Vinegar Friday

TGIVF!

Another week has come and gone. Can you believe it is October already? How did that happen?! And here we are at yet another Vinegar Friday.

I am sitting here staring at my computer screen, my mind completely blank. After all, how much can there possibly be to write about vinegar? Every Friday for the past eight months, I have addressed the subject of vinegar. Today, I'm stumped.

But I trudge forward, although my offerings may be slim. Perhaps I will just tell you seemingly useless bits of trivia about red wine vinegar. For example:

Hippocrates, the so-called "father of medicine," did not have antibiotics back in 400 B.C. So he treated his patients with wine vinegar.

Remember the Great Plague of Marseilles in the early 18th century? Neither do I, but that is beside the point. Appartently the Four Thieves put vinegar to good use...although I'm not sure it helped much, considering the plague wiped out 100,000 people!

For thousands of years, red wine vinegar has been used by people of the Mediterranean for more than just cooking. They also count on it as a medicine and a preservative.

Of course, I can't leave you with only tidbits of useless trivia. So here are some important things to know about red wine vinegar:

• It contains polyphenols, just like red wine. So if you are opposed to drinking alcohol, you can receive some of the same health benefits with red wine vinegar. Polyphenols are helpful in lowering blood pressure, so if you have hypertension, consider sprinkling some red wine vinegar on your salad every day.
• Although there is some debate over this, it appears as though red wine vinegar contains resveratrol, a potent anti-oxidant, anti-clotting agent and anti-cancer substance.
• It is fat-free. Woo hoo! Can't say that about the ranch dressing I would actually prefer to slather on my healthy greens! Besides being fat-free, it also has some fat-fighting properties worth taking note of.
• It is rich in flavonoids.
• It does not contain sodium or cholesterol.
• Unlike its alcoholic counterpart, red wine vinegar does not cause liver damage.

So, there you have it. I struggled to find something to write about and ended up motivating myself to go grab a salad with some red wine vinegar and olive oil. This body of mine can use all the help it can get!

Keeping it healthy with vinegar,

Hana