Want to Lose Weight?

Whenever my trend-savvy mom gets onto a new health food kick, I usually pay close attention. However, when she started taking apple cider vinegar a few years ago, I pretty much dismissed it and went on with my life. I vaguely remembered having seen suspicious ads about weight loss and other health benefits, none of which I'd paid any attention to.

Websites claim that apple cider vinegar can lower cholesterol and blood pressure, treat diabetes, fight obesity, prevent osteoporosis and prevent cancer and agina. Supposedly, a single teaspoon dissolved in a glass of water provides trace minerals, beneficial bacteria, enzymes, pectin, beta-carotene, fiber and so on - the list varies depending on the manufacturer. Can this really be true? And what about regular vinegar?

It turns out my mom wasn't the first to get into the sour stuff - the Babylonians supposedly were the first to make vinegar from wine, and they believed it to be a great healer. Hippocrates used it as an antibiotic, and during the American civil war, soldiers used it to treat pneumonia and scurvy and to prevent upset stomachs. Some trace apple cider vinegar's legendary properties back to the 1950's, when Dr. D. C. Jarvis, a "country doctor" from Vermont, published Folk Medicine, in which he detailed this fermented liquid's amazing curative effects. Jarvis recommended its use in pregnancy, gastrointestinal problems, arthritis and weight loss.

Unfortunately, analyses have found that apple cider vinegar contains only minimal calcium, miniscule traces of iron, magnesium, sodium, copper, manganese and phosphorous, a small quantity of potassium and no measurable amount of pectin. According to the USDA, they couldn't find any vitamin A, B6, C, E, K, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, folate, beta-carotene, lycopene, or amino acids, either.

At this point I would imagine that you, like me, are about ready to write vinegar off completely. It may surprise you, as it did me, that beyond the loud marketing claims it does seem that vinegar might actually be a very worthy part of a healthy diet.