Fire Cider is a traditional anti-flu, anti-infection medicine made with lots of garlic, horseradish, onion, ginger and optional herbs like chilies, turmeric, oregano, thyme or the anti-infective herbs of your choice, steeped in apple cider vinegar. For many years I have been making and selling Fire Cider to my patients, after purchasing a bottle from one of Rosemary Gladstar’s students. Like the vinegar of the Seven Thieves this is one of the medicinal herb-infused vinegars that have existed for about as long as there has been vinegar. Rosemary Gladstar first made public her grandmother’s Fire Cider over 35 years ago and here is her grandmother’s recipe (which she probably got from her grandmother.) However a new company, Shire City, has trademarked a term that has been in public domain for decades and claim they have pioneered herbal vinegars.
As a result, February 2 has been designated Fire Cider Making Day to protest the appropriation of a public domain term. If you are set up to do so, sell it through a website or local store.
So here is my recipe, although I make it a bit differently each year depending on the herbs available and diseases in circulation:
Put into a Vitamix or blender (chop well if using a blender):
8 oz chopped ginger
8 oz. garlic cloves
2 red onions
6 oz fresh horseradish root
Three Chimayo or Jalapeno chilies
A bunch of fresh rosemary
A bunch of fresh oregano or bergamot (bee balm) or 1/4 c dried
One organic orange or lemon with the peel
Enough apple cider vinegar to cover the herbs twice
You do not need to use Braggs’ live apple cider vinegar as the anti-infective herbs will kill off the mother. Other additions include fresh or dried turmeric, sage, white sage, thyme, black pepper, elderberries or cinnamon. Process with the blender until the herbs are coarsely grated and transfer into a covered jar. Steep 30 days, then strain, squeezing out the herbs. You may add some local honey to taste- approximately 1/3 of total volume depending on the concentration of the honey. Take a shot (1/2-1 oz.) as needed for colds and flu.
Here are some examples of the term “Fire Cider” being used in commerce or public domain before the trademark:
Fire Cider by UberHerbal
Fire Cider by Domaphile
Fire-Cider by TwefontaineFire cider by Portland Apothecary
Here is a video of Rosemary Gladstar demonstrating the making of her Fire Cider (referred to as the “Poor man’s penecillin” . Note that this was recorded before the trademark dispute and she talks about the actual recipe (as opposed to the term) as coming from an unknown source twenty years prior. She also mentions working with her mother and grandmother making it. (I can’t say how I make mine every year or where any given version came from either!)
The New York Times just published an article indicating that pickle juice (made of salt, vinegar and spices) was helpful at relieving muscle cramps. In a very small trial, 10 men exercised until dehydrated then were electrically stimulated until they cramped, and were given either pickle juice or water. Pickle juice relieved cramps significantly compared to distilled water. The trainers thought that the pickle juice replaced fluids and electrolytes lost during exercise. The researchers thought it was the vinegar. And many of the readers commented that vinegar alone had relieved cramps for them. (One even thought the vinegar in mustard did the same.) Which got me musing about the value of vinegar, and even acids in general.
Now one way you reduce muscle cramping is to take magnesium. Magnesium has substantially disappeared from the soil and hence the food supply due to industrial farming practices and subsequent erosion. In 1975 the USDA surveyed the level of nutrients in food, publishing the information in a book, Handbook of the Nutritional Contents of Food. Twenty years later they started publishing supplements, which were much less read, although Paul Bergner wrote about it in his excellent book, Healing Power of Minerals, Special Nutrients, and Trace Elements. In the supplemental studies, magnesium had declined by about one third. We do not know how much the decline was before or after that time, but we do know that if we took the entire food supply grown in the United States, assuming none of it was wasted (about 40%) or fed to animals, there would not be enough magnesium for every American. But pickle juice has very little magnesium, or for that matter iron which also can relieve cramps.
Drinking vinegar or lemon juice in water is known to reduce blood sugar spikes, delaying gastric emptying, which is not exactly intuitive. We can understand that fiber might delay gastric emptying and prevent the insulin and blood sugar spikes that plague diabetics. But vinegar?
