People with Type 2 diabetes who drank kombucha for four weeks had lower fasting blood glucose levels compared to when they consumed a similar-tasting placebo beverage, according to results from a clinical trial conducted by researchers at Georgetown University’s School of Health, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and MedStar Health. This finding, from a pilot 12-person feasibility trial, was reported in Frontiers in Nutrition in August 2023.
Kombucha, a tea fermented with bacteria and yeasts, was consumed as early as 200 B.C. in China but did not become popular in the U.S. until the 1990s. Its popularity has been bolstered by anecdotal health claims.
The current study points to the potential for a dietary intervention that could help lower blood sugar levels in people with diabetes and also establishes the basis for a larger trial to confirm and expand upon these results.
“To our knowledge this is the first clinical trial examining effects of kombucha in people with diabetes,” says Georgetown study author Dan Merenstein, professor of human science in the School of Health and professor of family medicine at the School of Medicine. “A lot more research needs to be done, but this is very promising.”
