History

A Brief History of Vinegar

The discovery of vinegar was a happy event that happened in different parts of the globe independently; a bottle of wine or beer was left open too long and a culinary treasure was born. The history of vinegar goes back more than 8,000 years; traces of vinegar dating back to 6000 BC have been found in Egypt and China.

In the 5000s BC, the Babylonians wrote about the use of vinegar as a condiment and food preservative. And it was they who began experimenting with vinegars flavored with plants and spices. While vinegar's versatility was recognized in cooking, it was Hippocrates (circa 400 BC) who began prescribing vinegar as a preventive and curative remedy for many illnesses.

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Apple Cider Vinegar for Health

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Experience the crafting of Gingras' original XO In 1958, Dr. DC Jarvis wrote his book Folk Medicine: A Vermont Doctor's Guide to Good Health, and the use of cider vinegar as a remedy became very popular. Jarvis recommends cider vinegar as a universal cure because of its unique high potassium content. He pointed out that mixing cider vinegar with honey increases cider vinegar's healing properties tenfold. Jarvis also writes that cider vinegar can destroy harmful bacteria in the digestive tract and recommends it as a digestive aid to be consumed with meals.

Since then, cider vinegar has often been recommended in alternative medicine as a natural remedy for numerous applications ranging from weight loss to diabetes, but also from arthritis to skin care. People who use cider vinegar in this way are looking for unfiltered, unpasteurized vinegars containing the mother vinegar, a gelatinous substance that forms naturally in natural, unpasteurized vinegars (all Gingras cider vinegars are unpasteurized).