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Ever since I can remember, I've had a problem with bloating. If I ate basically anything aside from a plain piece of chicken, my stomach would pop out and start to hurt. It's been an embarrassing problem my entire life, and worse than embarrassing, it's uncomfortable. I tried so many elimination diets that did nothing. I cut out gluten, sugar, and processed foods. I went vegan, vegetarian, Paleo. Nothing worked for my bloating issue. It got to the point where I no longer enjoyed going out to dinner with friends because it was such a problem.
Around two years ago, I started hearing a lot about probiotics [3], aka the "good" bacteria. Taking probiotics can supposedly help your digestive system and keep your gut healthy and, as such, reduce bloating. I was sceptical. There are so many wellness fads out there that it's hard to know what's real and what's not. When I went to the health food store, there were quite literally hundreds of probiotics [4] to choose from and I was overwhelmed.
At the time, I was living in San Francisco, which is known to be a bit of a hippie town. My friends had all been drinking kombucha [5] for years, and I always disregarded it as a hippie thing that I wanted no part of. But when I mentioned I was on a quest to cure my bloating, my friends all insisted I try kombucha. They explained the nasty bits of gunk floating around in the bottle were actually fermentation and a natural source of probiotics.
I went to the store and bought the best-looking flavour I could find. A couple things that weirded me out were that it had a small trace of alcohol in it and, as I mentioned, there were unidentified bits of gunk floating around. But they had a strawberry flavour that the associate at Whole Foods told me was a good "starter flavour," and at this point my bloating was so awful, I was willing to try anything.
My friends has also warned me that it has a very specific, almost vinegar-like taste when you first try it. I'll be honest — I wasn't crazy about the taste at first. It definitely has a specific smell and taste to it. Not bad, just . . . unique. But it was really fizzy, which I liked. I drank the whole bottle and went on with my day. To give it a fair shot, I had one every day for three days.
I can't emphasize enough how shocked I was that after a few days of drinking it, my stomach was actually flat for the first time in years. I was shocked because it seems counterintuitive — drinking something so fizzy and bubbly that actually flattens out your stomach. Not only was my stomach flat, but I felt way better. I no longer felt like I had a rock in my gut.
I've become quite evangelical about kombucha. It may seem extreme, but I have one a day, sometimes more. It's not a low-calorie or diet food, but I've incorporated it into my life because it works so well for me. There are many ways to get probiotics into your diet [6] (I've also recently become obsessed with yoghurt, Noosa brand mostly, because yoghurt tends to be high in probiotics), but kombucha has saved my life. I usually drink it in the morning, and it makes me feel a million times better. (Side note: it's also great when you're hungover!) [7]
I don't discriminate, but my favourite brand is Health-Ade. Sometimes I opt for GT's [8]. Health-Ade has a spicy cayenne flavour that I cannot get enough of and a grape flavour that I find heavenly. I have come to be completely obsessed with not just the positive effects on my bloat, but also the taste.
If you suffer from bloating, I hope you try kombucha! Don't be put off by the gunk in the bottom of the bottle — trust me, you get over it. And that gunk will change your life! Take it from a former bloater. It's worth a shot!