by Deborah Stewart

Created on: April 10, 2011   Last Updated: April 15, 2011

Apple cider vinegar is perhaps best known for making pickles, dressing salads and starring as the crucial element in making Easter Egg dyes. But vinegar is one of nature's wonders, and offers numerous health benefits. The apple is the most valuable fruit source for both vitamins and minerals. The old saying "An apple a day keeps the doctor away" has its basis in the true health benefits of the apple.

But when apples are transformed into apple cider vinegar, the health benefits mushroom. Apple cider vinegar is an antiseptic: it has the ability to kill unfriendly bacteria in the digestive tract. Due to the fact that apple cider vinegar's composition closely resembles that of stomach acids, it aids digestion (O' Brien. 1996).

Through better digestion, apple cider vinegar boosts metabolism. A study by Swedish scientists at Lund University found that vinegar taken in liquid form before a meal helps dieters eat less. Vinegar is a product of fermentation: a process by which sugars in a food are broken down and turned into alcohol by bacteria and yeast. The alcohol then is fermented further, resulting in vinegar-which is a word of French origin meaning "sour wine".

The main ingredient in vinegar is acetic acid, but it also contains amino acids, vitamins, mineral salts and pectin. Acetic acid can help release iron in the foods you eat and make it more available for oxygen-carrying hemoglobin and oxygen-attracting myoglobin. With more oxygen utilized by the body, more energy is consumed, resulting in more weight loss.

The pituitary gland releases a substance called growth hormone, of which the building block is the digestion of protein. The more growth hormone produced, the more your metabolism will be increased while you sleep. Does it get any better than that?

Remarkably, this common household powerhouse of nutrition has been found in studies to lower glucose levels  by as much as 4% to 6% by morning in Type 2 Diabetes patients who took two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar before bedtime.

Perhaps the most amazing fact of all is that in lab tests, vinegar has been shown to either kill cancer cells, or slow their growth. In this age of modern pharmaceuticals and technology, it may be difficult, if not impossible, to believe that a simple, natural element such as apple cider vinegar could be so incredibly healthful. But the proof is there. The research has been done. What a simply wonderful surprise!

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