This chart may help divert what you want into what you actually may need.
Hot new drink to get a buzz from — vinegar?
The most popular alcoholic beverages in the world, wine and beer, are fermented.
However, another substance you likely consume on a daily basis is also fermented, also good for you, and also what you may not expect as a way to get a buzz — vinegar.
Vinegar is a fast-fermented substance created by adding sugar to corn (white vinegar) apples (apple cider vinegar) or grapes (balsamic vinegar).
But you don’t have to be limited to just those.
The Raw Duck, a restaurant in the UK, makes their own vinegars from a variety of fruits and vegetables like watermelon, strawberry, rhubarb, and black cherry.
According to a taste test:
The watermelon was clean and sweet, vaguely reminiscent of those little jelly sweets you’d get in a Woolworths pick ‘n’ mix and only a touch acidic. The strawberry was viscous, potent, and like drinking an acidic coulis. Delicious. The apple was like cider syrup—very alcoholic-tasting and sweet, with a nice, sharp kick-up-the-arse at the end. The raspberry, my favourite, was like the purest distillation of the fruit I’ve ever tasted and was, pleasingly, the most acidic of the lot.
These are called “drinking vinegar”, and they’re a slightly sweeter, more ingestible form of vinegar compared to the one you use in your salad dressing.
They’re meant to be drank with fizzy water, creating a natural sort of soda.
The taste tester reporting being quite tipsy after taste-testing some drinking vinegars, and that’s because as a fermented product, vinegar is similar to wine and beer, just not fermented as long.
Who knows? Maybe we could be ordering a vinegar drink at the bar soon!
Where to buy gluten-free on Long Island?
To those with Celiac’s, the gluten-intolerant, and gluten-free dieters, Long Island now has many places offering gluten-free baked goods, meals, and groceries.
Gluten-free options are becoming more widely available on Long Island. Most supermarkets and health-food stores have sizable gluten-free sections, and more and more restaurants offer gluten-free pastas, pizzas and bread.
For markets, there’s Eat Good Gluten Free Market as well as Rising Tide Natural Market and Jandi’s Natural Market.
Bare Naked Bakery, Wild Flours and others serve gluten-free baked goods.
gluten-free zucchini bread — YUM
And a variety of restaurants have gluten free options on their menu.
If you live in the Long Island area, check it out!
Is gluten free less than it’s made to be?
Gluten free is the hottest health craze, with almost every wheat product in the market now having a gluten-free alternative. Breads, pastas, cakes, and even condiments are being made gluten-free.
But is it all hype?
According to the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness, “[a]bout 1 percent of the American population suffers from celiac disease”, where your body actually can’t consume gluten.
An equal and possibly slightly larger percentage of Americans are gluten-intolerant, where gluten can cause digestive discomfort and IBS-like symptoms.
However, many people consuming gluten-free products neither have Celiac’s nor are they gluten-intolerant.
Daniel Leffler, director of research at the Celiac Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, said that between 2 million and 3 million Americans report maintaining a gluten-free diet, and about 10 percent of that group has celiac disease.
Leffler states that this creates a paradox of sorts: “Most people who are on the gluten-free diet don’t have celiac disease, and most people who have celiac disease don’t know that they have it and don’t eat gluten-free.”
Also, eating gluten free for awhile and then returning to gluten can cause cramps and severe dietary problems, so those who aren’t gluten-intolerant and don’t have Celiac’s in effect create a gluten intolerance within themselves.
There’s a palpable backlash among restaurants as well, who are receiving more requests than ever for gluten free meals but are unable to produce them.
For the hundreds of thousands of Celiac’s sufferers and gluten intolerant, gluten-free isn’t a fad, but a lifestyle.
In a way it’s welcoming to see more gluten-free products on the market. But in a way it’s also difficult to cope with intolerant bandwagoners who claim an allergy to gluten who don’t have one.
Is the gluten-free diet actually helping you lose weight?
The newest weight-loss craze is to eat “gluten-free”. Gluten is a wheat by-product, and those who cannot digest gluten have a condition called Celiac’s Disease. Others are simply gluten-intolerant.
However, if 1% of the population has Celiac’s, and up to 30% of the population is trying to eat “gluten-free”, the numbers simply don’t add up.
That means that 30 times the number of those who actually have the disease, regardless of diagnosis, are following a gluten-free diet.
But is cutting out gluten actually causing weight loss?
According to Bridget Benelam of the British Nutrition Foundation:
many gluten-containing products, such as cakes, biscuits, croissants, pancakes, muffins, jam tarts and pies, are high in calories, so cutting them out can help with weight loss, especially if you tend to eat a lot.
But this has nothing to do with avoiding gluten and everything to do with reducing calories.
In effect, you’re simply losing weight because you’re cutting normally-bad foods out of your diet, not because you’re eating gluten-free.
not the devil?
And problematically, most gluten-free items you purchase at the market are actually worse for you:
It’s not just calories that are often higher in gluten-free products – they often contain more fat, sugar and/or salt to improve their flavour or texture.
