Kombucha tea

[amanpeter 0]

Anyone have any opinions on this?

[Dharma 0]

It has mixed reviews. About ten years ago it was a big deal. The herbal and supplement industry is like the pharmaceutical industry-it cycles. Something new comes out in pharmaceuticals its all the rage. A few people die and then a new one arises to take its place. Same with herbs, only rarely death or permanent side effects and shorter cycle. A supplement will be the hottest new thing for about 6 months, fortunes will be made, then you will rarely here of it again. I did not notice all that is was supposed to do, however I did notice an increase in vision. It did help my eyes. Bilberry has a similar effect.

 

Have you ever made the mushroom tea? The starter mushrooms were very costly when they first were introduced. It is an unattractive flat fungus that looks like flesh coloured bologna. If it touches metal it shrivels and dies on that part. You have to boil some sugar and tea bags in glass, cool it add the fungus and cover it with cheesecloth and let it steep for a week in a warm place. Wherever you put it will begin to smell like dirty socks. In a week a new fungus is sticking to the bottom of the original one. You remove them, discard the old one and make the sugar and tea again and add the baby fungus. Soon evolution kicks in and the babies start getting a bump or a blister here and there like fried bologna. Some were darker than others. The features (birthmarks?) would skip a week or two and then manifest on the progeny in future weeks. We would look at it and say "Oh look-it looks just like its great great grandmother!" (not much happened down on the farm).

 

After discarding the "mother" you could then drink whatever tea the mushroom had not used in the production of its youngster. You had to strain it first through cheese cloth as there were unknown effects if you should swallow a spore. I can only imagine and worried about the septic tank as well. God knows what it would do in a subterranean environment. It was pretty hard to taste it for the first time, but once you did it , it did not taste as bad as it smelled. Just like hard cider or sour apple brandy. It was quite good actually.

 

There were heated debates in the household as to who had to change the mushroom that week as it took a couple hours by the time the sugar and tea cooled. The neighbor lady had purchased one for quite a sum and had to hire a mushroom sitter to go on vacation.

 

I would also like to know also if anyone other than an importer or distributor experienced great physical transformation after drinking it. We kept waiting for something to happen and drank it for about 9 months. Nothing did so we gave it to someone who wanted it. I think the down side was that if left out longer than the prescribed time some people got food poisoning.

 

 

 

[This message has been edited by Dharma (edited 05-21-2001).]

[Maitreya 0]

A friend gave me one in a gallon jar already set up and ready to go[or grow] and it did.This was maybe five or six years ago I don't remember the details only that it grossed me out and I decided to flush it.And it clogged up the toilet, draino didn't work, liquid plummer didn't work so I called the landlord.He asked what happened all I could say is I didn't know.How could I explain a giant fungus.

 

I am knowm for drinking horrible tasting concoctions of Chinese herbs etc. but I could not drink this thing.No how.No way.

 

Fuji Fungi

 

 

[Gauracandra 1]

Maitreya,

 

Your story made me burst out laughing. Since laughter is the best medicine thanks for the chuckles

 

Gauracandra

[JRdd 0]

Hi, hari bol. I had the same experience as Maitreya. About six years ago someone gave me one in the jar, etc. etc., and it was so fleshy-looking I also hated it and gave it to somoene else, who with her dad grew a bunch and experimented like blending the poor things up and using it on their skin and things.

Right around this time a friend who was in the business of growing both table and magical mushrooms, all very scientific, arrended a special conference on Kombuca and returned thoroughly convinced by the experts that lab conditions had to be very very strict, concerning sterility and temperature, etc. She had the equipment and felt confident that she could grow them, but for the common person raising them as a kitchen thing, it is very iffy and is believed to be carcinogenic and other things I forget now.

Anyway, since seeing one of those in the flesh, I have no interest at all in drinking any commercial concoctions either. It's gross.

 

[Gauracandra 1]

I think I know what you guys are talking about now. I remember seeing a big old fleshy mushroom suspended in a jar of brownish liquid once. Ewww....I agree I don't think I could drink this (much less explain how it got stuck in my toilet

 

Gauracandra

[atma 0]

 

I always thought that mushrooms were of 2 kinds, those for eating and the other ones for having hallucinations.

