand years. The Tsin Dynasty (around 221 BC) referred to it as “The Tea of Immortality”. It is thought that the name comes from Japan in 415 AD when a Korean physician called Kombu or Kambu treated the Emperor Inyko with the tea and it took his name, “Kombu” and “cha” (cha meaning tea).

A word of caution…. this is a live drink and, it is reported that, during the brewing and storing of it, things can go astray and result in contaminants that may not be good for you. But, there are also lots of websites that report the benefits of this drink. Research has not been conclusive as to the benefits but certainly lots of people report subjective improvements in their health. The advice is the same as ever… if you have an underlying health condition are young, or old, or pregnant, then definitely consult your doctor first.

You’re going to need a few things to get going. You’re going to need a vessel to brew your kombucha in, green tea bags, sugar (organic ideally – same for the tea bags), and a Scoby. The Scoby looks like a beige rubbery pancake like disc. The Scoby is a culture of bacteria and yeasts. This culture is placed in sweetened green tea and turns a bowl full of sweet tea into a bowl full of the drink. I got my starter pack from the lovely people at Happy Kombucha.

My first scoby from Happy Kombucha!

The kit comes with instructions that are easy to follow but essentially you make 2 litres of green tea (using about 8 tea bags) and add 170g (or thereabouts) of sugar. It’s important to avoid metal utensils when making your kombcuha as contact with metal kills the scoby. You then pour the tea, once it’s cooled to room temperature, into your 2 litre vessel which you’ve popped your scoby into. You then leave this for a period of time (I leave mine for 7 days) at room temperature (low 20 degrees) and the as the Kombucha culture digests the sugar it produces a range of organic acids, vitamins, amino acids, and enzymes, plus the probiotic microorganisms themselves.

Then the brew is ready you decant into containers for storage. Some people let it continue to brew at room temperature for a little longer once decanted to get a more fizzy brew (you need to ‘burp’ your bottles by releasing the gas in them daily to avoid an explosion!) Personally I pop mine straight in the fridge and once it’s chilled it’s ready to drink! It tastes a little like apples juice to me. The longer you brew it the less sweet it becomes as more of the sugar is transformed. It has a slightly yeasty taste, and a lovely fizz. It can have traces of alcohol in it but nothing that’s going to cause you any problems – but worth noting in case you need to avoid alcohol completely.

…and then you start again with more tea, and your scoby that you will have left in a little of last weeks tea. In time your scoby will develop a baby scoby – mine grew one big enough to use in another 2 litre vessel during the first brew!

Scoby up close

You are advised to introduce it to your body gradually before having a bigger glass. I started with probably quarter of a pint a day and I’m now settled at a little under half a pint a day. I’ll keep you posted with how it’s going! It seems to have helped me with acid reflux which is a good thing!

There is more Kombucha know how on the City Homesteads website – click here

You are what you eat!?

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Remember Gillian McKeith? She said “you are what you eat” and had a successful TV show in the noughties examining peoples poo and telling them what to eat and what not to eat. And while I wasn’t a fan of her or the show it turns out she was probably ahead of the curve and was onto something!

Veg! Good!

Research has taken this idea of what we eat somehow influencing who we are and shown that what we eat, and more specifically how healthy our gut biome is, effects our emotions and therefore, because our emotions effect how we think, how we feel psychologically.

Your brain and gut are directly connected (along with all other major organs) by the vagus nerve. In fact, in her wonderful book ‘Gut’ Giulia Enders (link at the end of the blog) suggests the self is constructed by the brain drawing on information and feelings from every part of the body. This overturns somewhat the idea that ‘I think therefore I am’ bringing the impact of physical ‘feelings’ into the creation of self. Surely you’ve spotted when your toilet habits are not good, or you’ve overindulged, you feel lousy, sluggish, not motivated? This, it is increasingly being argued, is because your gut has a significant impact on your brain and therefore how you feel emotionally.

In their brilliant and entertaining podcast for Audible, ‘It Takes Guts’, Tim Anderson and Giles Yeo explore the impact of your gut biome on your emotions and find there are significant connections. (It’s free to listener to if you are an audible member…. and if you’re not… why not! It’s a great way to ‘read’ – and you get lots of free material… I’m not on commission – honest). They explore the science and offer some solutions – which I’m going to cover in future blogs. But, it is clear that how you feel in your guts has an impact on how you feel mentally and, in terms of your productivity, how you feel mentally has a huge impact. If you feel low in mood, unmotivated, lacking drive, you are not going to get the best out of each and every day – whether you’re in the office or at home.

Beans! Good! Turned these into ‘houmous’

I was already on a journey of starting to change my nutritional intake. I avoid the word diet at all costs as it has connotations for me and for other people that are about waist loss and are generally negative. What I’m talking about here is not losing weight to be a size 10 or have a 32 inch waist but rather to eat in such a way that it supports your body’s physical and mental function and therefore makes you more productive in life.

I stopped eating meat nearly 3 months ago now and I feel much better for it! But hang on! I don’t really feel it’s not eating meat that’s done this as I know lots of people who eat meat and do great. I feel, for me, that it has meant that I have started eating more vegetables and pulses to replace the meat and what we do know is that those things create a healthier gut biome.

I have also started experimenting with fermented foods. Fermented foods have lots of good bacteria in them that promote good health. I have started to make and drink Kombucha… and I’m going to stick my neck out here, only 7 days into drinking it and say, it definitely has had a positive effect on me overall as well as my guts and bowels improving! I’ve also been eating fermented beetroot and fermented courgette… and I’ll post how I’ve done that soon. They are essentially a sauerkraut which is traditionally made with cabbage. There some great advice about fermenting and more on the benefits of it on the City Homesteads website! Definitely worth a look!

My bottled Kombucha

So, nutrition is the third element of my self care triangle. The other being exercise and sleep. I feel we need these three elements all working effectively in order to improve our well being and our productivity. We will all have a balance of how much of each we need to be getting right to be functioning at our max but we will need some of all of these things. Good quality sleep and the right amount is crucial. Throw in some exercise and some good food and we should be on the road to winning the productivity battle so that wether we’re at work, out for the night, chilling in front of the TV, doing jobs around the house, or playing with the children, we’ll be on top form while we do it, full of energy and enthusiasm to get the most out of each and every thing we do!

Stay tuned! More coming! I’m excited and hope you are!
Stephen
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