Pickles, Vinegar & Diabetes

Recent studies at Lund University in Sweden studied the effects of eating pickles with high-carb meals. Folks who didn’t eat pickles saw their blood sugar spike to the moon—but the pickle–eaters were somehow immune. Just recently, an American research team unlocked the answer by giving everyone a bit of vinegar with their meals. They measured patient’s blood-sugar after the meals. Then they fed the patients the same meals without vinegar, and measured again. The vinegar slashed their blood sugar after meals as much as 50 percent!
A big plus in a second study showed that the vinegar-takers also lost significant weight! How does it work? Simply and safely, the vinegar seems to stop carbs from breaking down in your stomach. So the carbs aren’t absorbed and converted to sugar nearly as fast.
No drugs, no cost, no carb-counting and 50% lower blood sugar with no side-effects and it’s free.
Ever since I was a young child, I loved my mother’s salad dressing and it left me craving for apple cider vinegar. In my youth it was not uncommon to find a rack holding both extra virgin olive oil and apple cider vinegar. As I began my research on healthy eating, I found more and more reasons why vinegar is so important as a part of the Mediterranean meal. You can get books on vinegar that will point out why it works so well as an "elixir to life."

Over 50 years ago, it was also common to use vinegar on clams and french fries. The English like to eat that way - using vinegar on fish and chips or any meat. Vinegar is acetic acid and kills bacteria and helps to break down fats as a marinade and makes the stew beef more tender. I use it in all kinds of soups, salads, fish and meat dishes.
Make any dried bean dish less gassy by adding 1/8 to 1/4 cup vinegar to the soaking water. Rinse thoroughly after an overnight soak, then add a dash of vinegar to the cooking water.
Keep peeled potatoes from discoloring for short term use (or even for days). Store them in the refrigerator with cold water to which some vinegar has been added.
Adding just a dash of vinegar to pasta as it cooks will make it less sticky and cut some of the starch.
Although I am not a real fan of mayonnaise, you might want to make the perfect picnic potato salad with cooked, peeled and cubed potatoes with the following dressing: 1 cup of light mayonnaise, 3 tablespoons of vinegar, 1 tablespoon sugar and ½ teaspoon of salt. Optional items to add (volumizing): 2 chopped, hard-boiled eggs, match-stick sized carrots, diced celery, cut up green onion tops and crushed, cooked bacon.
Vinegar can be added to stews, soups, broiled meat or fish and helps kill any bacteria that might cause digestive problems. I add a tablespoon of apple-cider vinegar to my spaghetti sauce for zip and to tenderize the meats in the sauce. Chicken cacciatore is delicious with a tablespoon of apple-cider vinegar and a tablespoon of brown sugar.
I am not fond of the idea of storing vinegar in plastic containers. Use glass or ceramic containers for storing. Vinegar creates an environment in which bacteria can’t live because of the acid content. This is the reason you want to use glass or ceramic for pickling, as the acid won’t react with it while it can react to metal and even some plastic containers.
Experiment with other vinegars like balsamic, rice or wine vinegars. You don’t need all the fancy salad dressings to enhance the flavor of your food.
Consider a tablespoon of vinegar when dealing with acid indigestion. It feels like you’ve downed a shot of whiskey, but it works for me and prevents problems with food.