# Kombucha and other live probiotics

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kombucha-and-other-live-probiotics/831607>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 27, 2019, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kombucha-and-other-live-probiotics/831607 "2019-03-27T14:15:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mundane_super_hero/32/6304_2.png) [@Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mundane_Super_Hero)\
**Post date:** [March 30, 2019, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kombucha-and-other-live-probiotics/831607/21 "2019-03-30T15:38:18Z")

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> [@China\_Guy](#):
>
> Start brewing your own beer. Live yeast baby.

Is it true that you can add 5 parts probiotic yogurt, 1 part mayo, 2 tablespoons of crushed black pepper, 1 tablespoon of powdered garlic, 2 pinches of salt, and 1 bottle cap of vinegar together to make a killer white sauce?  
You’d need to like Gyros though.  
I’m not any medical expert so I can’t tell if this will solve either the rumblies in your tumblies or that odd feeling in the lower half of your torso that you may be gestating ‘The Blob’.  
It’s not impossible a good Gyro could chase that out of you like a squid fleeing a shark.

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**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\
**Post date:** [March 30, 2019, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kombucha-and-other-live-probiotics/831607/22 "2019-03-30T17:07:08Z")

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You know what’s full of probiotics, delicious, and dead easy to make? Sauerkraut. You need a jar, some cabbage, some non-iodized salt, and seven to thirty days. I’ve got five and a half pounds of cabbage fermenting in a dark cupboard right now. I use it to make a kind of coleslaw. I use two tablespoons Huy Fong Chili Garlic sauce, a quarter cup of mayonnaise, and two tablespoons apple cider vinegar as a dressing. If you use apple cider vinegar with the mother (and why wouldn’t you) there’s even more probiotics in that.

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**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\
**Post date:** [March 30, 2019, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kombucha-and-other-live-probiotics/831607/23 "2019-03-30T18:07:47Z")

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> [@DrDeth](#):
>
> …your Doc may not be the best person, since some are old fashioned and think probiotics are snake oil.

Many docs will be skeptical of commercial claims if they are keeping up with the scientific literature.

It’s possible probiotics [may](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29460487) [help](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23981066) with some lower G.I. symptoms - for instance, _specific products_ have been found to be helpful in _some_ people with irritable bowel syndrome and to reduce the length of antibiotic-associated diarrhea.

Before taking any such products, I’d want to know if there was clinical trial backing for _the specific formulation_ being sold. Otherwise, it might have a lot of dead bacteria sloshing around in it, in a form that doesn’t survive to reach the colon, or perishes too quickly to be of use.

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