If you did a poll of the most desired beauty and health changes, a slim physique and clear skin would probably rank pretty high on the list. While the conventional approach to meeting these goals would be to slave away on a treadmill, starve yourself on a diet, and apply expensive skin products, we take a different tack.
It might sound outrageous, but we believe you can get a flat stomach and glowing complexion from one little bottle that costs less than 10 dollars. That’s right! No 80-dollar serums, scary prescriptions or pills, and no long hours sweating your butt off.
It’s all thanks to raw apple cider vinegar (ACV). This vinegar helps control blood sugar, supports a strong metabolism and provides the gut with beneficial bacteria. As a result, digestion is more effective and the body can detoxify itself effortlessly. Since the health of the gut is reflected externally in the skin, improving digestive health with apple cider vinegar is a reliable way to achieve beautiful clear skin.
Read on to discover ways to incorporate this heavy-hitting yet affordable remedy into your daily regime.
Why you should never drink apple cider vinegar straight
Most people would never want to drink straight vinegar, simply because of the taste! Apple cider vinegar certainly has a strong flavor and leaves an unpleasant sensation in the throat. It’s especially difficult to get kids to drink vinegar because of the taste and burning effect.
Even if you fancy yourself as a hardcore ACV fan, we recommend never taking a swig straight from the bottle — it can be unsafe. One scientific study examined the consequences of drinking undiluted apple cider vinegar for weight loss. Individuals actually suffered tissue damage to the esophagus.
For this reason, we would like to share some of the best recipes to make apple cider vinegar not only more palatable, but also safe to consume. These recipes are so good that you will likely want to take apple cider vinegar daily. You may even convince hesitant family members to jump on the bandwagon. There are additional benefits too, which can be gained from the other wholesome ingredients in these recipes. Choose one that best suits your needs and preferences.
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Sweet and Tart Cranberry Cocktail
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| Prep Time: |
| 2minutes |
| Cook Time: |
| nocook |
| Total time: |
- 1 - 2tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 2tablespoons pure cranberry juice
- 1 1/2cups water
- 1 - 2teaspoons maple syrup
- Measure the apple cider vinegar, cranberry juice and maple syrup into a glass.
- Top up with water. Add ice cubes if desired.
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Grapefruit Metabolism Booster
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| Prep Time: |
| 2minutes |
| Cook Time: |
| nocook |
| Total time: |
- 1cup pure grapefruit juice
- 1 - 2tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 2teaspoons raw honey
- Measure the apple cider vinegar and honey into a glass.
- Top up with grapefruit juice. If you prefer less sugar, use half the amount of grapefruit juice and honey, and top up with water.
Try drinking this juice before every meal to improve digestion and to encourage gradual weight loss.
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Immune-boosting Kick in the Pants
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| Prep Time: |
| 5minutes |
| Cook Time: |
| nocook |
| Total time: |
- 1 - 2tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 - 2tablespoons raw honey
- Thumb-sized piece of ginger root
- Juice of ½ a lemon
- Pinch of cayenne pepper
- Hot water
- Grate the ginger root, then squeeze the juice from the pulp into a glass or mug. Discard the pulp.
- Add the apple cider vinegar, honey, lemon juice and cayenne pepper.
- Top up with hot water — ensure the water is at a drinkable temperature, not boiling, so that the living compounds in the vinegar and honey are preserved. Stir to dissolve, and drink.
- Optionally add 1 finely chopped or crushed fresh garlic clove for a further immune boost (not for the faint of heart!).
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Savory Probiotic Juice
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| Prep Time: |
| 5minutes |
| Cook Time: |
| nocook |
| Total time: |
- 2 ripe tomatoes
- 1/4 of a cucumber
- 1large stick of celery
- Juice of ½ lime
- 1 - 2tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Place all of the vegetables in a blender or juicer.
- If using a blender, blend until smooth and then strain, so that you end up with a juice.
- Mix in the vinegar, lime juice and some salt and pepper to taste. Optionally add a little hot sauce.
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Mineral-rich Tonic
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| Prep Time: |
| 2minutes |
| Cook Time: |
| nocook |
| Total time: |
- 1 - 2tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 2teaspoons blackstrap molasses
- water
- Stir the ingredients together and consume.
The only type of apple cider vinegar you should ever buy
Now that we’ve covered a few great ways to make apple cider vinegar more palatable, let’s address the vinegar itself. It’s essential that you use a high-quality vinegar. We are not talking about those huge plastic “tanks” of low quality stuff. While this may be okay for making barbecue sauce, we want to step it up a notch for health and weight loss applications.
The type of apple cider vinegar to seek out is a raw, organic variety. These usually come in glass bottles. Check the label for the words “unpasteurized,” “raw” and “mother.” These indicate that the probiotic properties of the vinegar have been retained. Pasteurization removes all the living cultures, and the vinegar will not have as many benefits.
In a raw vinegar you will see strings or small chunks floating near the bottom — this is a good thing! Although it looks a bit gross, these helpful bacteria will make your skin bright and your digestive system and metabolism sing.
It is also important that the vinegar you buy has been made with organic apples. Apples are near the top of the Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen list, which highlights the types of produce that have the most chemicals (such as pesticides and herbicides) applied to them. In fact some sources estimate that the average conventionally grown apple has up to 92 different chemicals on the skin, including potential carcinogens. Organic is definitely the best choice.
Why not experiment with some of these recipes and see which one is your favorite. Try incorporating a little apple cider vinegar into your diet each day and watch those positive changes happen effortlessly!
Apple cider vinegar not only makes you healthy and beautiful from the inside out, it can also be applied externally.
—Liivi Hess
Liivi is an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach and is training to become a doula. She inspires women to find peace and personal power by taking control of health and fertility naturally. Liivi‘s passion is ancestral nutrition and primal lifestyle design. She and her partner Will live between Toronto, Canada and Queenstown, New Zealand.
Sources:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140673600042598
http://europepmc.org/abstract/med/9924285
http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1757-4749-3-1.pdf
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0923181109000243
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306987707002009
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1038/oby.2009.112/full
http://www.lifesciencesite.com/lsj/life0904/360_10755life0904_2431_2440.pdf
