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Nutrition x Advice

5 Ways Your Love Of Kombucha Is Benefitting Your Health

Whether you’re going the DIY route and making kombucha at home or sipping on a kombucha-based cocktail at a trendy bar, chances are you’ve tried and maybe even grown to love this delicious fermented beverage.

From arthritis to Crohn’s disease, kombucha is credited with being a cure-all drink for anything that ails you, and many people swear by its healing properties. Although many of these claims are still in need of corroborating research, there are definite benefits to drinking kombucha besides its addictive fruity–sour taste, so grab a glass of your favorite fizzy kombucha and let’s toast to your health and these five benefits of the trending elixir.

It’s alive! But just what the heck is kombucha?

In basic terms, kombucha is a fermented drink that’s made by combining a SCOBY with sweetened green or black tea. “But what on earth is a SCOBY?” you might be asking yourself. It’s an acronym, for starters.
It stands for symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast and it’s the foundation (otherwise known as the mother) of any batch of kombucha. A SCOBY is a living culture, which means it feeds off of the sweetened tea as it ferments, giving kombucha its delightful fizziness. You can see what one looks like in our video:

To fully take advantage of kombucha’s health benefits it’s important to drink raw or [linkbuilder id=”5175″ text=”unpasteurized kombucha”], as the pasteurization process kills off the healthy bacteria that are naturally formed. Make sure that any unpasteurized kombucha you drink is from a reputable source to prevent contamination; meaning, maybe avoid the kombucha your friend is making in their basement.

1. Make friends with the probiotics in kombucha.

Just like yogurt or kimchi, kombucha is fermented, which means it contains billions of friendly bacteria that are commonly referred to as probiotics. Probiotics have been shown to have a positive effect on chronic digestive issues, bladder infections, and yeast infections and are also known to promote overall gut health.

2. A Vegan Source of Complex B Vitamins

As with other [linkbuilder id=”6545″ text=”fermented foods”], kombucha is potentially a good source of vitamin B12, especially if you eat a largely plant-based diet. Naturally occurring vitamin B12 is responsible for turning our food into energy and is almost exclusively found in meat, fish, and dairy products. Give yourself a pat on the back the next time you’re sipping kombucha, and remind yourself you’re consuming this vital nutrient.

3. Antioxidant Power

Kombucha made with black or green tea is an excellent source of antioxidants, surpassing even fruits and vegetables in its free radical–destroying abilities. In addition to regular use of black and green teas in beauty products, the same antioxidants found in kombucha have been shown to have a positive effect on heart health, cholesterol levels, and stroke prevention.

4. An Impressive Immune Booster

The same probiotics that are found in kombucha and other fermented foods have shown promise in clinical studies researching their immune system–boosting properties.
Studies have shown a positive correlation between gut health and a strong immune system, and probiotic supplementation, like drinking kombucha, can have a positive impact on your digestive system.

5. Keep your blood sugar under control.

A study summarized by the American Institute for Cancer Research that originally appeared in the journal Molecular Nutrition & Food Research has shown that the compounds found in green tea, which might just be a component of your favorite kombucha flavor, may be beneficial for people who have high blood sugar or type 2 diabetes.
In fact, kombucha is sometimes recommended to patients with diabetes, and current research suggests it could play a high-impact role in diabetes treatment in the future.

Categories
Health x Body Wellbeing

Here Are 4 Ways Moving Your Body Can Improve Your Mental Health

If Sasha Brown-Worsham skips a workout, her mood plummets. “I snap and lash out,” the Maplewood, New Jersey, yoga teacher admits. “I get depressed and agitated and angry.” Her solution? Head into a yoga studio to take on a challenging asana or lace up for a run around her neighborhood.
“When I am moving, I feel alive!” she says.
Fitting time in your schedule to move with the level of commitment Brown-Worsham does isn’t always easy. The average American woman is working long hours of both paid and unpaid labor.
Some days you probably find yourself thinking “After a grocery run and grabbing coffee with Rachel, how am I really going to fit in a workout?”
But then again, if you’re thinking “I could really use a mood boost right now,” you’re not alone in that camp either. American women are more likely than American men to be diagnosed with anxiety or depression, and we make up more than half of all mental illness diagnoses in this country.
Whether you’re just feeling a little down in the dumps or you’re living with and learning to manage a diagnosed mental illness, there’s solid science out there that shows incorporating just a little movement into your day can make a big difference. Heck, it can even prevent someone who’s struggling from falling into depression (according to the scientists, anyway).
If you’re feeling the urge to get on your feet but you don’t think you’ll have time to make it to kickboxing class this week, here are some mood-boosting options that might fit the bill.

