Apple Cider Vinegar
Apple cider vinegar (ACV) benefits include improving weight loss, dropping blood pressure and cholesterol levels, stabilising blood sugar, enhancing skin health and relieving acid reflux symptoms. Vinegar tends to blunt insulin and glucose responses. As we get older, glucose and insulin spikes, due usually to eating too often throughout the day, cause hormonal problems. Vinegar also suppresses your appetite. You don't need to go for a big brand such as Bragg, any organic or natural ACV will do (the acetic acid does the work).
Vinegar appears to inhibit the enzymes that help you digest starch. When starch is not completely digested or takes longer, you get a smaller blood sugar (glycemic) response. Undigested starch then causes a prebiotic effect. As it passes through the intestines it becomes food for the good bacteria in your gut. Healthy gut bacteria generally translate to greater overall wellness because these microorganisms help support good digestion and our immune systems.
There is great marketing behind apple cider vinegar. Lowering the glycemic response doesn’t have to be done by apple cider vinegar. The active starch-inhibiting ingredient in vinegar is acetic acid, which is in all vinegars. So eating anything pickled should do the trick:-
- Pickled eggs (vinegar plus the amazing nutrition from eggs).
- Pickled onions (vinegar plus the anti-inflammatory phytochemicals and antioxidants from wonderful onions).
- Pickled red cabbage (vinegar plus the anti-inflammatory phytochemicals and antioxidants from wonderful onions).
- Pickled cucumber (wonderful in sandwiches).
- Pickled gherkins (packed with lovely salt and nutrients).
- Pickled garlic (you don't lose any of the delicate nutrients that are broken down by cooking garlic).
- Vinaigrette salad (basalmic vinegar and virgin olive oil, plus amazing salad items).
- Kimchi (Korean pickled cabbage, great as a snack or side dish).
Try not to go for cheap supermarket pickles. Many small shops, markets and delis have wonderful natural pickles, chemical free. Pickling at home is really easy to do, see our recipe section.
Testosterone
Vinegar consumption boost testosterone production, rather it maintains the levels of free testosterone in the blood particularly after a sugary carbohydrate rich meal. This is because the vinegar subdues the glucose spike after a meal with a high glycemic load, helping you maintain testosterone. Add 2 teaspoons of apple cider vinegar with 1 teaspoons or organic honey into a tiny cup of lukewarm water. This is an incredible drink to use at the end of a period of intermittent fasting.