"ones commonly taken by people who think they're avoiding what you termed "these proven artificial complexes which we all know have side effects". eric, by the same token how many people see headache/pain medication on the shelf and assume it is completely safe? and yet many of these medications contain codeine which addictive, paracetamol which can cause liver damage and ibuprofen which can cause very serious damage to the stomach and intestine. the problem with your arguments is that all of them can be applied to proven medications as well. "The real problem involves people neglecting proven interventions (like diet, exercise and limiting alcohol intake) in favor of some magic pill that they are encouraged to believe will solve all their problems." exactly the same thing can be said for taking medications, many people use them this way instead of doing other things in conjunction. You can not stop people from trying to take the easy way out if that is how they approach their health, but to assume that this is the norm is not giving people credit for having the ability to take their health more seriously than that. e.g. if steph did not take her health seriously, she wouldnt bother with eating sensibly and exercise, vinegar may have been the component which tipped the scales for her. steph is simply doing what people do, whether it be medication or alternative therapy, she is reporting her own observations, just like I did with the vitamin c, that is how people determine whether something is working or not, by observation, the same way people observe changes in their body good or bad with regular medications. your interpretation of this is slanted though, if it's herbal or alternative, you automatically assume it doesnt work and that any improvement is due to other things.

Just a bit of food for thought, the drug companies that are trying to get a "new" drug approved by the FDA are the same drug companies that are PAYING for that testing process. Quite frankly, I don't trust any of them. Plants were created for a purpose, many of them do have healing properties that those drug companies some people put so much stock in would go to any lengths to keep people from learning about or believing in. Tell me, what would happen if the world was to find out that ACV could help with Acid Reflux and/or chronic indigestion? *Grins* Exactly. They'd stop buying "the purple pill" and start buying ACV. Personally, I trust the products that God made before I'd trust those which are man made. ACV is made from apples. The "mother" mentioned in this thread are simply vital nutrients and minerals our bodies benefit from which are lost in the pasteurization process of the "grocery store" brands. ACV is acidic by nature, but when your body burns it, the ash created by the process of converting it to calories is "Base" in nature, which balances out the body's Ph. There ARE health benefits of ACV, many. But you'll never see a "clinical trial" of ACV. Why? Well think about it. Who pays the bills in a clinical trial? What drug company would want it proven clinically that ACV does the same thing as their "wonder pill?" Not to mention many prescription drugs are based after that which occurs naturally in nature. Personally, I have taken ACV for over 3 years now. I have gone from a jean size 24 to a jean size 8. But you must remember that no "weight loss" product, no exercise, nothing works overnight. It is a gradual process. My advice? If you're going to try ACV, then make a commitment to stay on it for at least 3 months. That's how long it took before I began to see results. The first thing I noticed was that my craving for junk food began to wane. I began to crave healthy food. I began to drink more water, I began to get full faster. I had more energy, I felt better. But I've also not been sick in 3 years. I've had kids with bad colds standing over me while I'm kneeling down at work and coughing right in my face, and not gotten sick. No stuffy noses, no sore throats, no flu. The only time I had a problem was when I stopped taking it for a few months. I didn't realize how much ACV doing for me until then. I was miserable, I just felt like crap. And within that 2 month time frame, I gradually began to go back to eating junk. Within a few weeks of going back on ACV, I felt much, much better. Most of the weight loss I experienced occurred during the first 6 months, mainly during a 2-3 month time frame. Within a few months, I'd noticed that my clothes were a bit big. 6 months after beginning, I went up and tried on clothes to find that I was a size 10. Concerned that there might be another reason for my weight loss I went to the doctor, and was told that I was in perfect...

