Kitchen Apothecary – Apple Cider Vinegar Infusions – By Sharon Letts

Apple Cider Vinegar Infusions

Apple cider vinegar (ACV) is a good base for salad dressings and preserving and pickling foods, but it’s also an age-old remedy previously used by our grandmothers and their grandmother’s before us for hundreds of years for prevention and maintaining good health.

ACV aids in homeostasis, helping to build the immune system, creating a place where illness, infections and cancers can’t dwell. High in Acetic Acid, it has proven potent biological effects. As detailed in Healthline.com, ACV kills many types of harmful bacteria, lowers blood sugar levels – fighting diabetes – increases metabolism, aiding in weight loss, specifically belly fat. It also lowers cholesterol and improves heart health.

ACV also has large amounts of pectin, which is a soluble dietary fiber, said to aid in constipation, with the acidity of vinegar acting as a natural laxative. It’s also said to aid in preventing and breaking up kidney stones.

My mother grew up on a farm, and had farm-spun remedies from every day household things – like using white distilled vinegar to wash the windows and mirrors; or using beer in the garden as a pest deterrent. It was common in a sustainable farm environment to use simple, common items in many beneficial ways.

The recommended dose of ACV is one to two tablespoons for a daily dose of prevention, mixed in a half a glass of water or juice each evening either before meals or bedtime to benefit blood sugar levels the most. As a morning daily dose, take ACV prior to a meal to aid in the digestive process.

Too much ACV at one time may cause nausea, but this may be a symptom of pulling toxins, a side-effect of cleansing diets. Too much ACV overall may delay the digestive process, lower potassium levels and cause bone loss, and erosion of tooth enamel – so, keep to the recommended one to two tablespoons a day.

For an added punch, I infuse beneficial herbs such as chamomile and cannabis into my ACV. After dental surgery (see blog on my website), I used chamomile-infused ACV as a mouth wash. Those who don’t want the high of an infused tincture, can infuse ground cannabis flower into ACV in a cold-steep, with no psychoactive properties.

 Benefits of Cannabis & ACV

Cannabis is a super food, with hundreds of beneficial compounds we haven’t yet begun to explore. Inflammation, infection, antioxidant, anti-bacterial, the list of help from the cannabis plant is long.

When steeped in a cold process, the tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) does not activate, for only heat activates the compound that causes the high, giving whole plant benefits in a tincture without the psychoactive effects.

The compound prior to activation is THCA, and has a list of benefits of its own, such as anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective properties for treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, anti-emetic properties for treatment of nausea and appetite loss, and anti-proliferative properties found in studies of prostate cancer.

In other words, you don’t have to feel a high to get the benefits of the plant’s compounds into your endocannabinoid system for healing and prevention. The beneficial compounds are there, whether you feel them or not.

Benefits of Chamomile in ACV

Chamomile has been reduced to a little cup of calming tea over the decades of plant propaganda, but the cute, little while flower is actually has many of the same properties as cannabis – without the high. The unique application of chamomile is its ability to calm.

Chamomile is full of phytochemicals, the biologically active compounds found in plants, beneficial to human health. It also contains 28 different terpenoids and 36 flavonoids – the scent and taste where medicine is found.

Like cannabis, chamomile is a super food, meaning its beneficial properties cover a wide range of help for many ailments, including help with digestive issues, inflammation and pain, anticonvulsant, bronchial issues, sleep and anxiety.  It’s also an antioxidant, with a 93 percent success rate in killing cancer cells in a laboratory study.

But, the most important benefit of chamomile for this writer has been its ability to treat anxiety and depression, as it’s said to boost chemicals in the brain that affect mood – such as serotonin, dopamine, and noradrenaline.

Chamomile concentrate replaced valium for me, helping with deadline stress, quelling anxiety and aiding in my Attention Deficient Disorder (ADD); while lifting endorphins and preventing the dark days of hormonal depression via Thyroid disease and menopause.

I seriously can’t say enough about chamomile. Add it to ACV and it’s a nectar from the Gods for symptoms on the Autistic Spectrum, and stressors of everyday life as humans.

ACV Infusion

¼ cup ground cannabis (or chamomile flower)

1 liter Apple Cider Vinegar

Let sit in a cool cupboard for one to two weeks, strain and decant.

Can be used in cooking via sauces and salad dressings, used for pickling, or taken via one to two tablespoons before meals, before bedtime, or as needed for stomach upset.

For more information on the benefits of chamomile, visit https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2995283/

For more recipes and information on chamomile and cannabis visit Sharon’s Apothecary page on her website, www.sharonlettscom/apothecary

We hope to see other cannabis cafes appear across the country that can offer an equally unique experience.

Written and published by By Sharon letts in Weed World Magazine Issue 144