As my body ages, my goal to keep active and moving grows increasingly more challenging. I fatigue more easily. Even though I feel like I have more muscle mass, I don’t seem to have the strength I had when I was younger. More recently, I have experienced inflammation attacks coming on more frequently. On top of that, the effects seem to linger around for lengthier periods of time.
Incorporating stretching and full-body exercises have improved the inflammation equation but it is far from solving the root cause. To identify the triggers and to find relief, I continue to research inflammation and its causes. Many problems with chronic inflammation rest with our diet, either with what we allow ourselves to eat or the good things we knowingly avoid. Through these efforts. I have found foods that continue to evolve my diet. Over the past year alone, I have been able to incorporate numerous natural and diverse elements into my eating plan.
Effective Changes
One of my most effective changes entailed increasing the intake of fermented foods. Items like kombucha, vinegar, yogurt, cottage cheese, and sauerkraut are incredibly beneficial to your intestinal health. Believe it or not, these foods also create the perfect base for combining with many different types of natural inflammation fighters. It’s opened a new spectrum of foods to eat and these foods have had a dramatically positive impact on how my body feels.
If you deeply desire to reduce your inflammation, let’s see how drinking kombucha may help
My joints, particularly the fingers, toes, and knees, consistently feel better during exercise and I rarely wake up with stiffness. As I have started to make wiser food choices, I can definitely feel the impact when I make poor food choices. Drinking and brewing kombucha began as a strategy to support the fight against inflammation. This addition has yielded further positive results in my overall joint health. Through extensive experimentation, I managed to stumble upon a terrific flavor combination which also contains tremendous inflammation relief. Click here for my standard kombucha recipe.
What Is Inflammation?
Inflammation occurs when your body’s immune system deploys itself to fight off an intruder. When it is working correctly, this occurs to fight infection or other unwanted trespassers. Unfortunately, foods and other environmental chemicals entering our body can cause our immune system to fight back. For example, this is what causes an allergic reaction to begin. A similar process happens to our joints and bones when we eat a diet with the wrong types of food. Our bodies fight back even though there may not be a hostile threat.
Every human body contains a unique, immune system. As such, our bodies react differently to the foods we consume and the air we breathe. If you are feeling ill or your body is in pain and you are not sick or you have not injured yourself, something else is triggering your immune system to fire without proper cause. You can either live with the consequences or make adjustments to your diet or living conditions.
Flame Retardant for your Body
My research on inflammation triggered new ideas to incorporate into my kombucha brewing. The brewing process includes two cycles of fermentation. The first cycle consumes the tea and sugar and converts it to beneficial acids for your body. The second cycle allows the yeast and bacteria to continue consuming sugar, typically through fruit, to instill flavor, develop complexity, and to introduce fizzy, carbon dioxide into the beverage.
Regular kombucha proved beneficial to my inflammation, but I wanted more. I hypothesized I could push it further by pulling more anti-inflammatory ingredients into the fermentation cycles. More had to be better, so I started experimenting with natural, inflammation-fighting fruits and herbs to add to my kombucha.
As I have researched inflammation, several different plants come up often as allies in the fight. For example, here is a list of anti-inflammatory foods from Harvard Medical. Many lists reside across the Internet, but most seem to share a similar list of foods. My experimentation incorporates many of these foods as special agents in my inflammation-reducing brew.
Inflammation Fighting Kombucha
As I mentioned, two cycles constitute a full brewing cycle for kombucha. In the initial cycle, sweet tea is converted into beneficial acids. The tea typically used in commercially made kombucha is black tea. What we call tea may be sourced from different types of plants. Therefore, different teas contain a variety of ingredients and compounds to aid in fighting inflammation. Black, green, and white tea all hail from the same plant, however, they are sourced from different parts of the plant and processed differently creating the spectrum of health benefits. I employ a blend of black and green tea for broader benefits. In addition, I add a secret tea-like ingredient to broaden the benefits even further.
First Fermentation Cycle
Yerba Mate is cultivated from a holly plant grown in the rain forests of South America. According to the website, the growers harvest and dry the plant to create a beverage with the boldness of coffee, the health benefits of tea, and the euphoria of chocolate. Remarkably, the Pasteur Institute and the Paris Scientific Society concluded in 1964 that “it is difficult to find a plant in any area of the world equal to mate in nutritional value” and that yerba mate contains “practically all of the vitamins necessary to sustain life.”
The blend of black and green tea combined with Yerba Mate creates a beverage with a broad spectrum of benefits and anti-inflammatory gains. This mixture forms the backbone of my kombucha blend. These elements are fermented together for 10-14 days to produce a complex, rich blend of tea with antioxidant and probiotic benefits. To this blend, I add an elixir of natural inflammation-fighting ingredients.
Second Fermentation Cycle
The second cycle infuses a broad array of fruits and herbs into the fermented tea. I add dark cherries, blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries. On top of those fruits, I add fresh ginger and turmeric root slices to add a slightly bitter, savory and earthy flavor to the mix. Finally, I clip echinacea, lavender, and bay leaf from my own garden to introduce a slight floral fragrance and taste.
This natural goodness adds a host of flavors to the tea. In addition, the plants release their healthy attributes to the brew. The table below summarizes the ingredients and their beneficial effects on your body. Feel free to bookmark and use this table as a quick reference. I find it handy to have all of the benefits listed in one common area. These foods make healthy additions to your diet, whether its drunk in kombucha or combined with other healthy food sources.
Benefits: Flame Fighting Kombucha
| Ingredient | Benefit |
| Black Tea | Protects developing and growing cells from damage |
| Green Tea | Aids metabolism and cell function |
| Yerba Mate | Supports healthy cholesterol and blood sugar levels |
| Dark Cherries | Reduces pain from arthritis and post-exercise soreness |
| Blueberries, Strawberries | Lowers cholesterol, boost the immune system, and regulate blood pressure. |
| Ginger Root | Aids digestion, fights athritis, fights disease, and supports healthy blood |
| Turmeric Root | Blocks inflammation triggering compounds and strengthens immune system |
| Echinacea | Speeds healing of damaged cells and helps diffuse anxiety |
| Lavender | Relieves pain from headaches, sprains, and sore muscles |
| Bay Leaves | Eases joint pain. Supports digestion, particularly kidney function |
Summary
Clearly, this kombucha is only one product I use to provide my body with the nutrients and immune system boosters it needs to thrive. In fact, I add these ingredients to many things I eat. In addition, there are many other foods, like fatty fish, avocados, nuts, and seeds, which reduce inflammation. Just because they don’t happen to pair well with kombucha doesn’t mean I do not want you to try them.
I’ve added many different vegetables and herbs to my diet in the past couple of years. Eating the right foods helps your body fight off the effects of aging and disease. My body sends me many messages when I eat unnatural and processed foods. I encourage you to explore inflammation-fighting foods and add them to your diet. And, it’s more than just smoothies and salads. You can create interesting options by combining the foods above with yogurt, oatmeal, or sourdough pancakes.
If you don’t feel the effects of aging yet, you likely soon will. I can attest that it makes sense to get started now. Preventing the debilitating effects of aging is much better than trying to reverse its effects or to take medication to suppress the pain. For years, I felt like I had to deal with swollen joints by taking ibuprofen. Now, I am finally to the point where I rarely require it. My joints no longer ache. I am happy I was able to do it and I know you can do it too!
