I’m a privileged social media-addicted millennial, and as such I often find myself doing stuff for basically no reason except that I keep seeing other people doing it on Instagram. I wear high-waisted pants and I use Snapchat and I eat acai bowls and I drink kombucha and sometimes I say “v.” instead of “very”—why? Not sure.
And while I don’t plan to find reasoning behind all of that stuff today, I will learn more about acai and kombucha, since I put the stuff in my body on a regular basis—and you’re going to learn with me!
Let’s start with acai (it sounds like ah-sah-ee). All the cool kids are eating it—usually in bowls topped with crap like goji berries and granola and bee pollen—and it makes a great Instagram post, so I willingly and regularly shell out $7 to $8 for a bowl of the stuff. But until today, I knew basically nothing about it.
So here’s the skinny on acai: It’s a berry that grows on a certain type of palm tree that’s native to Brazil and Trinidad and northern South America. The stuff we eat in bowls and smoothies is the berries’ pulp. Acai is supposedly super rich in antioxidants and whatnot, but there isn’t scientific evidence out there to support that it’s healthier than similar fruits (like cranberries). The acai bowl craze seems to have a lot more to do with Internet marketing than with actual health benefits. Shocker. (Still, they’re pretty damn tasty.)
Still curious? Santa Maria hasn’t really fallen prey to the acai hype, but you can find bowls at Lassens, Blenders in the Grass, and Pure Natural Juice.
Next up: kombucha. Now, kombucha is a real head-scratcher for me. It seemed to have just exploded out of nowhere among the young and hip. The first time I tried it, I swore the stuff tasted like someone soaked their feet in some iced tea (but, like, not in an entirely unpleasant way). Even so, I kept ordering it—and I really, really didn’t know why.
Now I do.
“Feet-soaked tea” actually isn’t too far off from what kombucha really is: fermented, effervescent iced tea. Some other languages’ names for the stuff translate literally to “tea fungus.” And people are super into it—some even claim kombucha can treat illnesses like AIDS or cancer. (Right.)
I picked up some kombucha from Lassens (post-acai bowl purchase, of course) and had to choose from two full fridges stocked with various brands of the stuff. I picked a brand called Health Ade Kombucha, which describes the beverage as a bubbly probiotic tea and obviously markets it as having big health benefits. Of course, scientific evidence to support those health benefits doesn’t really exist—but that hasn’t stopped kombucha from infiltrating our favorite health food stores and taking over our hippy friends’ Snapchat stories.
I learned a lot about myself today: I learned that I’m a sucker for good branding. I learned that I’ll cough up cash for foods just because they’re pretty and seem healthy. And I learned that I should probably ease up on the social media use given that it’s even affecting my diet now. Gives me the heebie-jeebies.
But in the end, I’m still going to buy this stuff, because it tastes good and it’s probably not going to kill me. And as far as I’m concerned, that’s all the reason I need.
Brenna Swanston is v. confused about why these foods are so popular. Send explanations to bswanston@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jul 14-21, 2016.