>> "No form of vinegar changes body pH or has any effect on toxins. The body's natural processes, mediated largely through the liver and kidneys, eliminate waste products and toxic substances." It's as if you are still rejecting the efficacy of Cinchona bark for treating malaria because the Amazonian Indians haven't discovered the formula for the quinine it contains. Instead, they say that the bark of the Cinchona tree contains the spirit of the God Xohopichulato, which destroys the evil spirit that causes malaria. If you want to rest in your beliefs that there is no Xohopichulato and therefore Cinchona cannot help with malaria, fine. Just don't pretend it is science. It is arrogant ethnocentrism, not scientific empiricism. Your arguments are based on an arbitrary and artificial definition of the word 'toxin'. You are ignoring the fact that ordinary substances can build up to toxic levels under many conditions - for example, glucose can build up to toxic levels when there is insulin resistance. In such a case, anything that reduces insulin resistance or lowers glucose levels would in fact be a 'detoxification' process. Likewise, immune hormones like the interferons and interleukins are necessary under certain conditions, but at higher doses (ie when there is infection or chronic inflammation) they often cause side effects that range from unpleasant to lethal. In SARS, H5N1 bird flu, and other killer influenzas, the body's immune system destroys the body. Immune hormones that might sometimes be beneficial are produced at toxic levels. This is quite different from your idea of metabolic toxins that are normally handled by the kidneys and liver. The short chain fatty acids present in vinegar (acetate, proprionate, butyrate) have been repeatedly shown to lower inflammatory cytokines (which have been implicated as a contributor to migraines). These simple compounds also affect levels of leptin, adiponectin and other compounds that regulate glucose, and there is research implicating this in the pathogenesis of migraines. You have stooped to pseudoscience by refusing to look at the evidence that vinegar can dramatically change certain chemicals in the body. You seem to take comfort in linguistic tautologies about 'toxins' that have little bearing on the underlying facts of the matter. Here is a link that might be useful: Glucose, Adiponectin, Immune Hormones and Migraine.

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

Oh no DeeMarie! Hi Wildchild, are you ice skating? Hope you soon can but don't rush it. I get the urge to roller skate but the slow wooden floors are gone and replaced by slick surfaces and my youth has been replaced by fear of falling. Tikanas if I get too much acid, I turn into an itchy fool and one orange a day over a week will do it. You can buy cranberry tablets in health food stores if you can't stomach that much juice. I am BOT (back on track) Thank goodness. Eating the overpriced eggs in a carton for breakfast. 1/2 cup has no cholesterol and 60 calories. I put frozen peppers and onions (precook a little) in them and top it with overpriced ff cheese (you gotta pay to play!) Makes a great breakfast with a little salt and cracked pepper on top. Yesterday I made sweet potato chips. Baked in the oven. They weren't Lays but they weren't bad. I don't think they would ever get really crispy until they were burned. The worst part was trying to cut them thin enough. Brought back memories of making regular potato chips when we were kids and wait - we had a chip slicer! Called mom and it was loaned to a cousin (it also sliced cabbage for sauerkraut) so I hope it comes back home. Yesterday I had a tough hungry evening and I was thankful I had made sf jello last night. Well better get something done today - thank goodness there is no more snow to shovel off the driveway. Kathy

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!