Researcher Carol Johnston from the University of Arizona recovered data from the 1940’s and found that 2 tablespoons of vinegar reduces blood sugar spikes at an equivalent rate to much diabetes medication. It works better with the insulin resistant, but also lowers blood sugar for diabetics. This confirms what Diabetes writer David Mendosa has been saying for years, and he points out that wine vinegar or white vinegar is more acidic, hence more effective than apple cider vinegar (although it may have other virtues.) Lemon or lime juice works as well.
Now we know that magnesium is involved in lowering blood sugar spikes. But again, the magnesium content of vinegar or lemon or lime juice is negligible. (In fact magnesium and vinegar can be quite explosive.) I had initially just considered the fact that the acid could stimulate bile production in the liver as the explanation. However there is a chemical reason as well.
Magnesium like most minerals, is not well absorbed from foods or solid supplements. Many of us lose stomach acidity after our 30s and do not break down minerals well. (The symptoms of alkaline indigestion are identical to acid indigestion, so many people take the wrong medication when they take antacids- and that explains why many GERD sites recommend pickle juice for reflux.) But most of us have some level of acidity which is necessary to extract magnesium (and other minerals) from foods. And we need it because magnesium is one of the chemicals involved in most cellular reactions.
Chemically, acids have protons, a charged hydrogen ion. When the ion goes into the blood stream, it has a temporary effect of lowering the pH level of the blood. Blood pH is very tightly regulated, so the body then releases minerals to raise it. Magnesium and calcium are activated, in charged form and become available to the muscles.
Lactic Acid fermented foods may have a similar effect, with the added benefits that the fermentation reduces carbohydrate content, the salt replaces electrolytes and the bacteria provide probiotic (good gut bacteria) benefits. So you get muscle relaxation, better digestion and lower blood sugar. Eating the pickle may be as useful as drinking the juice. Sauerkraut, kimchee, and Japanese pickled vegetables are useful sources of acidic fermented foods and water or coconut kefir are good fermented dairy-free beverages. Sally Fallon’s book Nourishing Traditions will show you how to make your own fermented foods. Sandor Katz’s book, Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods also shows you how to make pickled vegetables and has delicious recipes. And marinades for meat or vegetables are other traditional ways of using acid.
But wait a minute. Shouldn’t we eat alkalizing foods like vegetables and fruits? Vinegar, lemon juice and pickle juice are acids. The entire arena of which foods are alkalizing is inconsistent: lemon juice is said to be alkalizing while vinegar is not and both are acids. Even if you rechatacterize vinegar as alkalizing, which I think is appropriate, based upon its ability to set off complex reactions, the body uses acids and alkalies in different places and for different functions. It is too simplistic to think that one is good and the other is better. For instance baking soda was administered to enhance immune function successfully in the 1918 and 1919 flu epidemic and I have seen other information on its benefits. Additionally vegans commonly get UTIs from having urine that is too alkaline. And the Bantu, who eat primarily meat, milk and blood so are acidic are healthier than their more alkaline grain and vegetable eating neighbors. (Grains could be part of the reason.)
The ideas we held that an acid-forming diet would acidify the blood and cause it to leach out calcium from our bones appears to have been wrong. The body regulates the acid/alkaline balance primarily through the amount of CO2 exhaled in the lungs and the acidity of urine. If the blood pH drops too low and becomes acid, the body will compensate by increasing breathing, expelling CO2, so fewer hydrogen ions are free and the pH will rise back to normal. For too much alkalinity the opposite occurs. Any shifts in acid/alkaline balance in the blood are minor and transient. Some old studies showed that eating a high meat diet could stimulate the release of calcium in the urine, but that effect stops after a few weeks (and the initial studies were only a week or two long.) Research currently in progress at Yale Medical School by Dr. Karl Insogna suggests that while the urine may release calcium, the intestinal uptake of calcium increases so your bones may suffer no net loss. You can acidify your urine, but your blood keeps a tight rein on any changes.