It’s similar to the low-fat craze a few years back. Low fat items are also low in taste, and as a result, they were often higher in sugar, sodium, and other additives to make up for that loss.
That led to a product that was more unhealthy than the original product, and the pendulum swung back to eating healthy-fat items.
Also, by skipping out on products with gluten, you’re likely causing yourself digestive distress:
Some gluten-free products are made with refined grains rather than whole grains and contain less fibre.
Low fibre intakes are linked to constipation, which can cause bloating, stomach cramps, sickness and loss of appetite.
And lastly, you’re missing out on crucial vitamins.
A recent German study revealed that gluten- free diets are more likely to be deficient in iron, magnesium, folate and thiamin.
We’re still learning a great deal about how diet affects our system. I’ll end with the following by someone who knows about the subject of diet and intolerances the best:
“No-one should ever diagnose themselves with an intolerance or allergy,” says Sarah Sleet of Coeliac UK.
Vinegar and your immune system
Apple Cider Vinegar has long been touted as a health treatment.
But according to nutritionist Brooke Alpert on the TODAY Show, Apple Cider Vinegar, and vinegar in general can specifically help boost your immune system:
Apple cider vinegar is a great way to help feed the healthy bacteria in your system, which can help fight off colds, and keep your immune system running.
To do so, consume 1 tsp – 2 tbsp of raw, unfiltered Apple Cider Vinegar. It’s the kind with all the right cultures, almost like kombucha, and is best for making sure you get the correct enzymes.
Cold and flu season are on their way, so boosting your immune system BEFORE you get sick will be the best way to stay healthy.
Is Apple Cider Vinegar worth adding to your diet?
Apple Cider Vinegar is one of those home/health remedies that never quite seems to go away. It has been long touted as a miracle ingredient for everything from weight loss to detox to skin conditions. But is ACV all it’s cracked up to be?
For starters, it’s said to do wonders for regulating sugar levels, which is a boon for diabetics:
Studies have shown that those with diabetes who regularly ingest vinegar have improved insulin sensitivity, and that it lowers blood glucose and insulin responses.
It’s currently being studied in trials to reduce the risk of heart disease. And it’s known as a great digestive aid after a large meal and to help curb appetite cravings.
The recommended dose of Apple Cider Vinegar is a 1 tsp – 2 tbsp per day. It’s strong stuff on its own, but added to water with honey, a juice, or tea, it can be easier to consume.
As a topical remedy it’s said to be helpful for reducing acne, fungus, warts, and other topical skin issues. The vinegar kills bacteria and other cultures which cause the above, and does so without the use of harsh chemicals.
It’s not expensive to buy in the store and if all else fails–at least it helps make a good salad dressing.
Adorable Chart: Which Tea to drink for what ailment…
The chemical compounds of various tea leaves can help with a lot of physical issues. Of course, to some, it’s not science so much as the ritual, but help is help.
Is orthorexia a real thing?
Ever heard of orthorexia?
Apparently it’s when you’re obsessed with eating foods you believe to be healthy.
First, I feel like “candy corn” is the plural form. (That “s” makes me uncomfortable.)
Second, so you mean… picky eaters?
Isn’t this isn’t this just another dietary label for people who chronically can’t balance because they don’t listen to their bodies and get caught up in some irrational goal about being a certain way, internally or externally? (Hopefully that mouthful of an inquiry is healthy enough for my literary orthorexics out there to nom on).
I mean, an obsession crosses over to “unhealthy” or “addiction” when it becomes a detriment to yourself and/or those around you. Is it keeping you from seeing anyone? Look into that, then. Is it making your hair fall out? Look at that, then. Imbibing becomes alcoholism when you take too much and frequently. Juicing or fasting to detox becomes anorexia when it turns into a week which then turns into a month which turns into a “Mayhaps I’ll go breatharian”. Same with cosmetic alterations.
But if you’re happy and not hurting anyone with your commitment to un-health, who am I to judge just how quickly or slowly you race to the six foot drop at the finish line every damned one of us is heading towards? Who is anyone to question that? What the question is, is: are you being a parasitic cancer to society and your friends or family or yourself because of it?
Because that does affect other people.
Which means you may need to stop.
I know, I know. It’s hard to accept the transient nature of everything – whether it’s our weight, youth, or that nice cockle-warming buzz you get only with that first quarter glass of wine. Our inability to deal with the discomfort of living is wrought out of a desire to be or feel our best all the time. That’s impossible. So some of us make ourselves all sad inside about it. With a dietary obsesh, you might wake up retaining water or feeling depressed – so you go to a polar extreme to compensate. Even spiritual path trekkers are guilty – it’s easy to end up morphing into an aghori when you try to meditate on just how you’re fcking up. Sure, you had a good intention and wanted to fix yourself. But you’re so anxious about being out of control – that you end up missing the entire point of what you’re doing – and also the human connection because you couldn’t STFU your brain enough now to be less distracted later.
It’s all about the “deal with it” freefall.
Like that chick from Frozen says:
This “orthorexia” is just the non-balance from not letting go of illogical life expectations.