[kebm 0]

I spent several months in Japan for work and

took advantage of the educational opportunity

by learning to cook a lot of traditional

Japanese dishes. Soup being the basis of

many cuisines, Nippon being no exception, I

can testify that Kombu makes an excellent

soup stock. I imagine that you may have

better luck using it to make tea if you

simply boil it *first*, then let it steep

to avoid microorganism contamination. I

think that since the stuff is sold mostly

for making soup, it's not intended to be

sterilly packaged.

[Tarun 6]

Study: Tea May Strengthen Bones

By LINDSEY TANNER .c Associated Press

CHICAGO (AP) - Longtime tea-drinking may strengthen bones, researchers in Taiwan have found.

The benefits occurred in people who drank an average of nearly two cups daily of black, green or oolong tea for at least six years, said the researchers from National Cheng Kung University Hospital in Tainan, Taiwan.

Their results are published in the May 13 edition of Archives of Internal Medicine.

The findings could have broad public health implications, because fractures associated with bone-thinning osteoporosis and low bone density are a global problem expected to worsen with the predicted increase in the number of older people worldwide.

Some estimates suggest nearly half the U.S. population aged 50 and older is affected by osteoporosis or low bone mass, and the World Health Organization projects that the number of hip fractures could rise from 1.7 million in 1990 to 6.3 million by 2050.

Tea contains fluoride and chemical compounds known as flavenoids that include estrogen-like plant derivatives - both of which may enhance bone strength, the authors said.

Their study is based on surveys of 1,037 men and women aged 30 and older who were questioned about tea-drinking habits and had bone-mineral density tests. The researchers accounted for other factors affecting bone strength, including gender, age, body-mass index and lifestyle.

About half the participants were habitual tea drinkers - those who routinely drink tea for at least one year. Most of the habitual tea drinkers consumed green or oolong tea without milk, which contains bone-building calcium.

Both varieties are more commonly consumed in Asia, while black tea is more common in Western countries. All three come from the same plant but are processed differently.

The highest overall bone-mineral density was found in people who said they had consumed tea regularly for more than 10 years; their hip-bone density was 6.2 percent higher than in non-habitual tea drinkers.

Habitual drinkers for six to 10 years had a hip-bone density 2.3 percent higher than in non-habitual tea drinkers, said Dr. Chih-Hsing Wu, a co-author.

There were no significant differences between tea drinkers of one to five years and non-habitual drinkers. Similar results were found regardless of type of tea consumed.

Previous research on tea-drinking and bone strength is limited and has been mixed.

The varying findings ``may result from different study designs ... inconsistent definition of tea intake categories, and incomplete adjustment of the confounding effects of lifestyle characteristics such as exercise, alcohol intake'' and smoking, Dr. Chih-Jen Chang and colleagues wrote.

Dr. Meir Stampfer of Harvard's School of Public Health called the results interesting but far from proof that tea strengthens bones.

``It may be other characteristics of tea drinkers'' that explain the bone mineral density differences, said Stampfer, who was not involved in the research.

``I would not recommend changes in tea consumption based on the results of this study,'' he said.

On the Net: Archives: http://archinte.ama-assn.org

05/13/02 01:28 EDT

[Tarun 6]

Who says tea is not favorably mentioned in Vedik Scripture?

In Bhagavad-gItA 18.3, anyone can plainly read:

"yajna-dAna-tapaH-karma na tea-gam iti cApare"

"Sacrifice, Chari-tea & Austeri-tea should never be given up."

Yes, it's true.

Natural Health Tip of the Day

Thursday May 16, 2002

Drink Your Tea

If you are taking a remedy in the form of herbal tea, you should be drinking three to four cups of the tea per day, spread out over the day. Although many people like drinking cold tea in the heat of summer, many remedies lose their effectiveness if you let the tea cool down. The best way to make and drink your herbal tea as a remedy is to bring some water to a boil, pour this over your tea bag and let it steep for ten minutes, then drink the tea within ten minutes. Green tea is one example of a tea that loses some of its potency after it cools down. Of course, herbal teas are still good for you, hot or cold. (This tip was found in Natural Health magazine.)

- Carla Joy

EMAZING Quote of the Day

The fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.

- Carl Sagan

Colloidal Silver

Reports of success over sinus infection.

[Guest guest]

Thats a great story really funny made me laugh. My mom drinks the tea.