The Healing Powers of Vinegar: A Complete Guide To Nature's Most Remarkable Remedy

340 Pages·2009·1.25 MB·English

by  Cal Orey

THE HEALING POWERS VINEGAR
OF
THE HEALING POWERS OF VINEGAR
A Complete Guide to Nature’s Most Remarkable Remedy
Revised and Updated
CAL OREY
KENSINGTON BOOKS
www.kensingtonbooks.com
All copyrighted material within is
Attributor Protected.
CONTENTS
Foreword
Acknowledgments
PART 1 A Time for Vinegar
1. The Power of Vinegar
2. A Genesis of Sour Wine
PART 2 Apple Cider Vinegar
3. A Historical Testimony
4. Where Are the Secret Ingredients?
5. Why Is Apple Cider Vinegar So Healthy?
PART 3 Red Wine Vinegar
6. The Red Wine Vinegar Chronicle
7. The Old and New Healthful Ingredients
8. Tapping Into the French Paradox
9. Is Red Wine Vinegar Good for You?
PART 4 Other Natural Vinegars
10. Healthy Rice Vinegar
11. The Balsamic Vinegar Boom
12. Healing Herbal Vinegars
13. Fruit-Flavored Vinegar Craze
PART 5 The Elixir of Youth
14. Combining Vinegars and Garlic, Onions, and Olive Oil
15. The Liquid to Heart Health
16. Fat-Burning Vinegar
17. Antiaging Wonder Food
PART 6 Vinegar Remedies
18. Home Cures
PART 7 Future Vinegar
19. Vinegarmania: Using Vinegar for the Household, Beauty, Kids, and Pets
20. Vinegar Is Not for Everyone: Some Sour Views
PART 8 Vinegar Recipes
Ten Pickling Family Favorites
Soups
Salads
Dressings—Sauces—Spreads
Pasta
Vegetables/Vegetarian
Seafood
Poultry
Main Meat Dishes
Desserts
Before You Use Vinegar
PART 9 Vinegar Resources
Notes
Foreword
You have always known that vinegar tasted great on your french fries, and
dressed up your salad and made your glassware sparkle, but now you will learn
of the many medicinal uses of this magic liquid. For 10,000 years vinegar has
been revered all around the world. In America it has been made from fruits and
grains, the same way for over 200 years.
Vinegar has been a trusted home remedy that your mother, your
grandmother, and their grandmothers have known. It literally can be used from
head to toe. Scalp problems such as dandruff, athlete’s foot, yeast infections,
even headaches, are no match for this remedy. It can also be used as a cosmetic,
to help protect and beautify your skin.
Some forms of vinegar are a virtual storehouse of important vitamins, over a
dozen minerals, essential amino acids, and several enzymes, as well as beta-
carotene. Cooking with vinegar is truly a delightful experience.
In The Healing Power of Vinegar, Cal Orey will reveal to you the secrets of
red wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar, and other natural vinegars as well as
combining them with other time-honored remedies. Even where the best place to
buy the stuff. Come along with us through the sweetness of this sour product.
—Dr. Earl Mindell, author
of Earl Mindell’s New
Vitamin Bible, Earl
Mindell’s New Herb
Bible, and
Dr. Earl Mindell’s
Amazing Apple Cider
Vinegar
Acknowledgments
Six years ago, I was asked by the late Lee Heiman, my former editorial
consultant, to write the bible on vinegar, focusing on red wine vinegar. At first, I
was anything but enthusiastic. However, it was either create a book about the
ancient cure-all or ghostwrite a book for a cardiologist. After flip-flopping, I
chose the vinegar book. And oddly enough, today I am glad I did.
I admit that when I wrote the first edition, I had no clue how versatile
vinegar was, so it was a big learning experience for me. Plus, Heiman wanted
me to tout the health benefits of red wine vinegar and its potential link to
disease-fighting red wine, which I did. However, I realized during my interviews
with nutritionists, scientists, and medical doctors that while red wine vinegar
certainly has perks (even though you’d have to drink gallons of it to get the exact
same benefits as from red wine), it isn’t the only healthful vinegar on the
shelves.
This second time around, I decided to explore the wide world of apple cider
vinegar and weight loss, heart health, and longevity; and the health benefits of