Which makes it no different than the common freakout we all share when there’s a schism between our best laid plans… and reality. We buck logic and get pissed off that we couldn’t will our desires into existence. Then we self-sabotage until we do enough spiritual spelunking to realize how ridiculous we’re being.
That’s why the piece I read on “I was a borderline orthorexic” kinda surprised me.
Because with such a deep meditation practice as she illustrated (to the point of compulsion – the whole point of the article), how did it take her three years to figure that out about herself? I don’t mean that in a judgmental way, either. I say it because, for me, the insight that I was being such a bad-at-life douchebag clobbered me over the cranium like a cosmic “wrong way” sign on my first five minute try with meditation. It’s something I have to re-learn every time I do it too, apparently. Hence the reason I’m less of a transcenderexic (#AshleyOGterm) than some. Still, I do it. And while every sesh is indeed an act of ego masochism, it’s worth mining this shiz outta ourselves.
‘cause like Oscar Wilde says:
We’ve all got afflictions. Our charge is to find out the imbalance, set it right, and eschew the shiz that doesn’t serve us anymore. So – just remember – while you most def matter and are important in this world, you’ve got to do the work to make the scales fall even. Just like the rest of us. Which means that even though I love ya… you’re not special.
And neither is your -rexia.
No calorie? No way…
Something’s gotta give with this low-cal and alleged no-cal artificial food.
Usually, it’s our bowels.
Sometimes it’s just the obv fact about their non-fact advertising.
I mean, while stuff like this may hold true…
… it still took me a bit to realize the duh factor about the lie of zero calorie claims.
And make my own dietary annotations to info I was told:
For example, I lived on “no calorie” crap like Coke zero for a good while in college – a fantastic supplement once my Stacker tolerance began kicking in. I’m not sure why I kept punishing myself with a life punctuated by frequent restroom trips. It was like colon clockwork, that stuff. Every lecture, I’d end up suffering a plight like the comeuppance of a villainous soon-to-be-ex boyfriend in every other romcom (see: Van Wilder, Wedding Crashers, The Other Woman) and hafta leave class.
TMI? Fantastic. Then we’re off to an epic start for Monday.
Less epic, looking back, was that later life-realization that my weight loss efforts were in vain. Not the good kinda vain that makes you leave the house looking like a young Kim Novak, either. I mean the kind of vain where not only are you vomiting out of the wrong end – and it’s to NO end because they lie when they say “zero” calorie on this tooth-staining crap. And legally they’re allowed to. Indeed, mislabeling something as zero is okay if it has no more than five calories. At first it kind of made me want to get gussied up in my Stepford best, hold a meeting with whoever made this rule, and ask:
“What’s the difference between zero and five …
…stab wounds?”
But as I furthered my biology career, I started to have that “should’ve known better” mentality creep over me. It was that old familiar embarrassment about having been duped by ads just as badly with coke as I’d been with cosmetics all my life.
And advertising isn’t solely to blame for this misconception.
Some are just old wives tales you’ll here from friends in high school that stick with you your whole life despite that part of your brain constantly saying, “That can’t be right… can it?” Take, for instance, the “negative calorie” myth about celery. Is it low calorie? Yes. Is it good as fckk for you? Absolutely. Does your body burn more calories processing it than it retains?
No.
No.It.Does.Not.
Even the healthy green guys get us – they don’t just melt into the watery body abyss.
(Dude, I had to look up and see if Wicked Witch and Mommy Dearest were the same person)
‘cause it’s still a net of about 5 cals per stick or stalk or whatever the hell they’re called.
But that just makes them “wicked” good – especially celery – because it’s high in fiber. Now there’s something – fiber – that doesn’t have calories in it in and of itself. But that’s only because we don’t really digest it. When it magic school buses into your system, it’s with the goal of playing pied piper to your cow pies till they reach the final destination of a drowny porcelain death. (Or a pile of detritus, mayhaps, if you’re Mick Dodge style livin’ it up in the woods). I’m too lazy to review what happens with the rats at the end of the fairy tale. But in your human happily-ever-after, the fiber piper dies along with his colonic cult. ‘cause your body doesn’t digest it – just whatever was around it.
And, I probably could have used a bit more of that fibrous celery in my Coke zero days (although with my then diet, I’d probably have just gotten excited because I would have mistaken it for the longitudinal cross section of an oversized Starbucks straw that meant they were now selling bubble tea).
But, to be fair, I can see how Coca Cola gets away with their mislabeling.
Ya see, I call it the “poophole loophole”.
For one, that “zero” could technically be read as more of a “T minus 0” second warning – the precise time you have to reach the loo before being blasted off into oblivion by your own fecal fuel eruption. Secondly – the calorie count could be more of a “net” thing. Like, mayhaps it wasn’t calorie free going in. But it definitely does a negative dip when you shiz that fizzy drink out.
Along with yesterday’s breakfast.
And your entire intact skeleton.
Sooo glad I prepare f’real food now with good cals so I’ve got actual energy to use ‘em, not avoid ‘em.
…most of the time.