There’s no avoiding it; the silly season is upon us, which inevitably means navigating a minefield of opportunities to overindulge. Whether you want to avoid alcohol altogether or you just need a night off the booze, but your social calendar is jam packed, the non-alcoholic options are often boring or packed full of sugar. Enter your saviour: kombucha.

For the uninitiated, kombucha (pronounced kom-boo-cha) is an old-school drink going through a modern day revival. It is made through a fermentation process involving tea, wild bacteria and healthy yeasts. The result is a sparkling drink full of probiotics and healthy organic acids that are insanely good for digestive health, which in turn has a huge impact on overall health and wellbeing.

You can make kombucha at home, but fortunately kombucha is also available commercially which makes picking it up on the way to a party, on the way home or to keep stocked in your fridge that much easier. I personally am a fan of Remedy Kombucha, not only because it is raw, unpasteurised, organic and tastes delicious, but it has the lowest sugar content of the kombuchas available on the market. There’s a stack of reasons why you should skip the booze and stock up on the ‘booch this summer, but let’s settle on our top five …

“If you do slip up, the antioxidant properties of kombucha will help detoxify your body, while the antimicrobial properties stop bad bacteria taking over.”

Improve your gut health
If there’s one thing more prevalent than alcohol during the silly season, it’s food. Kombucha aids digestion and improves gut health by balancing out bad bacteria with lots of all-natural good stuff, thanks to live cultures, acetic acids and digestive enzymes.

Top up on the anti-ox
If you do slip up, the antioxidant properties of kombucha will help detoxify your body, while the antimicrobial properties stop bad bacteria taking over.

Achieve a natural energy boost
Kombucha provides a natural energy boost without crash and burn of sugar and caffeine highs, the hits we turn to when deadlines are looming as heavily as the lateness of the evening prior.

Kick-start your metabolism
There is a growing body of evidence suggesting that naturally occurring bacteria and other microbes in the body can boost your metabolism and influence weight. It doesn’t replace a healthy diet and regular exercise, but it is another factor to add into the mix.

Find your glow
Because the festive season is when you want to slip on your best and have your skin look fresh too, adding probiotic, raw products like kombucha can be wonderfully beneficial in reducing inflammation in the body, which can improve that beautiful glow.

Jacqueline Alwill is a qualified, practicing nutritionist, whole foods cook and director at The Brown Paper Bag.