Re: GET REAL VINEGAR!

[Susan Evans Garlinghouse <suendavid@worldnet.att.net>]

Karen J. Zelinsky wrote:
> 
> Hey guys!  Enough is enough!  I'm finally responding to the vinegar
> frenzy.  Yes vinegar does good things, but the junk sold in regular
> stores is mineraless in Seattle (and elsewhere!).  Common sense sez - go
> to your health food store and get a GOOD brand like "Bragg" vinegar,
> which has enough minerals and stuff in it  to shake a crop at - note the
> "mother" material at the bottom of the bottle?  That's the real stuff
> from real apples, not chemically washed, cleaned and flushed away - the
> real minerals.That kind of vinegar should do a lot more than the stuff
> on the grocery shelf.  Try it.  And remember not to scream at me "is she
> a nutritionist, a chemist? what is she?  what does she know?"  I have
> always been interested in "healthy" foods, products and of course the
> more natural the better.  Horses graze on grass, they don't graze on
> twinkies, right?? (maybe if they had the 'choice' of the two, Twinkies
> would wiln, but....evolution worked via the grass)   So, enough humor.  I
> shall escape and leave ya'll wondering "who the heck said THAT?!  Bon
> voyage!!   And get REAL (vinegar that is!).
> 
> Karen Zelinsky, Keel the Heel and the critters
> 


FWIW, I don't think anyone needs to be a chemist or anything else to
have an opinion---but I believe the material at the bottom of natural
vinegar are the dead yeast cells that exist on the apple skins and then
turn it into vinegar.  Once the acetic acid concentration gets high
enough, they die off and fall to the bottom.  I kinda have my doubts
that there is really a significant amount of minerals in cider vinegar,
(since there's not alot in whole apples, or in most waters, so where
could the minerals be coming from in the vinegar?  You can't manufacture
them, they have to come from somewhere), and even if there was, how much
mineral content could you be adding by feeding just a cup or so a day? 
Not even close to what's contained in just a pound or two of hay.  But I
will certainly agree that if there is any benefit to be derived  from
vinegar, then the real cider vinegar is probably better, and if nothing
else, it just tastes better (to me, anyway).  I honestly don't
know---I've seen research that refutes *some* of the claims made for
vinegar (none of which have been mentioned here yet), the rest, I
dunno.  There's certainly alot of anecdotal info to suggest something.

Anyway, I just happen to remember all that from a microbiology lab where
we had to make vinegar and then decant off the vinegar to get the yeasts
in the bottom.  Thought someone might find it interesting.

Susan G