64: Our Secret "Sauce" For Health and Flavor

0:00 And I even remember reading that it doesn't even have to be taken with your meal it can be taken maybe right before bedtime, and that the people that were in this study, what do we call the people that were in the study? I'm drawing a blank participants. Thank you. The participants in this study victims, I mean, participants. You're listening to the smarter Healthy Living podcast where we firmly believe that getting healthy should never feel like torture, where your host, Jarrod and Anita Roussel were college sweethearts, and health professionals who help you redefine what getting healthy looks like using a whole food plant based lifestyle. It's time to hear from the experts and learn the best tips and tricks that helped others get beyond the overwhelm, to create a vibrant life they love. If you're sick and tired of being sick, and tired, you're in the right place. So pull up a virtual chair, grab your matcha latte. And let's get started.

0:54 Hey there, welcome back. And if it's your first time, we're thrilled to have you joining us. Today we're talking about an ingredient that really should be in your diet. And when I say diet, I don't mean diet diet, because we not diet around here. That's actually a no no word as far as we're concerned. But when you eat, this needs to be in your food on your plate on a regular basis. Now, as we're going to talk about, you don't need to get cups and cups of this every day. But it's an ingredient that can make your food taste amazing and can make you feel good. And that is vinegar. Vinegar. Yes. That's not something we typically think about when we think about health or healthy foods or things that have health benefits. usually think about the stuff that we pour on at least in our house with white vinegar, we pour it on our countertops and use it to clean and disinfect. But actually vinegar has a lot of uses. And a lot of in by us, I mean culinary uses. We use a lot with balsamic vinegar and Anita Wilshere, some other ones that you may not have even thought of in the form of a vinegar.

2:08 There are amazing varieties available. I mean just a plethora of different types. And we'll talk about that more, but it adds some incredible flavor. And we're all about flavor around here. You'll hear us say flavor, flavor flavor. Never again, because it's got to taste good. That's one of our three main pillars that we teach around is if you're going to have a successful lifestyle, it has got to taste good, or there's no way you're going to do it for the rest of your life. And this is one of the main reasons that diets fail. Vinegar gives a major flavor punch. That's why a lot of people love pickles. Pickles tastes great. I mean, they're very good. And if you're buying a pickle, I'm going to take a little sidetrack here, a little side note, you know I am. Basically if you're eating pickles, look for ones that don't have added vinegar that they've made their own vinegar, that means they're really fermented, because you're going to get some good bacteria and the really fermented pickles, the ones that are truly fermented, meaning they don't have vinegar added, again, they make their own. And that's a really great tip for you buying pickles, but back to vinegar. So you want to add that add that into your life. But first, we want to find out from Jared, why do you need to add the vinegar?

3:21 Why did is it even matter? And when we're talking about it, we're not talking about adding white distilled vinegar. Again, I use that for cleaning. We don't eat that a lot. There really aren't as many health benefits. I honestly can't think of a time when we use that in just regular cooking. It's mainly just as a non toxic cleaner. Yeah, I just seem to recall that it's not the healthiest to eat just the distilled vinegar. So we're talking about apple cider vinegar, and a lot of other times, but why do you want to eat those? Well, you want to eat it one because it's delicious, like you said, but it does actually come with health benefits. And I think a lot of it is from probiotics, the bacteria that actually ferment and cause the bat the vinegar. But I think there are also a lot of byproducts that get created. It would be the bacteria equivalent of maybe a phytonutrient just a lot of those beneficial products that are in the fermentation that we get in our bodies. But enough of that to some of the benefits. It actually has been shown to help with blood sugar control. Interesting. They don't know exactly why. And I'm sure there'll be some research in on that. But it seems like when eating with meals that it blunts some of that sugar response.

4:34 And I even remember reading that it doesn't even have to be taken with your meal it can be taken maybe right before bedtime, and that the people that were in this study, what do we call the people that were in the study? I'm drawing a blank participants. Thank you The participants in this study victims, I mean participants. Your mess. Yeah. Okay. So that participants basically They would take it and one of the studies, they took some vinegar before bedtime, not even with a meal, the amount of had it in some water, something probably not full strength because again, you don't want to take our say, again, we may not have even said this, but you don't want to take your vinegar to think it alone, you don't want to be chugging a lot of vinegar all by itself because it can damage your cells acidic.

5:25 And even though it's not like drinking car battery, fluid, the liquid in the car battery, yeah, don't think about it's still an acid and over time, it still will burn your esophagus and that can lead to scarring can lead to cancers can lead to a lot of issues. So you would really, if you were taking it by itself, we're talking about on the order of a tablespoon, or and I would even say don't do that, I would say mix it in water, absolutely mix it with some water. Or if you're getting it later in the day, we'll just get it on your food is the best way to eat your vinegar, eat it on your feed. I don't drink a cup of this a day. Now Actually, there was a report of somebody that did that every day for six years. And it didn't turn out so well.

