When exploring the “garden” of our gut in previous blog posts we have brought information about kombucha to the table.  In these posts, we have given additional resources that have given both the pros and cons of consuming kombucha.  Due to a widespread and growing support of both commercially produced kombucha and home brew recipes we are seeing a few posts that are more negative, listing that kombucha “is not a cure-all for everything from cancer to diabetes”, and I totally agree.  So I started doing more research and I wanted to list more resources for others to look at.          

natural news

get kombucha

kombucha benefits

wellness mama

This last one, from kombucha kamp gave a quote that I agree with.

“However, Kombucha is NOT a panacea – it doesn’t cure ANYTHING! It may help the body bring itself back into balance naturally. That is how it is able to do so much – because it’s really just your body working with nutrition, like any other food. Even though some think of it as a medicinal tonic, it’s really just a delicious and healthy beverage choice and one of many fermented food options. We love it because it’s easy to drink at any time of day and takes to flavoring and many other uses so well. Plus, making Kombucha is just fun!”

Why I Drink Kombucha

So why do I drink kombucha?  I do believe that a healthy gut biome can positively impact our overall health, including improving our own process of fighting sickness and disease.  I do believe that fermented foods are a wonderful way to improve gut health.  Here are a couple of resources that validate that premise.

benefits of fermented foods

gut health and fermented foods

I enjoy drinking kombucha and believe it is an easy way (and often more cost effective) to continually replenish good probiotics into my system.  It is refreshing and helps balance pH in my system, comparable to the benefits of drinking diluted bragg’s apple cider vinegar.  I can make my own and experiment with a variety of flavors.  When making my own, I know the date it was made and can try a multitude of tea combinations.

Garden Uses

Then I remembered hearing in person, and reading posts about how garden plants thrive when introducing leftover scoby’s to your garden.  I always have an abundance of extra scoby’s as well as kefir grains, so I chopped up some scoby’s and added extra kefir grain and took them out to my composting barrel to see for myself how they may help my plants.  Today I found more articles of how to use them in my garden and even how my worms will love them!

Garden Use Resources:

scoby’s balance garden pH

This info came from kombucha kamp under other scoby uses  as well:

How Does Your Garden Grow?

• Many plants thrive in more acidic soil environments.  Grind up or coarsely chop a SCOBY and add it to your soil mix.
• Adding extra SCOBYs to the compost pile is a great way to return the culture to the earth.  I throw them in my worm bin and boy, do I have a lot of happy worms! =)  I use the worm tea to nourish my garden.

Why This Works

• • pH is a measure of the concentration of hydrogen ions.  The higher amount of hydrogen ions present, the more acid the pH.  Soil acidity affects a plant’s ability to absorb necessary nutrients.

So my reasoning process is – if the scoby’s are beneficial for my plants, worms and soil in improving pH and nutrient absorption, I can benefit from ingesting this time tested fermented drink as well.  Ultimately each person needs to decide for themselves.  Many others who have used kombucha much longer than I, simple suggest trying it for yourself and see what you think.  I love researching this process and the history behind it.  I also enjoy the other information on totally different health issues I come across in my search. (This week I totally went down a Magnesium rabbit trail.  So fun!)  I would like to encourage others to search out all available options for your own specific health concerns.  If at all possible, I prefer whole food sources as health options whenever I can.  Explore the research as well as talk with your own medical professional (This week my medical professional shared with me about arnica montana as a homeopathic aid with inflammation. I always love learning).  Learn much and grow your garden well!