What’s Behind the Apple Cider Vinegar Trend?

by | Oct 1, 2016 | Blog

How Fermenting Ambrosia Apples Could Boost Your Health

Have you heard of the apple cider vinegar craze? Drinking apple cider vinegar is nothing new but it’s regaining popularity in a lot of healthy-eating circles. It’s more than a fad. There is substance to this health trend.

Ambrosia applesDrinking vinegars for health has a long history dating all the way back to ancient times. Greek physician, Hippocrates was a fan and has been quoted as calling it the ‘fountain of youth.’  That might be a bit of a stretch, but Penticton-based, Registered Holistic Nutritionist, Raina Lutz offered these health benefits:

  1. Increase Gut Flora. We’ve seen the commercials promising better digestion from pro-biotic rich yogurt. Apple cider vinegar also offers this benefit. A healthy gut is key to many of the below benefits.
  2. Clearer, Sharper Mind. It turns out our gut and our brains are connected. When we experience dysfunction in our digestion, we are more likely to experience problems with our thinking such as fogginess, difficulty paying attention and memory failure.
  3. Boost Immune System. If the bad bacteria overwhelms the friendly bacteria, the undigested food particles and fungus start to spread around the body. This is often called leaky gut syndrome. This sets off a firestorm of inflammation and stresses your immune system. Make your gut happy so your immune system can go back to fighting off colds and the flu.
  4. Get More Nutrients. Taking apple cider vinegar each day will result in a stock pile of beneficial probiotics. These will start to make all kinds of essential nutrients like B12, vitamin B6, vitamin K2, and biotin.
  5. Improve Weight Management. Fermented foods like apple cider vinegar are stabilizing for blood sugar, which means two things. First, they help balance appetite, leaving you feeling more satiated and less hungry. And, they create a more even and steady release of insulin so the body doesn’t store fat.

In addition to these five benefits, apple cider vinegar can also be applied topically to reduce the itch of dry or sunburnt skin and even help minimize acne.

Before you run out and buy a big bottle of the stuff, save a bit of money by making your own (using Ambrosia apples, of course). Here’s the recipe from Raina.