6:08 It wasn't a good thing. You don't want to be chugging the vinegar, but we can get it on our feet and a great way. So first of all, we have the benefit of what, what was the benefit, you chose the blood sugar control and sugar control. So it does improve blood sugar somewhat, it seems to in most participants in the studies. Now, what else the next one there was polycystic ovarian syndrome, which makes sense and that there does seem to be some connection between that and diabetes. Because the medication Metformin, which is for diabetes has also been shown to be helpful for polycystic ovarian syndrome. Okay, so again, they didn't really specify a mechanism, but I suspect it may have something to do with that.

6:49 And another thing that was interesting is that they said that acetic acid would help with nitric oxide production within our blood vessel. And that's found in vinegar correct the acidic acid, that's the main acid that gives it that acidic flavor, okay. And that helps to create nitric oxide within the blood vessels, which helps to does it dilate your blood dilates, it helps the muscles to relax and the blood vessels so it dilates them. So that would in turn affect our blood pressure? Yes. All right. Those are the main benefits that I remember. Now, there may be some other ones out there. But we wanted you to be aware, not so that you could remember all these things so that if you found out you had high blood pressure, or you're dealing with it right now, you need to remember to do this, this, this and this for high blood pressure. No, we don't want you doing that unless you have a, you know, a really big pressing issue that you want to try to do every single thing you can for that one issue. In general, what we want you to do is not think like that we want you to just take this information and go Okay, now I know that vinegars good for me, I know it could do this, this, this and this. But I may not remember all four or five of those things. I don't want you stressing out over that. Jarrod, I don't want you to do that that is no way to live. And to enjoy the way you want to keep things simple.

8:13 So what you need to do is just remember, I want to find ways to get more vinegar into my life. I can make oil free dressings with vinegar, I can add vinegar to my potatoes, you know, you can spritz a little bit on your potatoes after they're done. And that gives them a great flavor without adding a lot of salt. Vinegar is a great salt replacement. Believe it or not, it's fantastic. And we do eat some salt, but we just eat less than we used to. And one way you do that is by replacing other flavors and just getting a big profile of flavors. And a part of it is the strong flavor that it has. That's vinegar, it's just it's such a well with salt. If you add a lot of it, which unfortunate a lot of people do becomes a very strong flavor within the food. But then having the vinegar it also, it's not a subtle flavor. I guess that's the best way to say it's not a subtle flavor. So if you get a good one, like the balsamic or some of the others, like we also use rice wine vinegar and vinegar is nothing there's another one for you.

9:15 They're all different flavors of vinegar. Get online and look at vinegar. It's amazing the different flavors you can get. And it really can change the seed and your experience with your food. Now we teach all different ways inside the membership to use things like vinegar, how do I use that ingredient? What would I do? How do I get more of it into my life? We work with our clients to do that. Unfortunately here we just don't have the time to go that deep. But I want you to know I will give you one free tip though. Buy it and have it in your pantry. Yes, that's the big tip because if you don't have it there, you won't use it. Never and that's one good way to remember without freaking out Oh, I'm never gonna remember this. I heard it was great. And then you know, a month down the road. You're not using any Well buy it and have it there where you can see it in your pantry and find more ways to use it on your salad in your suits. I'll love it. And chili is my secret weapon. One of my secret weapons, I'm not going to tell them all today, but that's one of my secret weapons for my chili. It makes great chilies I'm trying to think of other ways that we use it as I said on our potato, but there are just so many different ways you can use it. Honestly, it's one get creative. I mean, you will find things you may get a food in front of you and think how do I want to spice this up?

10:31 Maybe let me add a little pomegranate vinegar. Oh, that's amazing. And exactly, now you've got something new, but you'll get it into your repertoire and it just becomes habit barbecue sauce and like you said, you don't have to remember a long list of all these health benefits and this does that. Just get a good variety of everything. And a little bit here and a little bit there. You don't want to drink a cup of it and then not use any for three months. Just add a little bit, add a couple of tablespoons a day in your food should be plenty and it's very good for you and it will add that flavor and we're all about making things taste good because that's how you're going to continue to live this way for a lifetime and actually look forward to it. It's so freeing living this way. We absolutely love it and we've loved having you with us if there's anything that we can do to help you don't hesitate to drop us an email at podcast at the crunchy couple comm podcast at the crunchy couple.com we'll look forward to hearing from you. Make sure to leave a review before you go and we will see you the next time