Hello. I'm Kev. I'm 46¾, with a partner who won't marry me, a daughter who finds me embarrassing, two cats, two guinea pigs and a kombucha shop in Otley. I'm not a doctor, a biohacker or an influencer. Just a normal bloke trying to look after my gut while social media tells me to rub butter in my eyes to see better.
This is my diary: what I've written, what I've been drinking, and the week's gut science, minus the hype. It lands in inboxes every Saturday at 11am. Want it? Sign up in the footer.
|
Issue 3. In which a drinks menu scares me more than the zombies, I declare war on the oat milk tax, and I hide kimchi next to a pie. Monday Zombies. Chainsaws. Grown men leaping out of hedges. Didn't flinch once. Then I saw the drinks menu. Alcohol-free Kopparberg, £9. Screamed louder than anyone on the rides. Even the TikTok influencers flogging crystal-activated water would think that's a bit steep.
Storm forecast. So me and my little brother rocked up in enough waterproofs to summit Everest. My partner Cait took one look and cried laughing. We used to be Stallone in Cliffhanger, T-shirt on a mountain in a blizzard. Now we pack spare socks. Half the rides weren't even running. Just as well. The prices had already sent my heart rate through the roof. One big drop on Oblivion and I'd have left Alton Towers in the back of an ambulance. Kids had the best day ever though. Proper catch-up with my little brother. Best bit, as always. Seven goes on the Runaway Mine Train. First ever go on The Smiler. Shook my insides harder than any £40 gut cleanse.
Tuesday Kombucha order in from Mark. Used to work with him at Ecology Building Society. Ecology use your savings to do good. Some household name banks on the high street use yours to fund the arms trade and bulldoze rainforests. Savings account with better morals than most people. I miss working with people who actually give a monkey's. The first half of my career was behaviour change, for the Department of Health and charities. Wellness influencers call that "living in alignment with your values". We just called it Tuesday. Lump in the throat when people from every chapter of your life turn up to back you. Mark, the extra paper was a hug. Recycle it.
Wednesday Then the Government Budget landed. Not much changed. So I did my own. Every barista coffee at the Taproom: £3. Any milk. No surcharge. Why? Alton Towers charged me an extra £1.20 for oat milk. £1.20. For oats and water. Little brother told me about a place in St Albans that's dropped its coffee prices for now. Cost-of-living pricing, while it lasts. One price, any milk. Nicked it. The Taproom's meant to be a third space. Not home, not work, the bit in between. Nobody's chatting if they can't afford the coffee. Chancellor, if you need a hand next year, I'm in Otley. I work for pies.
Thursday Thought about the old supplement cupboard. Rattled like a maraca. Capsules, powders, tinctures. A small fortune in tubs. Had it backwards. Supplements are the backing singers. Food's the band. Finally got the Taproom food sorted. Only took me three years. No Buddha bowls. No spiralised anything. In Yorkshire, balance has a pastry lid. Weegmanns are on board. Some of the best pies in Yorkshire. From next Saturday, every pie comes with a side of kraut or kimchi. Old behaviour change trick. A nudge. They come in for a pie. They leave having eaten live fermented veg. Nobody says microbiome once. Hiding veg in a toddler's mash. Except the toddler's a grown man from Otley. And the mash is a pie.
Friday Rejoined Velo Virtual in Otley. £40 a month, last day to lock it in. A Scotsman living in Yorkshire. That deal never stood a chance. Back on the bike. This has nothing to do with the pies. Or the kimchi. Or the Haribo. The Lycra just shrank in the wash. All of it. Overnight. | ||
|
New on the website · kombuchaclub.co.uk journal | ||
New to booch? How to choose a raw, alcohol-free kombucha you'll actually enjoy Most people give up on kombucha because they bought the wrong one first. Usually that's a pasteurised supermarket one with all the personality of a beige cardigan. This is the honest way in: what "raw" means, how to read a label past the marketing, and which flavour to start with depending on whether you're a ginger beer, cider or mojito person.
| ||
|
New on the website · alcoholfreedrinksclub.com journal | ||
Zebra striping: the lazy genius way to drink less Two rules: one with alcohol, one without, then repeat. Nobody notices, you remember the funny bits, and you tell the story on Monday instead of starring in it. I learned this in ten years of public health, where willpower runs out by Tuesday lunch.
| ||
|
New on YouTube | ||
20+ new alcohol-free drinks just landed. Andy and I race you through the lot. Andy and I race you through over 20 new alcohol-free drinks that have just landed in the Otley Taproom, all in the fridge and ready for you to buy this weekend. Prepare to have your mind opened. The quality of AF drinks out there now is ridiculous. It's 18 minutes long, which is shorter than the queue for The Smiler.
| ||
 | ||
|
Chickpeas, belly fat and some very long-lived flies. How you cook it matters, not just what it is Imperial College London gave 10 volunteers chickpea meals that were either whole, with the cells intact, or broken down. Whole chickpeas carried their nutrients further down the gut, and that was linked to longer-lasting GLP-1 and PYY, the body's own "I'm full" hormones. Yes, it's the same GLP-1 that the weight-loss jabs copy. It's tiny, but a chickpea isn't just its macros. (Nature Communications, Sept) A gut bug molecule that burns belly fat (in mice) Duke University found a molecule from a newly identified gut bacterium. It cut organ fat in obese mice by making them burn more energy. They didn't eat less, and they kept their muscle. Mice only, so if an influencer is selling it in a capsule by Tuesday, it isn't this. (Cell Host & Microbe, 23 Sept) High-fat diets, gut bugs and the brain An Italian team found that a high-fat diet in mice lowered Lactobacillus and sent immune cells into the brain, worsening an MS-like disease. In mice, a probiotic blunted part of it. In 226 people with MS, a related brain chemical was linked to worse disability, but only in those with obesity. It's mostly mouse work, so more is needed in humans. (Journal of Neuroinflammation, 25 Sept) Flies live longer thanks to their gut bacteria Compounds made by gut bacteria, not by the flies themselves, helped fruit flies live longer. I am not a fruit fly. Some mornings my hair disagrees. (mBio, Sept) | ||
|
Product spotlight | ||
| ||
Same time next week: Saturday, 11am. Until then, Kombucha Kev P.S. Can't decide which alcohol-free drink to try first? Come down and have a nosey. All the new arrivals from the video are in the fridge at 7 Manor Square, Otley, ready for the weekend. |
