Apple cider vinegar (ACV) has shot to super-stardom in recent years, touted as a cure-all for everything from weight loss to arthritis. Used in traditional herbal medicine and folklore for millennia, it has had quite a few resurgences.
Margaret Hill is a bit of a legend when it comes to apple cider vinegar and customers are often asking for her books and apple cider vinegar. Margaret Hills was a carefree trainee nurse when she was first diagnosed with arthritis in the 1940’s as a 22 year old. After many years of suffering she discovered apple cider vinegar would ease all of her symptoms, enabling her to lead a normal life.
Margaret went onto write a best-selling handbook as well as starting up a successful clinic that helped tens of thousands. She very much recommended adding apple cider to your daily regime and, taking a leaf out of Margaret’s book, we recommend starting the day with a glass of ACV and honey. However, as not everyone it keen on that very vinegary odour that hits the nose before you drink it, nowadays we can also offer tablets and even gummies that mask this.
From the French vin aigre for ‘sour wine’, any alcohol left out at room temperature and exposed to oxygen will allow the growth of acetobacter which will ferment alcohol into acetic acid, thus making unpasteurised vinegar a treasure-trove of beneficial enzymes and bacteria. Raw vinegar may enhance the digestive processes by being both sour and bitter, both tastes lacking greatly in our modern diet. The bitter may encourage the release of digestive enzymes and bile, helping us to digest food better thus getting more nutritional benefit. The sour hints towards ACV’s alkalising effect, beneficial in reducing the effects of over acidity caused by our modern food choices and the effects of the stresses we are all exposed to. Making the time to prepare a vinegar drink and consuming it is also a mindfulness habit, where we can take time out to look after ourselves better and establish a better way of eating.
BIONA
Made from pressed organic apple juice fermented with its vinegar Mother, Biona organic cider vinegar is aged for a robust finish. Its rich aroma and fruity, tangy taste are underpinned by a host of valuable enzymes, making this cider vinegar delicious and naturally healthy.
This raw, unfiltered vinegar is not heat treated or pasteurised either, to keep enzymes happy. Use it in salad dressings and sauces for a moreish zing, condition your hair with it or even put it to use as a natural household cleaner (for example for descaling your kettle in hard water areas). For an invigorating tonic, mix 1-2 tablespoons of Biona cider viegar with honey in a glass of water and enjoy immediately.
(from biona.co.uk)
Topical use:
Apple cider vinegar can also be used topically as a poultice to relieve pain and swelling, as Jack did in the nursery rhyme …
‘Up Jack got and home he trot
As fast as he could caper
He went to bed to mend his head
With vinegar and brown paper!’
- Drip apple cider vinegar on organic cotton wool pleat or cotton compress.
- Wrap around affected joint (note: do not use on broken skin)
- Wrap with cling film to fix
- Wrap a towel around it to avoid leakage
- Put your feet up and rest for two hours while the vinegar does its work.
(This is traditionally used remedy and should not be used as alternative to medical advice. If your condition continues please seek medical advice)
Why not try apple cider this month?
Biona Vinegar 20% off in-store during February – 29 days of apple cider glory!