1. Dance around your kitchen.

If you can’t make it to the gym, bring the gym to you. Telling Alexa to play something sassy and moving your hips while you stir that tomato sauce won’t just burn some of the calories you’ve consumed throughout the day.
Dance movement therapy is actually prescribed by practitioners these days to help people cope with depression. Bonus to doing it in your own kitchen: You really can dance like no one is watching.

2. Take a walk.

A walk around the neighborhood may not help you work up a sweat like you would at CrossFit. But when you’ve got just 45 minutes between the end of the work day and your best friend’s kid’s soccer game, do you really want to show up smelling like the gym?
According to one Australian study, as little as 30 minutes in nature every week can decrease your depression risk by 7 percent, and it drops your blood pressure too. Lace up your sneakers and start smelling the roses.

3. Unfurl your yoga mat.

If you’re looking for a quick mood boost, a little quiet meditation and movement may be all you need. The effects of yoga on anxiety have gotten the thumbs up from researchers, and Brown-Worsham confirms that you don’t need to go in the studio to reap the benefits.
She’s known to head out on the back porch for a quick yoga session when she feels the need. If you don’t have time for a full yoga class, pull up a quick YouTube class (Yoga With Adriene has 10-minute options) and bliss out.

4. Turn a coffee date into a workout date.

When former Facebook executive Randi Zuckerberg said women have a choice of work, sleep, family or fitness, and they can only pick three, the world erupted. The general response? Randi, you are speaking our language!
So if you’re waffling between the much-needed mood boost that comes from coffee with your bestie or the equally needed pick-me-up of a workout, you might just want to marry the two. It turns out the only thing better for your mood than a workout is a workout with a friend.

Categories
Health x Body Wellbeing

According To Science, Drinking More Coffee Is Associated With A Longer Life

Few things are worse than suddenly discovering that one of your favorite foods is bad for you. Everything from grilled meat to roasted potatoes, and toast have been labeled as potentially harmful. 
But if you’re a coffee drinker, we’ve got good news: You probably don’t need to lay off your java habit.

Research backs up coffee as a healthy drink.

Two recent studies from Annals of Internal Medicine show a link between coffee and decreased mortality.
The studies don’t attempt to explain the link, opting to simply demonstrate the relationship between coffee consumption and the incidence of various diseases. One study focused on European countries, and the other chose participants of varying ethnicities in Los Angeles and Hawaii. The results were similar across the board: Increased coffee consumption led to longer lives.
The European study followed more than 500,000 people from 10 countries. Researchers followed up with the participants after 16.4 years to assess their health. The 25 percent of men who drank the most coffee were 12 percent less likely to die than the group who drank no coffee at all.
For women, the difference was slightly less noticeable; the heavy coffee drinkers had a 7 percent lower mortality rate.

Multi-ethnic study backs up European findings.

Many earlier studies focused on Europeans and Americans of European descent. An American study funded by the National Cancer Institute tracked people of diverse ethnicities to determine whether genetics played a role in coffee’s apparent benefits.
The researchers confirmed that coffee decreased mortality in African Americans, Japanese Americans, Latinos, and Caucasians. However, the study did not show a statistically significant decrease in mortality for native Hawaiian coffee drinkers.

Polyphenols may be the key.

Although scientists have extensively studied coffee’s beneficial effects, they haven’t conclusively shown how the beverage decreases mortality. Some scientists believe that polyphenols, a type of antioxidant, could be the key to the coffee’s health benefits.
A recent study showed that consuming dietary polyphenols can protect against hypertension, dyslipidemias, inflammation, and other conditions that are associated with cardiovascular disease. Dietary polyphenols are found in dark chocolate, tea, and coffee.
That’s good news for decaf drinkers, since the results also indicate that caffeine probably isn’t an important factor. In fact, caffeine causes several of coffee’s detrimental health effects, including headaches, insomnia, anxiety, and upset stomach. Insomnia is especially problematic, as scientists have linked poor sleep habits with fibromyalgia and various other conditions.

Should everyone drink coffee?

Additional studies should show how coffee affects specific areas of health. In the meantime, coffee seems to be a perfectly safe addition to your diet, provided that you drink it black. Adding sugar and cream can increase the risk of obesity, counteracting many of the heart-healthy benefits of your daily cup. One study even showed that milk can reduce the antioxidant capacity of coffee or tea.
If you aren’t part of the #butfirstcoffee crew, no worries—other substances like dark chocolate and tea can also provide substantial benefits by delivering the same types of polyphenols.