Enhancing Your Health: The Benefits of Apple Cider Vinegar other Natural Foods

The Benefits of Apple Cider Vinegar and Some Natural Foods and Spices

Apple cider vinegar (ACV) is almost a well-kept secret recipe drink to fight diabetes, burn fat, and lose weight. Here’s how to make it, its benefits, and some other natural foods and spices. The ingredients:

• 16 ounces filtered water
• 2 tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) Bragg “with the mother”
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice organic
• 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon organic raw honey, available in your geographic area
• ¼ fresh ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder

Directions:

Mix ingredients together all but the ACV in a blender and then add the ACV.  Sip it along before your two biggest meals throughout the day.  This way you maintain a balanced alkalized state in your body. Always stir before drinking as the “mother” will settle.

Health Benefits of Apple Cider Vinegar

• Rich in enzymes and potassium
• Supports a healthy immune system,
• Helps to eliminate heartburn naturally
• Helps to improve bowel irregularity
• Helps to control weight by breaking down fats so that your body can use rather than store them.
• Helps with joint pain and stiffness,
• Helps to clear up skin conditions, promotes digestion & pH balance
• Helps soothe dry throat and reduce sinus infections
• Helps balance high cholesterol
• Helps prevent food poisoning

Apple cider vinegar helps remove body sludge toxins.  It also helps to improve metabolism which encourages weight loss, and reduces bad breath. This is also a natural remedy for diarrhea and potentially helps to reduce the levels of glucose in the blood, thus controlling blood sugar levels. For females, it can help alleviate menstrual pain and can help reduce appearance of cellulite.

Dr. Carol Johnston, who directs Arizona State University’s nutrition program, has been studying apple cider vinegar for more than 10 years and believes its effects on blood sugar are similar to certain medications.

“Apple cider vinegar’s anti-glycemic effect is very well documented,” Johnston says.  She explains that the vinegar blocks some of the digestion of starch. “It doesn’t block the starch 100 percent, but it definitely prevents at least some of that starch from being digested and raising your blood sugar,” Johnston says.

How does it work? Apple cider vinegar is the fermented juice of crushed apples. It contains acetic acid and nutrients such as B vitamins and vitamin C. Apple cider vinegar might help lower blood sugar levels in people with diabetes by changing how foods get absorbed from the gut.  Apple cider vinegar might prevent the breakdown of some foods.

Having said this, consuming apple cider vinegar in food amounts is likely safe. Limit consumption to four tablespoons a day and keep monitoring your blood sugar level. This recipe has worked for many people; it might work for you!

Benefits of Other Natural Foods and Spices

Health Benefits of Lemon

The health benefits of lemon include its use as a treatment for throat infections, indigestion, constipation, dental problems, fever, internal bleeding, rheumatism, burns, obesity, respiratory disorders, cholera and high blood pressure. It also benefits the hair and skin. Known for its therapeutic properties since generations, lemon helps to strengthen your immune system, cleanse your stomach, and it is considered a blood purifier.

It is well known as a useful treatment for kidney stones, reducing strokes and lowering body temperature. In addition, the health benefits of lemons are due to their many nourishing elements like vitamin C, vitamin B, phosphorous, proteins, and carbohydrates. Lemon is a fruit that contains flavonoids, which are composites that contain antioxidant and cancer- fighting properties.

Studies conducted by the American Urological Association highlight the fact that lemonade or lemon juice can eliminate the occurrence of kidney stones by forming urinary citrate, which prevents the formation of crystals.

Health Benefits of Cinnamon

There is plenty of evidence backed with hard research on why cinnamon may be the solution for blood sugar control, weight loss, alertness, creating natural disinfectants, cancer prevention, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and candida yeast infections.  In addition, its antioxidant properties reduce the formation of free radicals by repairing damage to virtually all parts of your body from skin to organs.

The anti-microbial qualities of cinnamon leaf oil are often the reason it is used for head lice treatment, black ant control, bed bugs, dust mites, and roaches. It is well known as a defense against mosquitoes. Cold, sore throat and cough are some conditions that the use of cinnamon helps. At the first sign – within 5-10 minutes – of sniffles or an itch in your throat, take some cinnamon tea or cinnamon stick tea.

It is said to stop an impending illness in its tracks. Again this is related to the antibacterial properties and warming effects of cinnamon and its propensity to increase blood flow and thereby improve blood oxygen levels to fight illness. Chinese traditional medicine commonly recommends cinnamon for phlegm coughs.

Health Benefits of Raw Honey

According to Dr. Ron Fessenden, the average American consumes over 150 pounds of refined sugar, plus an additional 62 pounds of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) every year.  In comparison, we consume just one pound of honey per year.

According to new research and the advice of nutritionists and medical doctors, if you can switch out your intake of refined sugar and use pure raw honey instead, the health benefits can be enormous. One tablespoon of honey contains 64 calories, yet it has a healthy glycemic load around 10 for one tablespoon, which is a little less than a banana, and does not cause a sugar spike and elevated insulin release like white sugar.

Although honey is an affordable food, bees spend thousands of hours collecting pollen from around two million flowers to make one pound of pure honey.

Why choose raw honey? In a research study by the Palynology Research Laboratory at Texas A&M University, 60 honey products from supermarkets and grocery stores were tested, and found that 76 percent contained no trace of pollen. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) maintains that with any honey products that have been ultra-filtered, the benefits include:

Promoting the growth of good bacteria in the intestine, soothes and heals skin wounds, blocks free radicals, aids sleep, counters pollen allergies, and reduces homocysteine levels to maintain a healthy heart, just to name a few.

Health Benefits of Ginger

In a nut shell, ginger is widely used throughout the world for treating loss of appetite, nausea and vomiting after surgery, nausea, flatulence, stomach upset, colic, morning sickness and motion sickness. Some people find ginger helps them with the symptoms of upper respiratory tract infection, bronchitis, cough, menstrual cramps, arthritis, and muscle pain.  In some parts of the world, ginger juice is applied to the skin to treat burns.

Health Benefits of Turmeric

Turmeric, the main spice in curries, is arguably the most powerful herb on the planet at fighting and reversing disease.  It has so many healing properties that currently there have been 6,235 peer-reviewed articles published proving the benefits of turmeric and one of its renowned healing compounds curcumin.

Just look at these turmeric benefits: When examining the research, turmeric benefits go beyond that of these drugs: anti-inflammatory drugs, anti-depressants such as Prozac, chemotherapy drugs, anti-coagulants such as Aspirin, pain killers, diabetes drugs such as Metformin, arthritis medications, inflammatory bowel disease drugs, cholesterol drugs such as Lipitor, and steroids.

This recipe has the healthiest ingredients and together will do wonders for your health.  However, people taking certain medications such as anti-coagulants like aspirin, Clopidogrel and Warfarin should be very careful because this recipe will do the same.

It also can affect medications such as non-steroidal and anti-inflammatory drugs.  And as with any herb or supplement, please consult your physician.

For all readers of BIZ INDIA Online News: I provide complimentary nutritional counseling to the first 20 callers.  My specialty in my masters in Nutrition is the metabolic syndrome (resistance to the insulin) and/or Diabetes type 2. I am looking forward to make a difference in your overall health.

Call Lucero (Luz) Mejia with your questions and comments at 609 844-0775. Or you can Email her at [email protected]. She has a Master of Science degree in Nutrition, is a Certified Nutrition Counselor, a Certified Fitness Professional, a Certified Muscle Activation Techniques Specialist, a Certified Ohashiatsu Practitioner, and a Certified Zumba Instructor. Visit her website: www.FeelRejuvenated.com