Cider vinegar
What Apple Cider Vinegar Comes From: Apple cider vinegar is, essentially, pretty much what the name says it is. It is a type of vinegar crafted from apple cider. So thus it should be little surprise that the starting ingredient to this age-old produce is: apples. Apples are crushed, and the juice is fermented, forming that zesty alcoholic beverage that we know and love as apple cider. In order to turn it into vinegar, it is left to oxidize, which turns the alcohol content of the apple cider into acetic acid. Sometimes during this stage a little "mother" is added in order to help it along. "Mother" is basically simply a type of bacteria that forms during fermentation, and looks distinctly like spider webs. However after this stage is when the true differences in the manufacture of apple cider vinegar do materialize. In essence, there are two types of apple cider vinegar: the common commercial type that is lighter hued and has no "mother" content in it, and another, darker, type which still does has the "mother" in it. The latter is referred to nowadays as natural apple cider vinegar, due to the fact that it is made much in the way it has been made through the ages, and this is the stuff that many alternative treatment gurus swear by. The commercial apple cider vinegar on the other hand undergoes distillation, to remove the "mother" and render it more palatable-looking.
The Benefit From Apple Cider Vinegar: Truth or Myth? While many health experts and doctors and other nutritionists can probably argue day in and day out whether or not apple cider vinegar actually has any health benefit to it, the simple fact is that throughout history it has been used as a treatment for a variety of maladies that range from the mild to the more serious. Naturally that does not mean to say that it gives credence to the view that is a miracle cure, after all, at some point in history man thought that the world was flat and balanced on the back of a turtle. Still, the effect of the weight of the ages combined with the numerous accounts readily available detailing the myriad of ways in which apple cider has helped them makes a pretty strong case for argument. Whatever the case, most of the treatments are pretty harmless, and some apple cider vinegar treatments may benefit certain people. Still it would always be valuable to have a doctor look over your specific malady and how an apple cider vinegar cure would affect it before jumping into things.
The Apple Cider Vinegar Diet: What it Actually is: The one apple cider vinegar treatment that is causing a lot of uproar is the apple cider vinegar diet. To be honest, this isn't even a 'diet' per se, but as health experts attest, it is meant to be a 'flush'. A 'flush' essentially is for the purpose of cleaning and clearing out the gastrointestinal tract, and is viewed among alternative treatment specialists as a very weighty undertaking. It is a strict regime that should be followed to the letter, and can have some alarming side effects. Ironically it is one of these 'alarming' side effects that has led to it being classified as the 'apple cider vinegar diet'.
The Weight Loss That is Life Threatening: Why Apple Cider Vinegar is Not a Diet: Those who claim to have lost weight by following the 'apple cider vinegar diet' or to be more correct the 'vinegar flush', are probably telling the truth. The weight loss of this apple cider vinegar diet is actually a loss of water due to the strict regime followed. This loss of water is not only undesired (although viewed as an unfortunate side effect), but it is also dangerous and is the reason that any medical expert would advise not using the flush any more than once a year. For any who would use this as a continuous diet for weight loss, be warned that it can lead to very serious health complications. Also be warned that in terms of apple cider vinegar, there is no 'apple cure' or 'apple pill' that can help weight loss.
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