other vinegars, too. Also, I recall receiving a fan letter from the United Kingdom
that was written by a woman who was disgruntled with the first edition of The
Healing Powers of Vinegar. She noted that while it was a popular book in her
country, she felt let down when she saw that it had only 30 home cures. That
honest comment hit home. I realized she was right on the money.
So to prepare this second edition, I went to work again. I decided to discover
(and to try) some additional home cures using vinegar. I confess. This time I
really am amazed by the healing powers of the wide world of vinegars.
Also, I’m several years older, so that means I am now one more aging baby
boomer who is fighting to keep lean, control my cholesterol levels and blood
pressure numbers, and stave off type 2 diabetes. And I realize that the new
information I bring to this book is a gentle reminder that while I was on the right
track, it’s vital to my good health that I practice what I preach.
Thus, I am thankful to Heiman, who gave me this original assignment,
because I have learned that he was right after all. Perhaps red wine vinegar by
itself doesn’t prevent heart disease. However, the Mediterranean diet—which
does indeed include vegetables, fruits, grains, fish, olive oil, and vinegar—does
keep you healthy, as do other vinegars used internally and externally. Heiman
told me this book would have a long shelf life—like vinegar. And I will be
forever thankful to him because it just may help me, and you, stay healthier, be
happier, and live longer, too.
P.S. I also offer praise to Richard Ember, my current editor at Kensington,
whose enthusiasm for this book has matched my own. Richard edited the first
edition and guided me through this revised and updated edition. His gift for
detail is amazing—right behind the innumerable powers of vinegar.
PART 1
A TIME FOR VINEGAR
1
CHAPTER
The Power of Vinegar
Vinegar, the son of wine.
—Babylonian Talmud: Baba Metzia1
More than 25 years ago, I had a weight problem. One night, I stepped on the
scale in my bathroom. It was a shock! At 5 feet 5 inches, I weighed 150 pounds.
I blamed it on typical American fast food and a slow sofa-spud lifestyle.
Things changed when I went to college. I wanted to be a dietitian. In basic
nutrition class, I was smitten by the fact that food and health were linked. I’d
spend time riding my bike to health food stores around town. My diet awareness
soared, and my eating habits changed. I ate natural, whole foods and plenty of
raw green salads splashed with red wine vinegar and olive oil.
My body took on a new shape. Within months, I weighed 120 pounds, and
my attitude toward food changed. Food was my friend, not my enemy. I gave all
the credit to learning about eating the right amount of the right stuff the way slim
and healthy European women and men do.
*
Kris Cercio tried just about everything to prevent heart disease—the
number one killer of women and men in the United States—but nothing worked.
Then she normalized her cholesterol levels by turning to the age-old remedy
of apple cider vinegar. As an active 55-year-old woman, she is thin, but she
faces the scourge of hereditary high cholesterol. “My doctor couldn’t believe I
got my numbers down in three short months,” she says proudly.
*
Angelo Salcia is a 95-year-old man who uses his Italian family’s old-
fashioned remedies for good health. Every day, he takes one tablespoon of raw,
unfiltered apple cider vinegar in a glass of warm water. After years of using this
apple cider vinegar “cocktail,” this senior remains active in body and spirit. He
vows the golden liquid helps keep his blood thin and prevents arthritis.
For countless other people—and perhaps for you, too—the healing powers
of vinegar are well known. Like me, people use vinegar not only as a versatile
home remedy but also as an integral part of the renowned slimming, heart-
healthy, and age-defying Mediterranean diet, where it provides a health boost by