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Get Your Daily Dose of Probiotics: The Truth About Kombucha and Other Fermented Foods

Written By Steve Collins on April 16, 2023

Kombucha - a fizzy, fermented tea that quite frankly is delicious. But can you really get your daily dose of probiotics just by drinking it? Let's explore.

Can I just drink Kombucha to get my daily probiotics?

While you can and should consume high quality fermented foods like Kombucha, not all Kombucha is created equal. Some versions are loaded with sugar and artificial flavors, which can do more harm than good for your gut health. So, it's essential to choose high-quality versions that contain live probiotics.

At our precision probiotics laboratory, we take the quality of our probiotics seriously. We rigorously test our strains for stability to ensure that billions of live probiotics make it to your gut, where they can work their magic. These strains have been clinically studied and shown to improve function, bowel movement frequency and consistency, and aid digestion while reducing diarrhoea

Kombucha doesn't have that same level of clinical data or stability testing - but it has been used for hundreds of years as a gut health drink. So once again that's why recommend a quality of quantity approach with everything, included fermented foods.

How to incorporate fermented foods into your diet

There are 2 key things with fermented foods:

Introduce them very slowly if you're having gut issues
They MUST be high quality (ie. contain live probiotics)

Our favourite fermented foods are (in order):

Fermented raw milk dairy - kefir (hard to find!)
Fermented coconut kefir
Water kefir
Raw honey
Yoghurt (huge quality issues in the yoghurt market - so beware!)
Sauerkraut/kimchi (quality!)

Sourdough is fermented too and we think a slice or 2 of traditionally made sourdough is A ok for most people on a gut healing journey - however it's not likely to contain live probiotics.

Here's how you can make your own sourdough starter easily.

The bottom line: getting beneficial bacteria into your gut daily is important.

Wake up, get your daily probiotic in first thing, then at some time during the day, get one serving of fermented food to begin with.

What about fibre? The latest research on fibre doesn't support the claims that fibre along will increase your microbiome diversity - you have to get those probiotics in too!

In conclusion, while Kombucha can be a great addition to your diet, it's not the only source of probiotics out there. Incorporating a variety of high-quality fermented foods and taking a daily probiotic supplement can help you support optimal gut health and overall well-being.

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