So what about alkaline water? I know a number of friends who swear by their alkaline water, insisting that they drink more of it. Of course drinking more water will relieve a variety of ills in most cases. The Kangan company which sells a machine to break down water into acid or alkaline phases, has some studies showing that it is beneficial. There was a Korean study that found electrolyzed-reduced water inhibits acute ethanol-induced hangovers in rats, presuming that it scavenged free-radical particles. However their control used distilled water which isn’t healthy. Lots of the studies pair the reduced water with other substances. But there seems to be potentially something there. Whether it beats baking soda in water is unknown. Or for that matter vinegar in water.
My take? Both acid and alkalies in water are active physiologically. Compared to distilled water, they have ions available to interact with the body chemistry. People seem to have healthy lives on diets that are either acidic or alkali-rich so long as it is made up of real foods and free of allergens. Drinking acidic water or pickle juice may work on making a small magnesium spike temporarily, but the body will reach acid base homeostasis. There is a value to these spikes in relieving pain or slowing blood sugar spikes, but it has less to do with changing your dynamic body chemistry than with interfering with specific functions. Alkaline foods and liquids may help scavenge free radicals, reducing oxygenation, but oxygen is also helpful in improving body function.
Living Water
Our religious traditions tend to have a special reverence for living water, that is water which has minerals dissolved in it making it slightly acidic or alkaline, charged with oxygen and hydrogen peroxide. It is the active molecules in that water which interact with chemicals in our bodies. Living water and living food will serve us best, across the edible pH spectrum, providing we have some level of diversity.
Sources:
Miller, KC et. al. “Reflex inhibition of electrically induced muscle cramps in hypohydrated humans” Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2010 May;42(5):953-61.
Liljeberg H, Bjorck I. “Delayed gastric emptying rate may explain improved glycaemia in healthy subjects to a starchy meal with added vinegar.” Eur J Clin Nutr. 1998 May;52(5):368-71.
Liljeberg HG, Lonner CH, Bjorck IM. “Sourdough fermentation or addition of organic acids or corresponding salts to bread improves nutritional properties of starch in healthy humans.” J Nutr. 1995 Jun;125 (6):1503-11.
Brighenti F, Castellani G, Benini L, Casiraghi MC, Leopardi E, Crovetti R, Testolin G. “Effect of neutralized and native vinegar on blood glucose and acetate responses to a mixed meal in healthy subjects.” Eur J Clin Nutr. 1995 Apr;49(4):242-7.
Vinegar, lemon juice and lactic acid fermented fruits and vegetables can reduce blood sugar spikes, lower the glycemic index of foods being fermented and can cause weight loss. Information on how to make lactic acid fermented foods.
January 29th 2005 – Acidic Foods, Fermentation and Blood Sugar
copyright by Karen S. Vaughan, L.Ac.,MSTOM
Eating acid foods- vinegar, lemon juice or lactic acid fermented foods- can reduce blood sugar spikes after meals, giving glycemic control comparable to Metformin. It has the greatest effect in people who are at risk of diabetes but still test within normal ranges. As such it is a good practice for all meals, and reflects traditional practices of most ethnicities.
Nutritionist Carol S. Johnston of Arizona State University East in Mesa has found that 2 tablespoons of vinegar before a meal can dramatically lower the increased insulin and blood sugar (glucose) levels that typically occur in people who have type 2 diabetes. In her study, she looked at 29 people divided into type 2 diabetics, diagnosed pre-diabetics, and a control with no signs of diabetes. Measuring blood levels after a high-carb breakfast, Johnston found that vinegar improved the readings for all 3 groups, but results were most dramatic among those who were prediabetic. In their case, vinegar cut their blood sugar increase in the first hour after eating by as much as half, a greater reduction than was found with normal participants. Diabetics lowered their blood glucose levels by 25% with the vinegar. The study was a crossover, placebo-controlled study.
