If you’re living in KL and are considering improving your gut health with kefir or kombucha, have a quick read about what they are and what benefits they can offer.
The kefir and kombucha debate is a long-standing one; with them both being fermented beverages and great sources of probiotics — good bacteria that colonise your digestive tract. Although they share similarities, they also carry distinctive yet resplendent properties and functions.
What is Kefir and Kombucha?
As aforementioned, kombucha and kefir undergo a fermentation process, however, kombucha uses green tea or black tea as a base and kefir is traditionally milk-based. There are two different types of kefir — water based and milk based.
Milk kefir is made from fermenting milk and water kefir from fermenting sugar and water with their respective grains for a time span of 24 to 48 hours.
Kombucha, on the other hand is made from mixing a beneficial bacteria and yeast (SCOBY) with green tea or black tea (Healthline).
It sits for approximately 10-30 days where sugar is added throughout the period.
The Benefits of Kefir and Kombucha in KL
Now that you get an idea of what kombucha and kefir are, it’s time to delve deeper into their individual benefits. Essentially, both kefir and kombucha are potent with healthy microbes, that said, they carry different benefits.
Kefir is a richer source of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) which helps improve lactose digestion, play a role in preventing and treating diarrhea and act on the immune system, helping the body to resist and fight infection.
Simply put, you can think of kefir as a drinkable probiotic supplement.
Not only is kefir rich in LAB, its splendid benefits include aiding gut health, being a source of B12 vitamins, helping promote strong bone health due to its calcium content and working as a natural source of protein.
Kombucha on the other hand, is more of a digestive aid which is said to help boost metabolism and lose weight. An evident difference between kefir and kombucha is that kombucha typically has caffeine, since it’s made from tea.
Both probiotic drinks can improve digestion, strengthen the immune system, reduce blood pressure and inflammation. They may also aid depression treatment by boosting feel good hormones such as serotonin and works as a detoxifying agent.
Kefir or Kombucha in KL?
Both kefir and kombucha offer probiotics, which are good bacteria that promote gut health and are rich in antioxidant and antimicrobial effects.
Both have strains of good bacteria, so ideally, it would be best to consume both. And each type of probiotic drink offers different distinct advantages.
Milk kefir offers a good amount of calcium, that water kefir and kombucha do not. Also, this is the option that contains the most probiotic strains, rendering it one of the most powerful sources of good bacteria on the planet. The downside to milk kefir, is that it has the least palatable flavour.
Water kefir and kombucha both taste extremely refreshing with a hint of sweetness to them because of the sugar used during fermentation.
While kombucha seems to contain more enzymes and antioxidants, water kefir contains a greater number of probiotic bacteria strains, which has greater potential to heal the gut and immune system more.
Having laid out kefir and kombucha’s attributes, the best beverage in the end boils down to what you’re looking to get out of these beverages.
Since you’re in KL, you can have the best of both worlds! Kefir and kombucha are easily accessible. Here’s a link to purchase a kefir kickstart kit.
To know more about the benefits of kefir, here is an even more detailed breakdown of milk kefir and water kefir in KL.
Prefer a video instead? Here you go 🙂
All the best with your gut transformation!
We hope you found it helpful, if so, drop us a comment below! We’d love to hear from you 😀 If you’d like to get regular updates when we post up new articles and videos, you can subscribe here to get notifications.
