All about vinegar, benefits, doubts, and best available brands.

What is vinegar?

Vinegar is essentially a liquid, that contains acetic acid. It is a fermented product and produced by two step fermentation. Most vinegars contain somewhere around 5 to 8 % acetic acid. Vinegars have been around for millennials, typically used for flavouring food, dressing for salads, and pickling and cleaning too. Vinegars also offers variety of health benefits including aiding in digestion and weight loss, reducing blood sugar, regulating insulin and cholesterol, and helping your heart to stay healthy (Although there are not many conclusive ones).

Before we go ahead and look at how vinegar is made let’s look at some of the popular questions surrounding vinegars.

Disclaimer: – This article is not sponsored by any brand. Brand recommendation provided in this article are my own research and understanding. Uses and benefits described in this article are not meant to be your medical treatment or replace your existing one.

where vinegar comes from?

There are several types of vinegar, and their type depends on their raw material. Vinegars can be made from fruits, palm, balsamic, cane, grains, spirits; hence any of these materials can be the source of vinegar. However, for the scope of this article we will stick to fruit vinegar.  You will get more insight about the question when we get to the method of preparation section.

How vinegar helps in weight loss?

Taking vinegar prior to meal to adding it to your meal helps you stay full for longer. More satiety results in less hunger, which ultimately results in some weight loss. It increases satiety by regulating the blood sugar and insulin. But as it is mentioned it can be an aid to your weight loss journey, one cannot make it a mean to lose weight, you need to make your lifestyle healthy in order to stay healthy and vinegar can be a helpful addition to that.

Can vinegar go off?

It should not. Since vinegar is a fermented product and acidic in nature so it can self-preserve itself against common bacteria and fungi present at home. It does not require refrigeration too. But it is recommended that like anything else you keep it in a clean place and use it with clean hands.

Which vinegar to use for pickling?

In India, cane vinegar is widely used for picking. However, based on the location you are in you can use a different and local vinegar for pickling. White vinegar which is made using grains is a widely used vinegar for pickling.

Which vinegar can be used for cleaning?

Short answer is white vinegar. But before you purchase white vinegar and use it for both cleaning and pickling you need to understand the difference between natural vinegar and artificial or synthetic vinegar.

               Natural vinegar is the one which is made through natural ingredients and with a long process of fermentation. The end result of the process is a liquid that contains acetic acid. Please note that this acetic acid is the product of the process. Whereas synthetic vinegars are industrially produced acetic acid mixed with water. Although they are claimed to be safe for consuming as well and are used in variety of bakeries, food joints and hotels etc. We do not recommend them. It is better if you use them for cleaning purpose as they are much cheaper compared to natural ones.

Now let’s look at the process of making the vinegar.

How is vinegar made?

As stated earlier making vinegar is a two-step process. First you need to get the raw material properly ripen fruits or grains etc. Once washed properly they need to be added with water and yeast. Yeast feeds on the naturally occurring sugar of fruits (or any other raw material) and leaves us with the by product of alcohol.

In the step 2 we add some bacteria which feeds on the alcohol and turn that into acetic acid. This step is also called acetification. Note that you need around 13% alcohol for the step 2 to take place properly. Too high and too low amount of alcohol doesn’t produce desired result in step 2.

It is important to note that sometimes raw material is supplemented with some additional sugar (in case if raw material is not too sweet) or additional water to dilute it (if the raw material is too sweet such as the case in cane) to get to the specifics for step 2. Therefore, if you are trying to make it at home you might not get the consistent result all the time.

Quality of vinegar is determined by raw material, how long it is stored for step 1 and how long it is aged in step 2.

The prepared vinegar is clarified and often pasteurized to kill the bacteria before bottling.

What is mother in ‘mother’ of vinegar?

As we know that in step 2 of fermentation, we add some bacteria, these bacteria are called mother of vinegar. If you see a bottle of vinegar, it means the vinegar is not pasteurized to keep the bacteria in the vinegar. This mother is helpful substance when it comes to health.

Also read: everything you need to about coconut oil, usage benefits and best brands available

Vinegar vs Apple cider vinegar vs Coconut vinegar?

Everything we have studied in this article is about vinegar. And as discussed earlier that vinegar type will vary according to the raw material used to make vinegar. If the raw material is apples, we will get apple cider vinegar, if the raw material is coconut, we will get coconut vinegar, if the raw material is cane, we will get cane vinegar and so on. You can make vinegar of pretty much anything that has natural sugar in it.

               So, which one should you use? Apple cider or coconut vinegar? Well, to me answer is simple. If you are living in an area closer to sea (where coconut mostly grows) you should prefer coconut vinegar, and if you are living closer to a hilly or cold area (where apple grows) you should prefer apple cider vinegar. Also, coconut vinegar smells less foul compared to its apple counter part so if that is something that matters to you better go for coconut vinegar.

Best available brands for vinegars –

One of the best brand for Apple cider vinegar is ‘Bragg’ it is organic, raw unfiltered and comes with the mother. only problem is that it comes in a plastic bottle and we do not recommend keeping any liquid, oily or hot items in plastic bottles. But there are other brands suggested that are also good and comes in glass bottle.

The brand which we found good for coconut vinegar is Unived.

The brand which we found good for coconut vinegar is Unived.

Benefits and who should and should not use vinegar?

Vinegar is useful for heart health, regulating insulin, controlling diabetes aiding your weight loss journey and some of your skin problems too, and sometimes useful for people who got worms in their stomach. It can very well aid the digestion process because of the presence of different enzymes and healthy bacteria (Although there are not many conclusive studies in these regards, but age old wisdom suggest otherwise). Well, with all these benefits anyone will be tempted to use this in their food regime. But it doesn’t mean if you have any of the health problem mentioned above, you can jump on to start taking this wonder food. If you are someone who has the problem of acidity, feel any kind of burning sensation (in your eyes or skin), if you feel heat within your body meaning if you compared to others feel that the climate is hot, in such situations you should avoid taking any kind of vinegar. Because ayurveda says that vinegar is hot and sharp in nature so if you already are of this nature, you should avoid taking vinegar.

On the other hand, people who are obese, have problems with blood sugar or insulin regulation or have some heart problem, always feel cold and suffer from gastritis or constipation and does not have any problems stated in the above paragraph, can easily take vinegar.

Apart from health benefits it really enhances the taste of the food. If you go to any Chinese restaurant, chances are you will have some dish which uses vinegar as one the ingredients.

Dosage

As discussed, there are multiple benefits of vinegar but as we know not everything is for everyone, and anything good in excess is not good. So, it is important to know how much you should take and how?

You can take 1-2 teaspoon mixed with water half an hour before meals or you can use along with the meals, or you can use it as one the ingredient while preparing. Anything is fine. May be your health practitioner will be able to guide you better in your particular case.

Also Read: all about oats, doubts, and the best brands available.