You’ll find kombucha in your local health food store, and you know it’s healthy—you may even know it’s fermented. But do you know why it’s so good for you?
Kombucha is a drink continually growing in popularity, and for good reason. It’s a fermented tea beverage used since ancient times that can provide a number of health benefits. In fact, kombucha tea has been used as a healing tonic for nearly three thousand years now! It’s believed that kombucha tea provides healthy bacteria (probiotics), micronutrients (including all the B vitamins), enzymes, antioxidants, and organic acids. These elements combine to make kombucha a health promoting beverage that can be helpful for improving digestion, detoxification, immunity, weight loss, and appetite control, and in balancing the pH of the body.Even though kombucha is such a healthy beverage choice, many people do not know what organic acids are or even heard of them and why they’re good for our wellbeing. Here we will look at some of the organic acids found in kombucha tea and why they’re good to consume.Glucuronic acid
The liver is one of our most vital organs and serves multiple crucial roles, one of which is to detoxify and cleanse our blood. To do so, the liver produces large amounts of glucuronic acid. This acid binds with toxins and poisons in the liver and escorts them out of the body through the kidneys. When the toxin is bound to an organic acid, it cannot be absorbed or reabsorbed into the body. However, because the liver has so many roles, and is often overburdened by our modern lifestyles, it is easily overwhelmed by toxins and damage. When this happens, it isn’t able to efficiently produce enough glucuronic acid, which leads to toxins remaining in the body and becoming increasingly toxic. Kombucha tea is one of the best natural sources of glucuronic acid. To sum up the benefits and function of glucuronic acid, it is a very powerful detoxifier that cleanses the body and supports the liver.Acetic Acid
Acetic acid is the organic acid that gives vinegar its distinct flavor, and the one responsible for the vinegary flavor detected by many in kombucha. Acetic acid is known to improve many conditions. It lowers cholesterol and triglycerides, controls blood sugar, decreases appetite and hunger (which can lead to weight loss), has antimicrobial properties, helps prevent constipation, can prevent and treat ulcers, and even increases the body’s absorption of vital minerals from the food we eat. So when we consume acetic acid from kombucha, we help the body absorb minerals and control and balance a number of critical systems, including blood glucose regulation and the cardiovascular system.Lactic Acid
Lactic acid provides many positive benefits, like increasing the nutritive value of food, control of infections in the gut, improved digestion (especially of lactose), prevention of certain types of cancer, and control of serum cholesterol levels.It also provides beneficial bacteria, or probiotics, to the body. Many of the benefits of fermented foods come from the lactic acid created during the fermentation process, making the food more digestible as well as providing beneficial bacteria to support intestinal health. When regularly consuming lactic acid, some additional health benefits that can result include improved digestibility, stimulation of peristalsis in the intestines (in other words, it improves regularity to prevent constipation), improved blood circulation, normalized acidity of the stomach acids, maintenance and balance of the body’s pH, reduction of the bad bacteria while maintaining the balance of the good, and increased nutrient absorption.EGCG
EGCG stands for epigallocatechin gallate, is found in green tea, and is actually classified as an antioxidant, a potent one. This is a primary way that EGCG is so health promoting. Antioxidants play a crucial role in maintaining the healthy functioning of our bodies. Here are some of the top ways that antioxidants promote health:- Prevent and treat atherosclerosis, cholesterol levels, and blood clots, therefore helping prevent and treat cardiovascular disease
- Reduce and treat inflammation and all of its related health effects
- Are helpful in treating and preventing arthritis and maintaining joint health
- Prevent wrinkles and promote skin heath
- Help maintain healthy vision
- Help prevent cancer
- Help treat inflammatory gut conditions such as irritable bowel and Crohn’s disease
- Help promote a healthily functioning liver
- Help keep a controlled blood sugar
- Can help prevent Alzheimer’s and dementia and promote healthy brain function
As you can see, the benefits of regularly consuming EGCG have wide-reaching health benefits.The benefits of consuming these organic acids provide enough health benefit to regularly consume kombucha tea. And the great news is that there are even more health properties hidden in kombucha tea that further support and heal the body by providing antioxidants, probiotics, and nutrients. One great way to start improving your overall wellbeing is to include some high quality kombucha tea in your life today!Try this tasty kombucha smoothie recipe!
