Did You Know – Different Ways To Use Apple Cider Vinegar
Did you know you can use apple cider vinegar in so many ways? Check out some of them below.
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Deodorizer: Apple cider vinegar has antibacterial properties and claims to eliminate bad smells. Try it out by mixing apple cider vinegar with water to make a deodorizing spray.
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Foot Soak and Deodorant: You can mix it with water and Epsom salts to make a foot soak that may help get rid of unwanted foot odor by killing off odor-causing bacteria. Wiping your underarms with diluted apple cider vinegar can kill bacteria and can be used as a deodorant.
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Facial Toner: Apple cider vinegar is claimed to help remedy skin conditions and reduce the signs of aging when used as a skin tonic. Recipe: One part apple cider vinegar to two parts water. Apply to the skin using a cotton pad. If you have sensitive skin, you may want to make a more diluted solution.
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Fruit Fly Trap: Pour some apple cider vinegar into a cup and add a few drops of dish soap to sink the flies.
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Boil Better Eggs: Adding vinegar to the water you use to boil eggs can help you produce consistently good eggs.
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Wash Fruits and Vegetables: Apple cider vinegar removes more of the chemical residues or pesticides, and it helps kill any dangerous bacteria on the food.
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Weed Killer: Spray undiluted vinegar on unwanted weeds in your garden.
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Get Rid of Fleas: Spray a mixture of one part water and one part apple cider vinegar onto your pet to create an environment that fleas won’t want to hang around in.
Healthy ways to ingest apple cider vinegar
For medicinal purposes, no more than 1 to 2 tablespoons per day is recommended. Always talk with your doctor before starting apple cider vinegar as an alternative therapy. It can be used in the following ways:
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1 to 2 tablespoons diluted in 8 ounces water
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In salad dressings
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Add to marinades for meats and vegetables
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Stir into soup
Apple cider vinegar can provide some health benefits if taken correctly. Many people attest to its effectiveness. However, to stay safe and prevent side effects, it is important to use the correct amount in the correct way. It is considered relatively safe to try in doses less than 2 tablespoons per day. Overall, the best way to enjoy optimal health is to eat a balanced diet full of vegetables and lean meats, avoid processed foods and engage in regular physical activity.
Unrefined and Unfiltered Apple Cider Vinegar
In apple cider vinegar, particularly, “the mother” is a complex structure of acids that seem to have health benefits. As with many things in nature, vinegar in its unfiltered, unadulterated and unrefined form has a variety of benefits that are lost when it is filtered and heated. Unrefined vinegars have a murky appearance and typically contain the mother culture. Clear and pasteurized vinegars typically do not contain the mother culture and don’t carry the same benefits.
Research Says … Myth or Fact?
Apple cider vinegar has been used as a conventional remedy for centuries. It has been known to have a number of health claims but none are supported by good evidence. For thousands of years, vinegar has been used to flavor and preserve foods, heal wounds, fight infections, clean surfaces and manage diabetes. Although the vinegar is appreciated as a culinary agent, there are no clear answers in its medicinal use. Scientific studies do not support the use of vinegar as an anti-infective agent, either topically or orally. Evidence linking vinegar use to reduced risk for hypertension and cancer is unclear; however, many recent research studies have documented that ingesting apple cider vinegar reduces the glucose response in healthy adults and in individuals with diabetes.
Supporters of apple cider vinegar say it helps with weight loss, removal of toxins, blood sugar regulation, lowering cholesterol, improves digestion and provides immune boosting probiotics. Some studies conducted on mice have shown that the acetic acid in the vinegar may promote fat burning and weight loss, decrease blood sugar levels, increase insulin sensitivity and improve cholesterol levels.
Unfortunately, these studies were very few and not many facts have been found using human subjects, which limit their validity.
A 2009 study in Japan found that consuming apple cider vinegar resulted in weight loss in mice. In 2007, a study was done using a group of Type 1 diabetics. It found those given apple cider vinegar had slower rates of gastric emptying (the rate at which food moves from the stomach to the small intestine). This can help people feel fuller for a longer length of time, which may reduce the total food intake, therefore, aiding in weight loss. This study also tracked cholesterol and triglyceride levels.
They were lower; however, it may also be due to the reduction of food intake. The results are unclear.
In 2012, a Dutch study found that in the North African culture, women who consumed a cup of apple cider vinegar daily achieved greater weight loss. Another study showed an improvement in insulin action in the skeletal muscle of human adults with diabetes, and a 2015 study showed that vinegar consumption in Type 2 diabetics improved blood sugar control, insulin and triglyceride levels.
Why is Apple Cider Vinegar so Popular?
The word vinegar comes from the Latin words for “sour wine” and has been used for thousands of years. Most people consume it in salad dressings or sauces; however, it has been used for many things. Vinegar is one of nature’s great gifts – a true natural product. Any alcoholic beverage, whether it is made from apples, grapes, dates, rice or plain white sugar, once exposed to air will naturally turn to vinegar. It is the bacteria in the air that converts the alcohol in cider, wine and beer into acetic acid giving vinegar its sharp sour taste.
The history of vinegar starts around 5,000 B.C. when the Babylonians used the fruit of a date palm to make vinegar. They used it as a food source and as a preserving, or pickling, agent. Vinegar residues have been found in ancient Egyptian urns traced to 3,000 B.C.
During biblical times, vinegar was used to flavor foods, as an energizing drink and as medicine. It is mentioned in both the Old and New Testaments. For example, in Ruth 2:14, after working hard in the fields, Ruth was invited by Boaz to eat bread and dip it in vinegar.
