I used to brew kombucha at home. It is a fairly simple process, really. You brew tea and sweeten it slightly. I used decaffeinated tea and honey. Then you add the Scoby. Scoby is an acronym for “Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeast.” It is a slimy, pancake-like blob. I obtained my Scoby from another kombucha brewer and it grows quickly enough that after a few batches I had enough to divide and share. I brewed my kombucha in small batches in gallon jars, strained it, and then bottled it in smaller bottles with air-tight, reusable stoppers. The mixture was naturally carbonated and I practiced with several different flavor combinations. I thought I was getting pretty good at making berry and root beer flavors.

Kombucha helps maintain a healthy gut biome. The community of microorganisms that help the stomach and intestines process food into energy is complex and there are foods and beverages that promote a healthy biome.

I stopped brewing my own kombucha when we were preparing to move, however. I knew that it would be easy to obtain a new starter culture from another brewer and get back into the routine. However, I have not yet begun that process. For the first year after we moved, we were in a rental home and there are some potentially dramatic spills that can occur if the kombucha is allowed to become over carbonated. I’ve been known to have to scrub kombucha off of walls and even the ceiling when I didn’t use appropriate caution uncorking a bottle. So I just haven’t gotten around to starting up the process. My kombucha bottles are in boxes that have not been unpacked since our move.

So last night at dinner, I was drinking kombucha that I bought at the grocery store. It is a good, berry flavor, and lightly sweetened, but it is made with regular black tea, so it contains caffeine, and I try to avoid consuming too much caffeine, so I limit my consumption. Having a glass with dinner, however, is a nice treat from time to time. As I poured my kombucha, I was reading the label out loud to Susan. It says on the bottle that it “contains 9 billion living probiotics.” I wondered how they came up with the number for the label. I imagine that the process might involve taking a dropper full of the kombucha, putting it on a microscope slide, counting the organisms and then doing the math to figure out how many drops are in a bottle. From there it is simply multiplication.

As I joke, I asked how they know the probiotics from the amateur biotics. In some sense, I guess that all of the microorganisms that we eat become probiotic - that is they contribute to the process of helping the digestive system function. I’m pretty sure that I obtain enough probiotics from my regular diet that I don’t need the boost of a glass of kombucha. I don’t see it as a tonic. I simply enjoy it.

I’m not sure where I first heard the phrase, “You are what you eat,” but there is truth to the simple saying. Our overall health is more complex than simply consuming and digesting food, however. There is a lot of relatively recent information published about the vagus nerve. I think that advanced imaging and brain research has given scientists much better ways of understanding the nervous system. The vagus nerve is named from the Latin root “vag” which means wander. Our English word vagabond, comes from the same root. The nerve does wander. It goes down the back of the throat, back up and loops near the ears, goes by the heart, though the lungs, liver, stomach and finally ends in the intestines.

Somehow in my elementary understanding of how the nervous system works, I used to think of nerves as one way communication. The brain issues an order and the body responds. The brain directs autonomic functions such as breathing and heart rate. It also directs voluntary functions such as moving one’s arms and legs. But the nervous system is multiplex communication. The body informs the brain of important information. We are able to move because the brain receives information on where our various body parts are. I can feel my fingers on the keyboard and that information is as important for my brain as the ideas I am trying to express.

The vagus nerve plays a huge role in maintaining brain health. There is a direct connection between anxiety and gut health. Unlike the ancient notion of a human being composed of body, mind, and emotions, these aspects are intimately connected. We experience emotions in all of our body and, it turns out, we “think” in other places than our brains. Our nerves are important parts of mental health and even though modern medicine still distinguishes between mental and physical health, doctors are well aware that these are not separate systems that can be treated independently.

Therapists are beginning to better understand the relationship between nutrition and mental health, but even using the term “mental health,” shows our tendency to separate mind from body. We cannot be physically healthy if we are not mentally healthy and it works the other way around, too. We need to be whole - healthy in mind, body and spirit - in order to be healthy.

Paying attention to gut health is important because that wonderful nerve that visits all of the organs in our body, the vagus nerve, is keeping up constant communication.

There are a lot of good reasons for me to get back to the practices of home food preparation that I set aside when we moved. Baking and brewing and using the elements of the earth to make good food helps us stay healthy in all ways. Judging from the small berries emerging, we are going to have a bumper crop of plums and cherries from our yard this year. And the orchard at the farm will once again produce more that we are able to consume. I guess it is time for me to be thinking of drying and freezing fruit - and of making kombucha.

I don’t intend, however, to count the number of living probiotics in each bottle.