Apple cider vinegar is a fruit vinegar with apples as the starting material. No surprises there.
What will surprise you is the following 12 reasons why you should be making apple cider vinegar a part of your daily routine.
1. Weight loss
Keeping in shape can be a hard task for many people, especially for women as they enter the menopause. Apple cider vinegar is one of these easiest additions to your daily routine that will help with weight loss by increasing your body’s metabolism and decreasing your appetite.
It also is excellent in stabilizing your blood sugar levels.
2. Improves Digestion
In its raw form, apple cider vinegar is an excellent digestive tonic, aiding the liver in breaking down fatty foods, proteins and minerals, as soon as foods enter your stomach.
The pH of the stomach should be in the range of 1.5 – 3.5 making it an acidic environment. Malic acid and tartaric acid are both found in apple cider vinegar and help keep the acid content in your stomach in balance.
Improving your digestion aids in weight loss also. You are not what you eat, but what you absorb. If your body is not breaking down the nutrients from the foods you eat, you may not feel satisfied after eating a meal and are tempted to eat more.
Apple cider vinegar helps in breaking down the nutrients from the foods you eat, making them accessible to the cells of your body, the result being less cravings.
3. Keeps osteoporosis at bay
The manganese, silicon, magnesium, phosphorous and calcium found in apple cider vinegar help in sustaining bone mass, which is a common concern particularly for women as they reach menopause due to the decreased levels of progesterone.
If you are currently taking calcium/magnesium supplements, adding a small amount of apple cider vinegar to the water to swallow your tablets can assist the breakdown of these supplements in the stomach and improve their absorption factor.
4. Mosquito repellent
Daily intake of apple cider vinegar actually changes your perspiration odor. The good news is that people around you will not notice an unpleasant odor but the mosquitoes will certainly give you a wide berth due to the odor being unpleasant to them.
Apple cider vinegar also helps you cope with heat stress during the summer months.
5. Get relief from constipation
As you age, your body produces less digestive acids, most notably hydrochloric acid. This in turn leads to a decreased production of pepsin and digestive enzymes being released from the pancreas.
If there is a decrease in any of these digestive enzymes, food is not properly broken down. This results in partial digestion of food, which lead to not only constipation but also gas, bloating and belching.
By maintaining a daily dose of apple cider vinegar, you will be as regular as clockwork. Not only due to the fact that it helps with the pH balance of the stomach but also due to the high fiber pectin content thus ensuring regular bowel movements.
6. Decrease the amount (and putrid smell) of ones flatulence
When food is not completely digested before it reaches the large intestine it may ferment, and produce gas as a by-product the result being putrid smelling flatulence. This often happens after the intake of foods such as beans and legumes.
Whenever my son eats baked beans he takes an extra shot of apple cider vinegar 20 minutes before eating them and the whole house is forever grateful.
As a side note, if you are making a meal from dried beans adding a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar to the soaking water lowers the amount of gas produced from the beans.
7. Hiccup relief
Drinking 1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar, neat, has been known to eradicate hiccups.[1]
Gargling with apple cider vinegar has also been known to halt the most severe cases of hiccups.
8. Muscle ease
As a post-workout remedy to help to over-come fatigue and reduce inflammation apple cider vinegar assists in flushing lactic acid by breaking down the acid crystals.
9. Alleviates depression
Eastern medicine believes that depression, common in menopausal women, is a symptom of a stagnant or tired liver, which is also under stress at the time of menopause.
One of the best ways to make sure your liver is in tip top shape and ward off depression is your daily dose of apple cider as it is a great medium to detoxify and cleanse the liver.
10. Tickling cough that does not have you laughing?
Adding honey to your daily dose of apple cider vinegar can assist with decreasing irritation caused by a tickling cough. To stop any pesky cough in it tracks at night, I highly recommend a mixture of 2 teaspoons of apple cider vinegar with 2 teaspoons of honey to be placed beside your bed at night and sip at the first tickle for instant relief.
11. Eyes tired from too much computer use?
Daily consumption of apple cider vinegar, mixed with a little honey, retards the onset of tired and sore eyes.
12. Keep arthritis at bay
Adding honey to your daily apple cider vinegar regime can help with dissolving the crystal deposits of uric acid that form between the joints thus decreasing pain and discomfort associated with arthritis.
Malic acid, a component of apple cider vinegar helps break down and eliminate the uric acid.
Apple cider vinegar also helps restore the alkaline acid balance in the body and provides anti-inflammatory and antioxidant benefits.
*A note of caution: any time you drink apple cider vinegar, be sure to rinse your mouth with plain water afterwards. Any acid that may remain on the teeth will eventually, over time, dissolve the outer enamel.
Reference
| [1] | ^ | J Palliat Med.: Use of vinegar to relieve persistent hiccups in an advanced cancer patient |
