Apples, apples, apples!
It’s late fall and you’ve picked bushels of apples; some are still falling on the ground. When not crunching them whole, we’re slicing them up to make apple pies or pressing them to make delicious apple cider. But what about those peels and cores? Well, the deer love them, and they make excellent compost for next year’s garden, but what about using them for vinegar?
At TOPS we talked about this and several of us tried making apple cider vinegar (ACV) ourselves. There were successes and failures, like forgetting about the jars of peels and water that erupted all over shelves.
Serious questions arose about how ACV can help us keep off pounds sensibly and sent me to the internet. There was no shortage of material on this subject. There were historical references and colourful stories and claims both positive and negative.
Some examples: Cleopatra used ACV for her royal facials. The purpose of wassailing is to awaken the cider apple trees and to scare away evil spirits. A gynecologist in Moldova was surprised to hear a woman claim that ACV was a good contraceptive method because it is "natural.” ACV may melt fat, keep the arteries clear, shrink tumours, detoxify the blood, and heal arthritis. And, sadly, a student, troubled with her weight, died after taking regular doses of ACV pills.
What I primarily found was that a lot more testing is called for. ACV may help promote a feeling of fullness, and this is in part due to delayed stomach emptying, which may naturally lead to eating less. However, those with gastroparesis should avoid this. (https://tinyurl.com/y2o347u2). ACV’s high acidity can irritate your throat and strip tooth enamel, and the acidity could intensify acid reflux. So, if you drink it, stick with a tablespoon, no more than twice daily, and always dilute it in eight ounces of water. (https://tinyurl.com/y2o347u2 )
One thing is clear. There’s only a small amount of scientific evidence directly tying ACV to weight loss in humans. (https://tinyurl.com/y2mgvox9 ). The Mayo Clinic, a genuine medical website, declares, “Apple cider vinegar isn't likely to be effective for weight loss. Proponents of apple cider vinegar claim that it has numerous health benefits and that drinking a small amount or taking a supplement before meals helps curb appetite and burn fat. However, there's little scientific support for these claims.” (https://tinyurl.com/y4e7yufy )
Many of us at TOPS like the flavour of apple cider vinegar in salads. Perhaps if this encourages us to enjoy salads, and we substitute salads for fatty foods or carbs, it could help us take off pounds sensibly.
We’d love to see you at TOPS meetings. We meet every Wednesday morning at the Community Centre, from 9:00 to 10:00. We meet indoors, social distancing, sanitizing whatever we touch, and most of us wear masks throughout the meeting. We’re a low-cost, enjoyable, international self-help program that happily welcomes everyone. (Your first visit is free.) If you want to Take Off Pounds Sensibly with us, please call.
Submitted by Amber Harvey