In another study, Johnston had half the volunteers take a 2-tablespoon dose of vinegar prior to each of two meals daily for 4 weeks, and the other group members were told to avoid vinegar. Interestingly, the vinegar users had an average 2 pound weight loss over 4 weeks (as much as 4 weeks in some participants), compared to constant average weight in the group not drinking vinegar. There was no improvement in cholesterol, whcih was tested as a likely mechanism for the blood sugar control.
A 2001 paper from Lund University in Sweden evaluated pickles—cucumbers preserved in vinegar—as a dietary supplement to lower the blood-sugar rise in healthy people after a meal. The Swedish team, led by Elin M. Östman, reported that pickles dramatically blunted the blood-sugar spike after a high-carb breakfast. Fresh cucumbers didn’t affect the blood sugar spike.
Traditionally pickled vegetables like sauerkraut, pickles, olives, kimchee, and other lactic and acetic acid fermented foods were served with meals to improve digestion. The probiotic bacteria in these foods as well as the acetic acid can reduce digestive problems. Note that actual vinegar or pickled foods seem to do the trick but vinegar supplements don’t work, because they don’t contain acetic acid, which, based on studies, is the ingredient Johnstons suspects is helping control blood sugar. (1)
Fermented foods also reduce blood glucose levels. The natural fermentation of starch and sugars by a yeast starter culture that produces lactic and propionic acid is what makes sourdough bread. In a third study the glycemic index of sourdough bread was 68 compared 100 for non-sourdough bread. Cornmeal loses 88% of its glycemic index when fermented into the Ghanain dish ga kenkey. Fermented vegetables are a traditional component of Korean, Japanese and traditional European cooking.
Rick Mendoza’s site quotes a woman who tried lactic acid fermentation (fermentation with whey instead of vinegar) of beets and apples and recorded their effect on her mother’s blood sugar after 2 hours. Normally beets and apples will cause her blood sugar to spike, but when fermented they had no effect on the blood sugar. The fermented apples were cooked into apple sauce and did not cause a sugar spike either. (2)
Other acids are believed to be similarly effective. Lemon or lime juice in water can reduce blood glucose, according to Professor Jennie-Brand Miller of the University of Sydney, author of the glycemic index. (3) Kombucha is a vinegar made by fermenting tea and sugar with a gelatinous “mushroom” mother culture drunk for health reasons and its benefits may be due to similar mechanisms.
Note that taking vinegar in salad dressing, over meat or in pickled food may be perferable to the taste of drinking vinegar. However I routinely drink blueberry or balsamic vinegar diluted in a cup of water and the taste is not objectionable. Lemon or lime juice in water before breakfast is excellent for the liver and may be more readily accepted in the morning.
Sally Fallon’s excellent cookbook, Nourishing Traditions (4) describes making lactic acid fermented vegetables or fruits which will convert the starches and sugars of fruits and vegetables into lactic acid and creates beneficial enzymes. The lactobacilli are ubiquitous, present on all living things, especially on leaves and roots. However with our long term transportation of food, it is better to add the whey drained from live plain yogurt.
Chop the vegetables and lay in a clean mason jar. Add 2 Tablespoons whey and 2 teaspoons sea salt per cup of water. Fill to within an inch of the top of the jar and tightly cap as lactic acid fermentation is an anerobic process. Leave in a warm room for two days, then move to cold storage. The vegetables can be eaten at once but develop better flavor in 2 months. They are meant to be eaten as condiments rather than as main courses. Don’t worry about white scum or foam which may form on the top. If a batch goes bad it will smell so bad that nothing could persuade you to eat it.
If the vegetables get soft, throw them into a soup stock made with bones from organic meat and boil down to make the mineral-rich gelled stock that helps prevent blood sugar spikes and lowers the glycemic index of the carbohydrates that accompany it. The acid will help pull the gelatin out of the bones and the minerals from the vegetables.
also shows you how to make pickled vegetables and has delicious recipes. And marinades for meat or vegetables are other traditional ways of using acid.
January 29th 2005 – Acidic Foods, Fermentation and Blood Sugar