Cider vinegar is made from cider or apple. It has a pale to medium amber colour and has a cobweb-like appearance. It is prepared by crushing apples and squeezing out the liquid. To get alcoholic fermentation process bacteria and yeast are added. The alcohol is converted into vinegar by acetic acid-formin bacteria. Acetic acid and malic acid give vinegar its sour taste.
Cider vinegar helps prevent many ailments, as explained in the book, THE MIRACLE OF CIDER VINEGAR. Famed for its beneficial effects, this golden elixir is easy to include in your everyday diet
General health: Cider vinegar’s main active ingredients are acetic, lactic and malice acids. These organic acids have anti-bacterial, anti-viral and anti-fungal action. They can also aid digestion and moderate blood-sugar. And they are metabolized to alkaline end-products which help maintain the precise and vital alkalinity of our blood and our cell and tissue fluids.
Diabetes: Researchers report that consuming two teaspoons of cider vinegar with a carbohydrate-rich evening meal reduced the expected rise in blood sugar after breakfast next morning by 20 percent. Vinegar’s effects resemble those of the diabetes medication metformin. Japanese research suggests that acetic acid slows the breakdown of complex sugars in the gut.
Obesity: Vinegar has long been reputed to aid weight loss. Researchers suggest this is because it increases satiety after eating, helps compensate for any lack of stomach acid, and discourages resistance to the sugar and fat-controlling hormone insulin by promoting normal alkalinity of vital body fluids. Taking satiety as an example, when volunteers consumed 2 tablespoons of vinegar before a carbohydrate-rich meal, their subsequent satiety more than doubled.
Premature ageing: An alkali-producing diet is increasingly believed to discourage age-related diseases such as arthritis, heart disease, diabetes, cancer and Alzheimer’s. However, acid-forming diets – based on foods that the body metabolizes to acidic end-products – are the norm in westernized societies. Such diets encourage inflammation, which is common to all the above diseases. Consuming cider vinegar (unlike other vinegars) has an alkalinizing effect.
Digestion: One-in-two over-60s in westernized cultures lack sufficient stomach acid and therefore risk deficiency of certain minerals and vitamins (including iron, magnesium, zinc, biotin and pantothenic acid). Researchers say this accelerates age-related decay of the cells’ mitochondria (energy-producing ‘furnaces’). Consuming cider vinegar improves their absorption.
Dr Penny Stanway’s book, THE MIRACLE OF CIDER VINEGAR (Watkins Publishing) offers many excellent recipes. It also has many suggestions for using cider vinegar for beauty-care and home-care.
Cider vinegar is also available in tablets, but these are not well regulated, and may vary dramatically in terms of vinegar content from brand to brand.