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What is apple cider vinegar?
Apple cider vinegar is produced from fermented apple. Its active ingredient becomes acetic acid. Starch and acid in the apple are fermented easily when they meet vinegar. As a result of this process, apple cider vinegar is produced. Apple cider vinegar has many benefits for health, and it is recommended to use it maximum twice a day as in morning and evening.
Benefits of apple cider vinegar
Benefits of apple cider vinegar for skin
- Apple cider vinegar has an important role in skin cleaning. Cleaning your face with a mixture of a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar and a glass of water will take your acnes, acne scars and blackheads away.
- When you put apple cider vinegar into your bath water, and take showers regularly with that water, it helps you be free from sunspots on your skin.
- It is also used to reduce edema in hands and feet. Vinegar is useful to kill pathogens including bacteria. Therefore, if you put your feet in water with vinegar, both callus and edema would reduce.
Effects of apple cider vinegar on hair
Apple cider vinegar is also very beneficial for hair. You do not need to spend money for expensive shampoos or cosmetic products to have healthy and strong hair. All you need to do is to put some apple cider vinegar to water, mix it and apply it to your hair. After waiting for 15 minutes, wash your hair. When you do this once a week or once ten days, you can have healthy and strong hair.
Apple cider vinegar and diabetes
Apple cider vinegar reduces blood sugar level and helps to fight diabetes. High blood sugar is an important problem for people without diabetes, too; and it is a serious risk factor for several chronic diseases when people get aged. To have a healthy life, every person needs to keep blood sugar level in a normal range. One of the healthiest ways to do this is using apple cider vinegar.
Apple cider vinegar increases the insulin sensitivity as 19-34% during a high starchy-meal, and it reduces the blood sugar and insulin responses significantly. Having 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar before going to bed can reduce fasting blood glucose as 4% in mornings. A lot of studies also show that vinegar reduces the insulin function and blood sugar after meals. Therefore, apple cider vinegar is a very important product for people with diabetes. However, if you are still taking medications to reduce your blood sugar, consult your doctor about using apple cider vinegar.
Does apple cider vinegar help weight loss?
Apple cider vinegar help you lose weight and reduce fat around your belly. Scientific studies have showed that apple cider vinegar has an effect on weight loss since it increases feeling of fullness and helps you get less calories. For instance, if people consume vinegar with a starchy meal, they feel full sooner and they take 200-275 calories less for the rest of the day.
In a scientific study which is conducted with 175 over-weight people, scientists observed that taking a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar daily for 3 months created a weight loss. However, using only vinegar in order to lose weight may not be healthy. It is useful to keep in mind that all diets require a life style change, too. Therefore, consulting your doctor about usage of vinegar would help you.
Effects of apple cider vinegar on cold and flu
Apple cider vinegar is effective on healing respiratory tract diseases, sore throats and cough. It is also used to soften the chest during illness, and reduce the severity of flu and cold. You can put a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar, a teaspoon of honey and just a small amount of ginger to a glass of warm water, blend them and drink. If you do not want to drink it, you can also use it as a mouthwash which is effective for healing, too.
Apple cider vinegar and heart health
Apple cider vinegar reduces cholesterol and provides benefits for heart health. According to results of scientific research, apple cider vinegar reduces not only cholesterol and triglyceride levels, but also the risk for several heart diseases. Also, there are some studies showing that vinegar reduces blood pressure in animals.
A study which is conducted at Harvard Medical School states that women using vinegar as salad sauce have lower risk for heart diseases. Likewise, some studies explain that apple cider vinegar reduces blood sugar levels, increases insulin sensitivity, and so, help people fight diabetes. These factors also reduce the risk of heart diseases.
Does apple cider vinegar protect from cancer?
Some studies show that apple cider vinegar has a protective effect against cancer. Cancer is a disease in which cells grow in an uncontrolled way. Many research describe that several types of vinegars slow cancer cells’ development down. All these studies were conducted in test tubes or with isolated cells in lab rats.
Therefore, it can be difficult to say the effect for humans will be exactly the same, but still, apple cider vinegar is a healing product providing a people with better health. Moreover, according to some observational studies, consuming vinegar reduced esophageal cancer in China.
Dose: How much to consume apple cider vinegar daily?
The best way to include apple cider vinegar in your diet is to use it while cooking (salad sauce, homemade mayonnaise, etc.). Some people may prefer drinking apple cider vinegar by diluting it with water. Common doses are either 1-2 teaspoon (5-10 ml) or 1-2 tablespoon (15-30 ml). You should drink by putting it in a glass of water.
It is the best way if you start with small doses and avoid larger doses because much vinegar can damage the health. For pregnant women and women who have given birth lately, it is recommended to use organic apple cider vinegar.
Homemade apple cider vinegar
If you want to prepare apple cider vinegar at home, you can do it by following the recipe and using fermentation. Later, it will be easy for you to produce vinegar with the vinegar mother. Ingredients:
- 3 liters of drinking water
- 4 tablespoons of honey
- 1 dessert spoon of salt
- 10 big apples
Recipe: A day after washing apples, use them without peeling off. Organic apples would provide a much better result. To prevent the fermentation being too soon, use juicy apple without bruises.
- Cut apple into 4 pieces and take the pips out.
- Put apple slices into a clean and dry jar, and add 3 liters of water on it. Be careful about that there should be a little space on top of it.
- Add 3 tablespoons of honey and mix them. Cover the top of jar with a cheesecloth, tie it with a robe.
- Make the jar wait in a dark room for 1.5 months. Blend it with a wooden spoon in every other day for first few days, and then once a week.
- By time, you will see that apple slices will go up and become wrinkled, some vinegar flies will be there and you will have the smell of vinegar.
- After these signs, which means, when vinegar start to be fermented, filter the mixture and throw apple pulps away.
- Put the vinegar into jar again, add honey and salt, and mix it. After then, close the jar and put it in a cool place.
- When the vinegar mother which is a white foam layer is seen, and a strong odor arise, the apple cider vinegar becomes ready for use.
Apple cider vinegar in house cleaning
Apple cider vinegar is not only beneficial for health, but also important for house hygiene. In the times when dishwashers were not invented, apple cider vinegar was used to clean dishes. Nowadays, it is used as disinfectant. Similar to the past, if you put your washed dishes into apple cider vinegar for a while, they become cleaner and brighter.
Side effects of apple cider vinegar
- Apple cider vinegar contains an intense amount of citric acid. Therefore, you should use it by diluting with water. Otherwise, it can hurt your esophagus and cells. If it touches your skin, it can cause irritation and redness. To prevent this, it should be used with water and honey.
- Since it includes acid, it can decrease potassium level, and this affects mineral levels in bones negatively. It is recommended to use it by diluting to avoid these effects.
- For people taking insulin and diuretic medications, apple cider vinegar can create negative effects by reducing the effectivity of these drugs. It affects blood sugar directly, so it is important that you should consult your doctor before using apple cider vinegar if you are taking treatment for this kind of diseases.
- The right dose can depend on the person. A small cup of vinegar can be good for some people whereas it can cause side effects for some others. Therefore, people should be careful amount doses.
- Although apple cider vinegar has positive effects for teeth and gums, it can also hurt them in over doses. Thus, people should dilute it if they want to use it for teeth and gums.
- Acids in vinegar can cause heartburn, diarrhea and indigestion. People should be careful about use of vinegar if they have some problems related to intestines or digestion.
