Is apple cider vinegar healthy for you?
So many people ask me this question. Apple cider vinegar has gotten so much attention as having positive health benefits, from weight loss to clearing acne to replacing shampoo. However, there is a dark side to ACV that needs to be understood: it’s actually damaging your health. Here’s the three major areas ACV can damage, with far-reaching effects on numerous health conditions.
It Literally Pickles Your Liver.
Apple cider vinegar is very acidic – but not in the “good” acidic way like lemons are. Although lemons taste acidic, they actually create alkalinity in the body – which is a healing environment. Apple cider vinegar heightens the acidity in your body. An acidic environment invites viruses, bacteria, and pathogens to grow, which create and worsen health conditions.
How does the pickling process work? To make a cucumber into a pickle, one method is immersing the cucumber in vinegar. Your liver works in the same way. Consuming vinegar regularly – which is not hard to do when it sneaks into a variety of processed foods and baked goods – literally pickles your liver and dries it out.
If you’ve hung around me for a while, you’ve definitely heard me talk about your liver – because it is one of the most vital yet underrated organs in your body. Your liver performs so many vital tasks daily to keep you alive – yet, we aren’t educated on how to take care of it and thus our true source of health. Many health conditions stem from an overburdened, sluggish liver. If your liver is dried out from regular or high amounts of vinegar consumption, it can’t function at its best. This hampers your liver’s ability to filter your blood, create and recycle hormones, neutralize toxins, and perform thousands of other tasks that keep your body functioning. Essentially, poor liver health = poor overall health.
It Leaches Minerals From Your Blood & Bones.
I have worked with hundreds of clients with serious chronic health issues – and end up finding out that they regularly take apple cider vinegar, because they heard it was supposed to help. Instead, doing it for such a long time created more problems in the body.
Your blood needs certain minerals. However, when your body senses apple cider vinegar in the body, it tries to neutralize it with minerals. Since most of us are already mineral-deficient, the supply quickly runs out of the blood. The body is still trying to fight against the ACV, so it draws minerals from its next source: your bones. Losing minerals is extremely damaging to your blood and your bone structure – and is a fast track to osteoporosis.
A lot of blood building happens in the bones. This is an essential component for those trying to get pregnant or have a healthy pregnancy. I have worked with many women struggling with fertility – and for many of them, once they removed vinegar from their diet, their conditions improved significantly.
It May Clear Acne, But At What Cost?
Many people argue that apple cider vinegar helped improve their skin. Did you know you can use apple cider vinegar to clean off battery acid corrosion? Yes, ACV will clear out the bacteria on your skin, leading to temporary acne relief – but it also gets absorbed through your skin into your body, causing unseen damage to your organs.
A 21-year-old girl once came to me as a client. Her skin and eyes were turning yellow, but all her medical tests came back normal, including a liver test. Liver tests only measure the liver on two dimensions – but it is actually at 52-dimensional organ. At this point in time, this medical test is not sensitive enough to understand that her liver was struggling. I came to find out that she had a ¼ cup of apple cider vinegar every day since she was 16 years old. This means she had consumed almost 30 gallons of apple cider vinegar over the last 5 years, and her liver was in a dire situation. Her body was struggling to build enough blood so she could function. After stopping the ACV and working together, her skin and eyes cleared up, but the damage lasted for a year afterward. Since the apple cider vinegar had killed off all the bad and good bacteria in her body, any time she was exposed to bacteria in the lymphatic system it would come out in boils on her face. After a year of no vinegar and other protocols we had worked on together, her body, eyes, and skin were flourishing.
The Alternative to Apple Cider Vinegar
So if ACV isn’t actually healthy, what is?
DRINK LEMON WATER.
If you like to drink ACV in the morning, instead replace it with lemon water. Squeeze half a lemon’s juice into 16 ounces of clean water and drink first thing in the morning to rehydrate after sleeping and assist your body in ridding itself of toxins.
USE SOVEREIGN SILVER ON YOUR SKIN.
Instead of washing your face with ACV or using it as a toner, use Sovereign Silver instead. Put some on an organic cotton ball or pad and wipe on the face after cleansing it. This cleans bacteria off the skin and helps the skin glow! (See more of my best tips for healthy glowing skin.)
SUBSTITUTE LEMON JUICE IN RECIPES.
An easy common replacement for ACV in many recipes is an equal amount of lemon juice! It works well in baking recipes and recipes that call for an acidic taste, such as for sauces or dressings. Lemons are full of vitamin C and B-complex, and minerals iron, calcium, magnesium, silicon, copper, and potassium. They have amazing antibiotic, antiseptic, and anti-cancer properties and help detoxify and alkalize the entire body. I encourage you to be adventurous and experiment!
Try It For Yourself.
Conduct your own experiment and try cutting out vinegars from your diet for a few months or more. Notice any changes in your body. Although apple cider vinegar is probably the “healthiest” of all vinegars, I recommend minimizing your use and consumption or omitting it altogether. If you’re looking to detoxify your body, one amazing way to do this is to eat 2-3 red apples a day – apples are an amazing detoxifier!
To see more truths about “health foods” and a step-by-step plan to reclaim and optimize your health, check out my most comprehensive online course RADICAL HEALING to start transforming your health today!
Blessings,
Amber
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