Apple Cider Vinegar & It's Relevance to Natural Health

Braggs Apple Cider Vinegar is a health food store staple and my preferred brand.  It's unfiltered, containing what is referred to as the "Mother" that contains healthy bacteria, enzymes and living food. Always look for the "Mother" in any Apple Cider Vinegar that you purchase and preferably buy an Organic variety. Among other benefits it is a fermented beverage which supports healthy bacteria in the intestines, supporting digestion.  

Many people use it with success to combat acid reflux.  Acid reflux isn't a condition of too much acid; it occurs when the stomach doesn't have enough acid when food enters the stomach.

The food sits in the stomach for too long without adequately produced acid.  It then passes partially digested into the small intestine.  Finally, the stomach gets around to producing acids but it's too late, the food has moved on! Too much acid produced in the stomach when there is no food in it, causes stomach upset, erosion of the lining of the stomach, and acids launching up into the esophagus (acid reflux). Food passing partially digested into the small intestine creates malabsorption of nutrients.  The small intestine should only be receiving digested food or "chyme" from the stomach. 

Taking a shot glass filled with water and 2 tbsp of apple cider vinegar prior to eating lowers the pH in the stomach.  This creates a hospitable environment for food, supporting its complete breakdown in the stomach.

This is why juicing is so beneficial; it contributes to the enzyme potential of the body.  Enzyme potential refers to the amount of enzymes that the body is able to make based on health.  Our enzyme potential decreases naturally with age but poor diet, not eating diverse fruits and veggies and even stress can lower the production of these important catalysts for digestion. The body can make it's own enzymes, but it's nice to have support with fruits and veggies as they already contain enzymes needed for their breakdown.  This is why they break down so readily in the stomach.

If you can't juice, eating fruit first thing in the morning on an empty stomach is the next best thing.  Eating a diet rich in fruits and veggies will negate the need to supplement with apple cider vinegar and or digestive enzymes on a daily basis. If your using Tums or other antacids, please take my advice an know that your destroying your health faster than you can imagine with products like this.  Your stomach needs acid, not products like Tums that neutralize acid in the stomach.  This is completely counter-intuitive to physiology of the body.  Antacids hinder absorbtion of nutrients of food; contributing to disease. 

"Fruit First" is my motto!  Each morning eating fruit first and only fruit until noon is a great way to start the day.  Fruit in the morning on an empty stomach is detoxifying, cleansing, mineral rich, it has natural sugar, enzymes, antioxidants, amino acids, all good things.

Apple Cider Vinegar's ability to support digestion is reason enough to include it in your diet.  It has other benefits too.  It supports healthy blood sugar levels and I've heard from a friend or two that it can even cure worts.  I've read that it has been shown to kill cancerous cells (preliminary data) & lower cholesterol. I have friends in Natural Health that swear by it for the treatment of candida or over abundance of yeast.

I use it almost daily in a culinary/medicinal way. I soak apple cider vinegar in chopped up garlic, rosemary, basil, whatever herbs strike my fancy for about 2 to 4 weeks. Making a quart jar is a good idea because then it lasts a while.  Apple Cider Vinegar is a wonderful solvent and it captures the flavor and the medicinal action of the herbs nicely.  This concoction makes the base for an excellent oil and vinegar salad dressing.  Begin by straining the herbs out of the mixture.  You can leave them if you like, it's your choice.  Use hemp oil, flax oil (these must be refrigerated) or olive oil to create an herbal vinaigrette.  I like to chop up onions to add them as well, with sea salt to taste.  You can add about a quarter packet of stevia powder if you like to sweeten it; this balances the tanginess of the vinegar too.

Apple cider vinegar is natural, supportive of digestion, and detoxfying.  It can be used in salad dressing or taken by the teaspoon prior to meals.  You can dilute it by adding a tablespoon or two to a 1 ounce shot glass with water.   If you don't care for the taste, you can add a little Raw Local Honey, which has it's own set of benefits. Honey improves the taste by balancing the vinegar flavor with sweetness.

START SMALL! Begin by taking a 1 ounce shot of the honey, water and Apple Cider Vinegar mixture prior to dinner each night.  You can mix up a bulk quantity in a quart jar; (half purified water, half Apple Cider Vinegar with a quarter cup of raw honey) so that you don't have to mix it each night.  Store in the refrigerator.

If you have digestive issues, blood sugar imbalance, have had or have cancer, candida or are in generally poor health, this is an simple and inexpensive support to the stomach and intestinal tract and health of the entire body.

If you want to learn about all the benefits of Apple Cider Vinegar this is a really quick read, inexpensive on amazon.com, and a great first read for people new to natural health with many tips for a more natural diet.  

Check it out!