In ancient Greece around 400 B.C., Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, prescribed apple cider vinegar mixed with honey for a variety of ills, including coughs and colds.
Apple cider vinegar also has a strong history in Africa and China as an alternative medicine. It contains vitamins C and B, as well as acetic acid which increases the body’s absorption of important minerals from the foods we eat and slows down the rate at which the body turns carbohydrates into sugar.
More recently, apple cider vinegar has been popular for cleansing detox diets, weight loss, controlling diabetes, lowering cholesterol and more. To hear the news, apple cider vinegar is a modern-day cure all. But is all the hype really true?
Source: http://www.extension.wvu.edu
http://www.InDianesKitchen.com
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Categories: Did You Know, Vinegar
I didn’t know
I’ve been reading that if you take the mother vinegar and put 1 Tbsp in 8oz water that is slows down digestion. It is supposed to keep you fuller longer. I’m stupid enough to try it. 🤣
Thank you Ned!
Loads of great tips there. Apple cider vinegar has so many uses.
Yes it sure does Paul, thank you!
I’ve used this before for fruit fly traps. Interesting to learn about its deodorizing qualities. Seems counterintuitive given how strong the smell is!
I know! I wonder if it doesn’t smell like vinegar when it dries. You go ahead and try it and let me know. 🤣
There is always apple cider vinegar in our pantry, but I never knew you could use it for so many things! I have to say, the deodorizer was the biggest surprise! And alas – if I were a mouse, I could rely on apple cider vinegar to lose weight 😉.
Haha I just bought the mother vinegar which is how you can make different types or the same vinegar. Making it from the mother vinegar takes weeks to ferment properly.
Lovely article Diane! My grandmother swore by a daily dose of apple cider vinegar and honey.
OMG I just bought vinegar with the mother on Thursday. I was going to take it everyday too. Love the honey ideas. When I was a kid and couldn’t get my hiccups to stop my mom gave me a tsp of sugar with vinegar and it always made them stop.
Good to know!
This is wonderful. I didn’t know the one about using apple cider as a weed killer.
I use it to kill those little flies in the potting soil of your house plants. I put the cider in a water bottle cap. Within about a week tons of flys are trapped or rather drown in the cider. I have also used beer and ginger oil.
How interesting, I have never heard of using it in plants.
I have also use beer and ginger oil. I tried plain water and it traps a few – but with a liquid food item within a week the bottle cap is covered in dead little flies, literally blacken.
I have always used it for fruit flies until last year. I bought a wall plug in with a sticky pad and blue light to draw them in. Even if a regular fly gets into the house, they stick to it too. It’s all I use now.
Yes those work as well.
Good to know. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
You are very welcome!
🙂 🙂 🙂
Diane, many years ago, our first dog was aging, and it seemed he was getting stiffer by the day. It was suggested to us that we give him a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar a day for his joints. I didn’t expect him to go for it, but we added it to his food, and he actually seemed to like it! He was noticeably less stiff when we did that. I hadn’t thought of that in a long time. I may try that for my own joints 🤔…
That is amazing. I actually just bought the mother vinegar and will be adding 1 Tbsp to 8 ounces of water. It didn’t mention anything about stiffness but it said it slows down digestion in the stomach, so it was good for people with diabetes (not me) and you will feel full longer if you drink it right before you eat a big meal.
Great information Diane. I had heard about it being good for you but never use it. Maybe I should start, just in salad dressings maybe.
That is the best way to use it but they say not more than 2 Tbsp a day.
Cheers to a daily dose of wellness, one sip at a time!
The bottle says to drink 1 Tbsp in a 8 oz glass of water before a big meal, I only remembered once so far. Haha
Thanks I didn’t realize the bottle sitting in the back of my pantry was so versatile!
I clean my coffee pot with white vinegar once a month. When I pour the vinegar down the sink afterward, my stainless steel sink is spotless!
Thanks for the tips.
You’re very welcome.
I didn’t know of the wonderful things that apple cider vinegar was good for. I don’t ever remember seeing it here at the house and now I wonder why we just had the plain old vinegar?
I had Terry pick up the mother vinegar at the store for me. With it you can make more vinegar and the mother gives it a head start. I’m not doing that yet, I am pouring 1 Tbsp in 8 oz of water. It is said that if you do this right before a meal, it slows down the digestion process which can’t hurt, you are full longer.
That is interesting Diane. When I was younger, about once a month I would put mayonnaise on my hair and put on a shower cap for about 1/2 hour to condition my hair. My mom’s hairdresser (a woman named Ann) trained in France and also studied under Jheri Redding (Redken hair products). He invented cream rinse, but he told her to tell her clients to use mayo and rinse it out with white vinegar, something I did, but I’d do that it in the kitchen sink and my mom would have to rinse it out as my hair was long and it was tough to get the mayo out. It did make my hair shiny but I could smell vinegar on a humid day. 🙂
OMG I remember when people did that. We didn’t have much money so my mom would never bought me mayonnaise. Lol
Yes, it was a big thing. Also putting lemon juice on your hair and it made it very sticky. The mayonnaise made it very soft and shiny and the vinegar cut the grease. Just a tablespoon – it was difficult to rinse it out, so I needed help. 🙂
In high school I used the product Sun In, they still make it! I lightened up your hair gently.
I remember that product … it was in a spray bottle. Lemon juice worked somewhat but made your hair horribly sticky.
It’s pretty amazing that vinegar was made and used about seven thousand years ago. But I guess I shouldn’t be amazed, considering how creative and intelligent humans can be.
So true Neil!
Lots of good information here, Diane. I would think that using it as deodorant would leave a vinegar smell on your body??
I absolutely agree Carla!