Kombucha is Useless

Kombucha is a mushroom fermented, heavily sugared black tea drink that has been brewed for about 2,200 years now- before the time of Christ. These bacteria and acids form a film on top of the liquid called a "SCOBY" (symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast). You can use a SCOBY to ferment more kombucha. Aficionados call it "booch". It contains significant amounts of alcohol, caffeine, acetic acid, and about 10% white sugar on the average. Some brands add alcohol up to 7%. Incredible claims have been made for it including reducing blood pressure, relieving arthritis, increasing the immune response, and curing cancer. This has no benefits at all, and certainly has no value for  your health. It doesn't even taste good.

Kombucha has been consumed in China, Russia, and Germany for decades. This non- sense started in America in Portland, Oregon in 1995 with the first actual brand offered. By 2025 the kombucha market should reach $6 billion. Major players like Pepsi are going to put out their own brands. When you go into mainstream grocery stores, health food stores, chain stores (Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, etc.), and discount groceries (Lidl, Aldi, etc.) you find refrigerated shelves chock full of many brands of kombucha. It really is hard to believe the popularity of a pricey drink with no value after a quarter century. This only goes to prove the overall stupidity of the American public.

Well, what does science have to say about all this? Scientists have been actively studying this for almost 100 years now. Reviews have been published around the world. Absolutely no benefits has been found for it. Researchers have identified everything in there including all the microorganisms. They have never found anything of value. Studies in animals and humans have found no benefits whatsoever. Just anecdotal stories. The best article from the famous Cornell University was in the Journal of Food Protection (v 62, 2000) with a full 36 citations. You can Google the title to read it yourself if you want: Kombucha the Fermented Tea: Microbiology, Compositions and Claimed Health Effects.

After a most thorough and lengthy investigation they found nothing of value at all. You will find lots of very silly and totally unsubstantiated articles on the Internet claiming this is the Magic Elixir for Everything. You'll notice they are never cited. Folks if kombucha had any value there would literally be hundreds of published articles from clinics, hospitals, colleges, and universities around the world.

Below you see a color photo of the huge stand alone kombucha refrigerated case in a Whole Foods store. Notice the large gallon jugs! This is a very short article on purpose. What beat a dead horse?

Whole Foods, Wilmington, NC January 2021