Polyphenols are micro nutrients that we get through certain plant-based foods.  They're packed with antioxidants and potential health benefits. It's thought that polyphenols can improve or help treat digestion and weight management issues, diabetes, neurodegenerative disease, and cardiovascular disease.  

70% of your immune system lives in your digestive tract. Your body's naturally-occurring probiotics feed on polyphenols. A polyphenol-rich diet can help you feel better and digest your food better. That's right, eating foods with polyphenols can help fuel our own probiotics, making our own digestive systems healthier. 

It's best to get polyphenols by eating foods containing them rather than via supplements, which can limit iron absorption. There are polyphenol blends available for purchase, but they need to be soy-free, lactose-free and manufactured to cGMP standards and have the same high polyphenol content you'd receive if you simple at the food itself, rather than purchase a supplement. 

The best way we've found to harness the highest nutrient content of these powerful foods is to eat them raw and also blend them to add to our kombucha and daily blended juices.  This has a wonderful effect on my family's health. It helps to detoxify and reduce the inflammation Jovan experiences in his gut.  As I've said before, all health begins in the gut, and that's one of the main places we started to try to heal Jovan with his digestive health.

The five videos below detail my process of making kombucha at home. Please let me know if you have any comments or questions!

​A SCOBY (for symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast) is a syntrophic mixed culture, generally associated with kombucha production wherein anaerobic ethanol fermentation (by yeast), anaerobic organic acid fermentation (by bacteria), and aerobic ethanol oxidation to acetate (by bacteria) all take place concurrently along an oxygen gradient. A gelatinous, cellulose-based biofilm called a pellicle forms at the air-liquid interface and is also sometimes referred to as a SCOBY. Either samples of this pellicle or unpasteurized kombucha can be used similarly to Mother of vinegar to begin fermentation in pasteurized sweet tea. [1] Referring to the cultures as a "colony" is misleading, because the term colony implies a group of genetically identical or nearly identical organisms living together. The species comprising the mixed cultures vary from preparation to preparation, but generally include Acetobacter bacterial species, as well as various Saccharomyces and other yeast types. SCOBY cultures used in beverage production can produce a structure referred to as a "mushroom," which is also biologically misleading, because mushrooms are a completely unrelated group of fungi. It often forms in vinegar in jars of pickled foods.

Making your own kombucha at home is easy. Please remember to sterilize your kitchen, your countertops and workspace because you're handling a live bacteria.  Please make sure your hands are clean. Follow the steps I've outlined in the slideshow below.  If you have comments, please leave them below and you'll receive a response right away.