Gotta say that I always considered Kombucha to be too sugary to drink. But this was a cross-over study (same people drank kombucha for a certain time, then a washout, then drank a “placebo”, or vice versa). And, this I thought was not anticipated, at least by me:
Whoa.
It’s a small study, only 12 folks. But impressive.
It was my understanding that most of the sugar was eaten up (literally) during the fermentation process?
Yet it still tastes sweet so how can the sugar have gotten eaten up during fermentation?
I’m not sure but 50 calories and only 12 carbs per 16oz serving ain’t much. I drink about 5-6oz at a time
Have you notice any blood sugar response? I’m wondering if it only works this way on high-carb folks?
They don’t go into WHY it works, just that it does work to reduce blood sugar in this small study.
And I can’t figure out why it works. Is it replacing other calories? Making you eat less? Or eat less high-carb calories? Making you fuller so you eat fewer high-carb calories? Doing something to your biome?
A 50 point blood sugar drop is monumental.
Kombucha wreaks havoc with my digestion. I have tried twice, a few months apart, same result. My biome apparently doesn’t like the newcomers.
Five or six ounces of this product is 4-5 g of sugar. Be careful it doesn’t add up too quickly.
Interesting, it’s the first time for me to know the Kombucha which was believed originated in China, perhaps it’s worth for the diabetes to give a try.
After searching on the internet, I found that many people here are drinking Kombucha here, 
@velvet I’ve never tried Kombucha. Do you eat yogurt or kefir? Maybe those would help? But I’m not sure what differences there would be with Komcucha.
@PaulL I wonder if the actual amount is lower due to the bacteria eating the carbs?
@echo2080 If I didn’t have other stuff to make, I’d order a kit and make my own. That way, I know what’s going into it.
In my opinion, you’re not missing anything. Let’s just say, I don’t find the vinegar taste very appealing.
I can eat small amounts of yogurt - I still regret the last time I bought some. I had IBS before Keto, and since I did Keto, my digestion is fine - unless I eat any prebiotics, probiotics or things like Kombucha. Or too much yogurt. I can only do a couple of spoonful a day of that. My digestion is right as rain unless I mess with the existing biome, I suppose.
@velvet I think I had IBS and also other issues, which have become way better if I keep eating keto. Fasting probably helped with that too.
I can eat many fermented things, though. Oddly, not raw sauerkraut (cooked is ok), which is too bad, because I like it.
@VirginiaEdie Hmm…how vinegar-y is it? I wonder if it’s that part that’s doing something? Studies typically show a decrease in blood sugar if you eat/drink vinegar. In fact, if I know I’m going to have carbs (and I remember), I’ll chug vinegar + water to reduce the blood sugar spike of carbs. Would LOVE to have my CGM back to test this, though.
How weird. I can eat Kimchi and Sauerkraut - raw or cooked. I had IBS since I was a teen, I didn’t even remember what normal stool was.
As soon as I cut out sugar and starch, I normalized. I can eat veggies and fruit to my content. But no aded sugars or any starches.
I can eat kimchi, but I buy the stuff made from different cabbage (napa?). I may retry sauerkraut again, to see what happens. Last year, I had some prolific hot pepper plants, and I made fermented peppers. I was able to eat those, so I would think I would be able to eat sauerkraut, but the last time I tried, I couldn’t. That was a while ago though.
It’s interesting how people differ in how they see a “serving”. One might see 5-6 oz as a serving while another might see 5-6 oz as a sip. My typical drink is probably closer to 24 oz so maybe it’s even more important for me to avoid things that have even a small amount of sugar per serving cause I tend to drink a lot of it.
The serving size in this case is the whole bottle. 16oz. 12g carbs. I could never sit down and drink a whole bottle at once. Yuck
Kombucha, which is rich in tea polyphenols and organic acid, is a kind of acidic tea soup beverage fermented by acetic acid bacteria, yeasts, lactic acid bacteria. Kombucha has been reported to possess anti-diabetic activity, but the underlying mechanism was not well understood. In this study, a high-fat, high-sugar diet combined with streptozotocin (STZ) injection was used to induce T2DM model in mice. After four weeks of kombucha intervention, the physiological and biochemical index were measured to determine the diabetes-related indicators. High-throughput sequencing technology was used to analyze the changes in gut microbiota from the feces. The results showed that four weeks of kombucha intervention increased the abundance of SCFAs-producing bacteria and reduced the abundance of gram-negative bacteria and pathogenic bacteria. The improvement in gut microbiota reduced the damage of intestinal barrier, thereby reducing the displacement of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and inhibiting the occurrence of inflammation and insulin resistance in vivo. In addition, the increased levels of SCFAs-producing bacteria, and thus increasing the SCFAs, improved islet β cell function by promoting the secretion of gastrointestinal hormones (GLP-1/PYY). This study methodically uncovered the hypoglycemic mechanism of kombucha through gut microbiota intervention, and the result suggested that kombucha may be introduced as a new functional drink for T2DM prevention and treatment.
Drug companies have made GLP-1 agonists to treat diabetes. I don’t think there have been very good results with them, though. It’s interesting that kombucha works in that manner.
GLP-1 agonists are good for intestinal issues, too.
https://www.proquest.com/openview/a5baf20263b9459b5dc4c84c6eed5488/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=2032426
@betsy2 Very interesting study, thank you for that. A study showing the usefulness of mouse studies, which I think are for this purpose – how things might work. And the biome! I never know what to do with that, but this at least theorizes that the biome changes. It’s plausible.
@velvet My theory is that “regular” cabbage and I don’t get along. But I can eat cooked cabbage (and cooked sauerkraut), and even coleslaw at times (as long as it’s not too much). And, like many things, I can overdo fermented foods. Eat one fermented pickle, I’m ok; eat 2 or 3, bad things happen. Probably a real shock to my biome, or at least that’s my guess.
Here’s the study Betsy refers to (I think anyway):
Edit: This is a very impressive study. The have the following groups: NC = normal; DC = T2DM (no intervention); KT = DM but with Kombucha; MET = DM but with metformin; TS = DM but with “tea soup”, which I think is unfermented tea and a control against Kombucha.
They go through differences between Kombucha and the unfermented “tea soup”. An interesting discussion.
Here’s one of the main figures:
While Kombucha (or any of the other interventions) doesn’t return the diabetic mice to normal, the Kombucha does about as well as metformin.
Section 3.3 is interesting: “Kombucha Improved the Damaged Liver and Islet Tissue in T2DM Mice”.
Section 3.4 is also interesting: “Kombucha Changed the Structure of the Gut Microbiota in T2DM Mice”.
OK, pretty much every section is interesting. This section in particular:
