Vinegar is a common condiment on our dining tables. Besides its delicious taste, it also has many health care and medicinal effects. It is sour and sweet in taste and neutral in nature. It can promote digestion and whet the appetite, dispel stasis, stop diarrhea with its astringent properties, and detoxify. It is used for greasy food stagnation, indigestion, a preference for sour foods, or diarrhea; epistaxis, hematemesis, and hematochezia; sore throat; gastrointestinal discomfort caused by eating fish, meat, vegetables, or mushrooms; and viral hepatitis. In what aspects can we usually use vinegar in our daily lives?
1. For those with constipation, drinking an appropriate amount of water with vinegar daily can moisten the intestines and promote bowel movements. Additionally, vinegar can regulate the body's acid-base balance and help maintain the relative stability of the body's internal environment.
2. Adding vinegar to food can aid digestion and help absorb the nutrients in food. It has antibacterial properties and can kill bacteria in the intestines such as Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, and Shigella dysenteriae.
3. Vinegar can whet the appetite, promote the secretion of saliva and gastric juice, aid digestion and absorption, increase appetite, and resolve food stagnation.
4. For the elderly, drinking a moderate amount of vinegar can dilate blood vessels, lower cholesterol, and is a good remedy for patients with hypertension and other cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.
5. For beauty-conscious individuals, vinegar can help convert excess body fat into energy for consumption and promote the metabolism of sugars and proteins, thus preventing and treating obesity.
6. Washing your face with vinegar water can increase the moisture and nutrients of skin cells, restore the skin's luster and elasticity, soften the stratum corneum, and whiten and sterilize the skin, making it delicate. Furthermore, applying a mixture of vinegar and glycerin to the skin yields even better results.
7. Vinegar can relieve fatigue, promote sleep, and alleviate the discomfort symptoms of motion sickness and seasickness.
8. Vinegar can also soften chicken bones and shark fins and promote calcium absorption.
It should be noted that no matter how strong your stomach is, it is not advisable to drink vinegar on an empty stomach to avoid excessive secretion of gastric acid, which can damage the stomach wall. Drinking vinegar between meals or one hour after a meal is less irritating to the stomach and, at the same time, aids digestion. Many people like to use the popular fruit vinegar for weight loss, but they don't realize that fruit vinegar is actually a sugary drink, and its calorie content is not to be underestimated. Consuming too much of it not only fails to help with weight loss but may also lead to weight gain!