Did you know there’s a Winchester Books Festival?
Winchester Books Festival 19th – 21st April As an award-winning, family-owned artisan brewery based locally in Woodmancott, we are delighted to support the Winchester Books
Back in 2016 Peter and Julia were looking for ways to work with nature to improve their own overall health. This is when they first discovered their love of brewing kombucha. Kombucha can be a wonderfully simple way to help drink yourself to better health. You can make kombucha yourself at home or select some off the shelf, like our delicious Mighty Brew Kombucha. What is important is that the kombucha you drink is live, raw and unpasteurised, ideally brewed using organic ingredients and pure botanicals for maximum health benefits.
Fermented drinks like kombucha and kefir, along with fermented foods such as sauerkraut and kimchi are increasing in popularity thanks to their gut-friendly benefits. Kombucha is naturally rich in live cultures when enjoyed raw and unpasteurised. This sparkling fermented tea can be a good source of probiotics and may help improve the health of your intestinal cells and boost your immune function. This is thanks to it containing good gut bacteria, minerals, vitamins, organic acids and nutrients indispensable for the proper functioning of the body.
Our digestive system is a complex system comprising of tissues and organs, all with a unique role to play in the digestion and absorption of our food. One of the major roles of our gut bacteria, besides digesting our food, is the regulation of our immune system.
Our gut is often called our ‘second brain’. This is thanks to the millions of neurons that line the gut. These neurons release important chemical messengers known as neurochemicals or neurotransmitters. They allow the gut to keep in close contact with the brain and influence our moods and emotions. Our gut bacteria plays a key role in the production of certain neurotransmitters, such as serotonin, which is manufactured in the gut and known as the ‘happy hormone’.
Within the gut is something known as the microbiome. It’s really important to foster its health. The microbiome is often called the forgotten organ as it’s felt we don’t always recognise its significance and care for it as much as we should. It’s probably easiest to think of it like an ecosystem of microscopic organisms. These microbes, of which there are about 500 known species, are largely made up of bacteria. Each person carries around 100 trillion microbes within their body, mostly within the digestive tract. Everyone of us has a different microbiome, and this can be influenced by a wide variety of factors, including the use of medications and diet.
The most common culprits that can adversely affect gut bacteria include antibiotics and a diet low in fibre, fruit and vegetables. Antibiotics are used to treat or prevent some types of bacterial infection by killing bacteria in the body. While they are an important medicine, they cannot distinguish between good and bad bacteria, so they wipe out both. Stress can change the number and diversity of our gut bacteria, which in turn upsets the regulation of the immune system and may explain why certain conditions, such as eczema or acne, flare up when we are more stressed.
Increasing the amount of fibre, fruit and vegetables that you eat is an important start as they’re good sources of soluble fibre which is important for ‘feeding’ the good bacteria. Other high-fibre foods include beans and pulses, such as chickpeas and lentils, wholegrain breads, brown or wholegrain rice, nuts and seeds, oats and jacket potatoes.
There are further things you can do to look after your digestive system and to support a healthy microbiome. Regularly drinking live, raw, unpasteurised kombucha is thought to be a great way to help support better health and immunity. Any healthy diet is all about variety and not consuming an excess of any one thing. If you have any concerns it’s always important for you to discuss these with your doctor first.
Complimentary activities such as mindfulness or meditation which can help you to relax and reduce your stress levels, can also help reduce the impact on your digestive system.
Winchester Books Festival 19th – 21st April As an award-winning, family-owned artisan brewery based locally in Woodmancott, we are delighted to support the Winchester Books
Now that the temperature is truly dropping, we’ve been tucking into hearty meals packed with tasty and nutritious seasonal vegetables. Paired with a generous glass
Pledge for our Planet is a movement with a difference. The idea is that we can each have a positive impact and help protect our