Hey! One thing to remember about ACV and other home remedies is that they have been effective for thousands of years, and in my book that's a lot of empirical evidence, AKA science. Think of "modern drugs," such as the lowly aspirin based on the biochemistry of Willow Bark, in many cases are pharmacological equivalents of these natural medicines.� As someone pointed out, modern medicines (and their drug company manufacturers) are motivated by profit. Synthesizing natural components allows these folks to use the empirical history of these common folk medicines to produce safe drugs that they can fancy up with a quasi Latin/Greek/Utopian name and call it a breakthrough: Avandia, Lyrika, etc � There's a wonderful book out there titled Anti-Cancer: A New Way of Life by David Servan-Schreiber. He explains the biology of cancer. Simply put, �the body becomes "inflamed" (think arthritis, infections, bad colds), weakening the body. In this environment, wild cancer cells which we all have (and more created all the time by environmental carcinogens as "free radicals") settle down in weak parts of the inflamed body. The microtumors then start to grow, especially helped by high blood sugar.� Servan-Schreiber explains the profound effect of diet in this process, namely that the Western high fat-high carb/sugar/high salt diet produces many of the preconditions of cancer and that eating foods that have anti-inflammatory and free radical-controlling properties can nip cancers in the bud and even reduce tumors' size. He explains the biochemistry of these factors and HOW they work.� My point is that these long-lived "home remedies" can work, including ACV, by balancing the body so that our diseases of excess can be mitigated.� Yes, everyone's results may differ. This goes with any allopathic medication as well.� For me, ACV has already (positively) affected my blood sugar and energy level. My daughter has been using it and it cleared up her acne. I'm hopeful about the weight loss and other benefits, realizing some of tge benefits may take a while.� On another note, the book Sugar Blues documents the transformation of beet/cane sugar from luxury item (1600s through ca. mid-1800s) to increasingly available (industrialization + British imperialism/trade) general food enhancer. In the late 1800s sugar was declared to be a poison, probably because of all those rotten teeth, diabetes, and other side effects. Then - surprise, surprise - the sugar lobby (probably one of the first with all those tropical perqs - cheap labor, rich tropical land, etc.) had thaw law reversed. Soon the Western world was awash in candy, cheap pastries (think: twinkles, those nasty artificial mass produced chocolate chip cookies) and sugar enhanced foods (ketchup, hot dogs, French fries, etc.).� So when in doubt grow your own food and make it yourself. Ever tasted a sun-warmed tomato? �There is absolutely no resemblance to the hard, flavorless things in the grocery store. I just made a (sooooo simple) batch of pickles, nothing like what Safeway has to offer.� The point is if you make it or grow, your food doesn't need all that sugar, salt, and fat to make it taste good. �Trust your own taste buds and don't trust those seductive dietary demons.� Sent from my iPod

I shouldn't be such a whiner when I think of all you have to do Tricia! You're definately in my thoughts and prayers, I know this has been a rough time, I wish you didn't have to go thru this! I can't have chili powder, even mild, right now. Later, as I add things, probably if it doesn't cause a problem. I can eat red bell peppers, (you know, the most expensive ones!), so I may try my hand at roasting some, since the canned ones I usually buy have preservatives which are off limits now. Tonight for dinner I had some soup that was a POOF that was a riff on risi e bisi and Italian wedding--ham, peas, spinach, carrots and celery and caramelized onions (yes, I know but I made it before all this started) with Israeli style cous cous pilaf thrown in for the starch. Mostly OK ingredients. I was still hungry so I had an almond butter and honey sandwich on whitebread toast. I have to get rid of this great sourdough sprouted wheat bread BF brought me, because no sourdough either! I'm finding out all kinds of interesting things. Like a mail order source for tamari without gluten, it's made from rice and adzuki beans. I think I am going to order some of that since I actually might eat it on its own merits. I also discovered that I can use "amchoor" to add tartness, which is a bitter mango powder and I actually had some leftover from when I was on an Indian food kick. BF is kidding me incessantly, "Now you have to eat like me." It's actually the Standard American Diet--meat, mild dairy, starches, plain vegetables, fat, and sugar! The only thing missing is caffinated beverages and soda pop! Yes Beverly, it could be worse because I too think salt would be very hard for me to do without. I have decreased my salt over the years, but I find it difficult to go real low with it. Of course maybe that's coming down the road, lol!