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Independent health store advice for healthy drink options

Looking for advice on natural health and wellbeing? Your local independent health store can offer a wealth of expertise. This month we talk to Nadia Niznanska from Windfall Natural in London

Here at Windfall Natural we stock a wide range of healthy drinks options from juices to smoothies and flavoured waters. But we also stock a variety of drinks which have added health benefits, such as kombucha, water kefir and CBD-infused drinks.

Zesty, tangy and fresh

Kombucha is a fermented black or green tea which has been drunk for more than 2,000 years. In China it was called the Immortal Health Elixir because it is rich in probiotics and enzymes, so it is very good for healing the gut. We know that 70 per cent of the immune system is located in the gut, so a healthy drink that supports your gut flora will also help to support your immune system and help the body to fight disease. We like to say that a kombucha a day keeps the doctor away!

For people who have never tried kombucha before I would describe it as being like cider without the alcohol because it has a beautiful, zesty, tangy, fresh taste. It’s a nice way of supporting your health and it tastes great! There are a lot of different flavours available too, like ginger, lemon, elderflower, raspberry and mint. The choice is amazing.

We stock a range of different kombucha brands. We love MOMO – this is one of our bestsellers. We also have LA Brewery, JARR and HOLOS. We also stock some lovely kombucha blends by a brand called Willy’s that contain kombucha and apple cider vinegar as well as kombucha and ginger beer.

If you’re looking for a drink that will give your gut health an extra boost then we recommend trying kefir, which is a fermented drink made from kefir granules. We stock different varieties including coconut, dairy and water kefir. If you compare the probiotic content in a bottle of water kefir to a bottle of kombucha, the kombucha contains about four million live bacteria whereas water kefir contains about two to four billion, so this will give your gut health extra support. We stock a lovely brand of water kefir called London Fermentary which is jam-packed with billions of live bacteria.

Gut-healing drinks

Another lovely brand of gut-healing drinks that we stock is Happy Inside, which contains Japanese knotweed, a natural antioxidant that helps to promote good gut health. We also have a really nice selection of sparkling waters and soda waters from a brand called Dash, which are infused with things like raspberries, lemons, peaches and cucumbers.

Our selection of shot drinks is very popular too. These include things like turmeric shots and ginger shots. These are very nice for a quick energy boost and are also great for cleansing and healing the gut. We stock a lot of CBD drinks which are infused with botanicals. CBD is a cannabinoid which is naturally found in the cannabis sativa plant. It is completely legal and does not contain Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the psychoactive compound which produces a “high”. CBD can be helpful for people who suffer with anxiety, stress and sleeping issues as it has a calming effect on the central nervous system. All our CBD drinks contain more than 15mg and up to 25mg of CBD in each can. Popular brands that we stock include OTO, Trip and Meda.

Lastly, we stock some lovely non-alcoholic drinks options such as Freestar, which is alcohol-free, gluten-free beer, and Seedlip, which is a range of non-alcoholic spirits.

This can be used to make mocktails, which would be perfect for the summer. You could even mix it with the kombucha to give your gut an extra boost!

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