A weak gut has entered wellness conversations as the root cause for a number of health issues. Bloating? Heal the gut. Acne? Heal the gut. Low energy, poor mood, inflammation? Heal the gut. Inevitably, packaged solutions have boomed: kombucha in sleek glass, kefir in pretty pours, sauerkraut in neat jars, probiotic powders and “microbiome-friendly” snacks that make good digestion feel like something one can outsource.
This was evident at the recently concluded Longevity Summit in Mumbai which had an exhibition area with kombucha brands. But a modern wellness label does not automatically make something better than what has existed in Indian kitchens for generations.
Long before kombucha became a café staple, Indian kitchens had their own microbial intelligence: kanji, chaas, dahi, fermented batters, pickles, overnight soaked rice dishes and fermented beans of the North-East, among others. What is changing now is not that fermentation has arrived in India—it is that kombucha has become the face of gut-friendly foods while some Indian fermented drinks are being pulled out of the home and placed into the context of premium dining. At restaurants, food pop-ups, farmers’ markets and social media, kanji is no longer just the khatta winter drink made in a glass jar and left in the sun—it is a shot, a cooler, a granita, and a tasting-menu surprise.
Chef Chetna Chopra, culinary director at OMO Gurugram, says many Indian fermented foods have been part of gut-health traditions long before the term entered popular wellness language. But, she adds, they are designed to support digestion through routine consumption rather than act as an occasional supplement or a one-stop solution for gut health.
The kanji moment
In the age of quick commerce and instant fixes, the rise of kombucha is tied to several factors. Nutrition and wellness consultant Sangeeta Khanna says she has watched this shift for years. She says kanji does not have the same commercial advantage as kombucha. “It is not a shelf-stable kind of drink,” she says, unlike bottled kombucha, which has been made easier to package and sell.
Arvind Mohan, founder of Bengaluru-based Kumbayah Kombucha, says kombucha sits “closer to the world of modern soft beverages.” “It’s lightly fizzy, often fruit-forward, and positioned as a healthier alternative to sodas or packaged juices,” he says. Traditional Indian drinks like kanji and chaas, are tied to context. Kanji is a winter staple in North India, whereas chaas is a post-meal summer drink. “Chaas, despite having a massive market, is seen as functional, not aspirational,” Mohan says.
Food journalist and culinary commentator Ayandrali Dutta sees this across food trends and attributes this shift to the Turmeric Latte Syndrome. “The moment your haldi doodh became turmeric latte, it became the buzz of the town,” she says. Seeds became superfoods once they were recognised by the West. Kombucha versus kanji, she suggests, is part of that same story: things become desirable when they return to us in a more global language. Local foods often fail to command cultural prestige unless they are validated by Western food trends.
Therefore, it makes sense to look at our kitchen shelves to reclaim our culinary heritage. Apart from chaas and kanji, Indian kitchens are full of lacto-fermented foods and drinks. There are idli and dosa batters, whose fermentation improves digestibility and creates texture. There are pickles, not all of them fermented, but many prepared through microbial transformation. There is pakhala bhaat in Odisha, poita bhaat in Assam and panta bhaat in Bengal, fermented leftover rice preparations that are cooling, practical and climate-intelligent. In Tamil Nadu and Kerala, pazhaya sadam and pazhankanji carry similar logic. There is ragi ambali in parts of the South, a fermented cereal-based drink that is cooling and filling. In Himalayan and North-Eastern food traditions, there are dishes, like Sikkim’s fermented greens named gundruk and Nagaland’s fermented beans called axone.
What dieticians say
Manvi Lohia, a registered dietitian based in Lucknow, says the biggest misconception she sees is that gut health can be fixed by adding one thing. “Most people are looking for a product solution rather than addressing dietary patterns,” she says. What matters more is fibre, plant diversity, regular meal patterns, sleep, physical activity and consistency.
Mumbai-based gut and hormone nutrition specialist Swetha Ashok agrees: “Supporting gut health comes down to eating enough fibre through vegetables, fruits, and dals, having a good variety of plant foods across the week, and maintaining consistent meal timings. It’s about doing the basics consistently.”
So where do foods like kanji, chaas and fermented batters fit in? They can help, but as part of the larger picture. Ashok says foods like curd, chaas and fermented batters do support digestion and introduce beneficial bacteria, but their benefits depend on the overall quality of the diet. “You can’t rely on one bowl of curd to compensate for a lack of fibre or poor eating habits,” she says.
For a healthy adult, with no underlying issues, Ashok recommends 250–500ml of chaas a day, preferably in the morning around 11AM. In contrast, kombucha needs to be taken with caution. “While you can have 120-240ml kombucha daily, it needs to be treated as a healthier replacement for sodas. The fact is that many commercial kombuchas contain relatively low levels of live microbes and higher amounts (up to 8-15g) of sugar per serving. Lohia also makes an important distinction between traditional fermented foods and clinical probiotics. A probiotic, she explains, is a specific microorganism that has been studied and shown to provide a health benefit at a specific dose. Traditional fermented foods do not necessarily meet that definition because their microbial composition is variable and not standardised.
What would help is a broader, more honest vocabulary. Instead of treating every fermented food as a miracle, one could ask better questions. How is it made? Is it actually fermented or just flavoured? Is it part of a balanced meal? Does it suit the person eating it? Is it wellness marketing, or truly beneficial?
Gut health advice needs to be individualised, not turned into a blanket prescription. The most useful shift may be cultural as much as nutritional: to stop looking outside for solutions that already exists in Indian food systems.
Anushka Patodia is an independent journalist from Mumbai.