Kombucha and Juice Fasting

How will drinking Kombucha effect my fast? I take juice plus as well and find it has been good so far. I am only on day 3 of at least a 10 day cleanse. I may do more depending on how I feel.

I am blessed to have found this site! I am 36 and I weigh 122 pounds and am 5 feet 4 inches. I am cleansing and detoxing for the first time longer than two days. I do better weighing 115 pounds but I am not doing this to lose weight. I live in California in Marin County over looking the bay.

Sue

Answer By Tom Coghill

Kombucha is a fermented tea that is often imbibed for medicinal purposes. There is limited scientific information supporting any health benefit and few studies are being conducted. Kombucha is available commercially and can be made at home by fermenting tea using a visible, solid mass of yeast and bacteria called a kombucha culture or “mushroom”.

Kombucha History

The recorded history of kombucha began in Russia during the late 19th century. In Russian, the kombucha culture is called čajnyj grib чайный гриб (lit. “tea mushroom”), and the drink itself is called grib гриб (“mushroom”), “tea kvass” квас, or simply kvass, which differs from regular kvass traditionally made from water and stale rye bread.

In Chinese, kombucha is called hongchajun 红茶菌 (lit. “red tea fungus/mushroom”), hongchagu 红茶菇 (“red tea mushroom”), or chameijun 茶霉菌 (“tea mold”).

In Japanese, the kombucha drink is known as “kōcha kinoko” 紅茶キノコ (lit. “red tea mushroom”). Both the Chinese and Japanese names incorporate the characters for hongcha or kōcha literally, “red tea,” referring to what is known in the West as black tea rather than simply cha 茶 tea or lü cha 綠茶 “green tea“.

Japanese kombu 昆布 “a Laminaria kelp; sea tangle” is dried and powdered to produce a beverage called kombucha (literally “kelp tea”). The English kombucha fermented tea is pronounced similarly, and is confused with the Japanesekombucha seaweed tea.^[3]

So as you can see Kombucha has a long history. Although there are no proven scientific health benefits, it is clear that is has helped people as the recipe has traveled the world. Yes Kombucha would be a great addition to juice fasting.

Kombucha Risks

A review of the published literature on the safety of kombucha suggests no specific oral toxicity in rats,^[12] although it has also been shown to increase the size of both the liver and spleen in mice.^[13] While no randomized case-controlled studies have been published in humans, several unsubstantiated reports have suspected liver damage, metabolic acidosis and life-threatening toxicity.^[14]^[15] Other reports suggest that care should be taken when taking medical drugs or hormone replacement therapy while regularly drinking kombucha.^[16] It may also cause allergic reactions.^[17]