I wanted to talk about apple cider vinegar. There is a lot of information out there condoning it and how it can help you lose weight and look great BUT there are things it is doing to your insides that you may not quite be aware of and are not so positive at all.
What is all this about apple cider vinegar?
You may have heard that by drinking one, two even three tablespoons each morning or taking tablets can help you lose weight, helps gut health, supresses appetite, stop acid reflux and more. Maybe you have tried it and have seen some of these "benefits" too, which is fantastic. However, these are short term benefits and what is going on inside may be causing long term problems.
When the body becomes too acidic it increases the risk of all sorts of diseases and disorders and causes inflammation
So what is the problem then?
Our bodies require a perfect pH balance to function properly. Certain areas are more acidic to help keep out nasty little critters that could make us unwell - such as the stomach, skin, vaginal area, and bladder, the rest of us is happiest in an alkaline state.
Yeah but what's that go to do with apple cider vinegar?
Well vinegar of any sort is acidic. Apple cider vinegar has been given this higher status amongst the vinegars because it is slightly less acidic that others, BUT it is still acidic!
So if we are consuming an acidic product on a daily basis this is going to drastically impact our body's pH balance. When the body becomes too acidic it increases the risk of all sorts of diseases and disorders and causes inflammation.
We are essentially pickling ourselves
But I've seen benefits so it cant be bad
As I mentioned earlier, yes you may have seen benefits. However, these short term benefits are reeking havoc on our insides.
I have fallen prey to the wonders of this "miracle vinegar". I took apple cider vinegar tablets when I was building up to my competitions to help me look more lean, what it was actually doing was totally dehydrating my cells! This short term benefit of looking lean was in fact helping me age quicker and causing my body on a cellular level to struggle massively as the moisture was being sucked out of it. The living water was being drawn out of the cells and replaced with toxins that should have been flushed out. We are essentially pickling ourselves.
Pickling your insides
To pickle something, two ingredients are required: vinegar and salt. To stop cucumbers from rotting - pickle them, to stop onions from rotting - pickle them. Vinegar preserves, it sucks the water out of that thing and replaces the water with vinegar and preserves it.
This is what is happening to your insides when you have apple cider vinegar. It is dehydrating your cells, sucking the water out of them and essentially pickling them!
It stopped my acid reflux though
Yes, for some people they find that their acid reflux is cured and thank goodness, because that is not a pleasant condition to put up with. However, once again, this is a short term benefit. Those who report having seen benefits very often find that their acid reflux returns.
Bacteria in your intestinal tract produces acid. This is acid we don't really want and those who suffer from acid reflux find that this "bad" acid can move upwards to the stomach and even to your oesophagus (or higher). Your stomach glands produce hydrochloric acid to break down food, but also as a way of neutralising this "bad" acid. For a while this works and offers some relief from acid reflux. Eventually though, the stomach glands begin to burn out. They just cannot compete with the levels of acid in your stomach, from the extra apple cider vinegar you are consuming and the acid produced by the bacteria.
Apple cider vinegar suppresses my appetite which is great because it is helping me lose weight
Apple cider vinegar supresses the appetite by sucking the water out of the stomach lining. Your stomach sees this extra acid as something toxic so it produces mucus to stop the acid from entering the cells. This mucus layer replaces food for a while and gives you the sensation of feeling full. Your poor stomach glands are shocked into overdrive again though and produce more hydrochloric acid to try to neutralise the acid that you are adding to your system and break down the mucus. Eventually your stomach glands become weak and are not able to produce the right amount of hydrochloric acid. This can cause bloating and acid reflux to return.
Vinegar is a great cleaner though!
Yeah, vinegar can be used to clean surfaces, right? Remember those experiments when you were a kid of putting dirty coins into vinegar and by the morning it was clean? Just think what it is doing to your insides! You know that calcification that builds up on taps and sinks? Vinegar is fantastic at removing that. That is because acetic acid (acid in vinegar) destroys calcium. This is no different to your body, acetic acid depletes the body of calcium (which is a neutraliser within the body). The more acid you consume, the more calcium is sucked from your bones and teeth as a way of your body trying to neutralise itself and it is just annihilated. The effects of this can take years though, so those short term gains you are getting from taking your apple cider vinegar may be fantastic at the moment, but in years to come, you may suddenly find yourself with all sorts of dental problems.
So, in conclusion, apple cider vinegar may not be as wonderful as you originally thought. Yes it may offer short term benefits but the long lasting effects can be pretty catastrophic. If you are after the "goodness" then just stick to eating the actual apple itself.