Vinegar-health remedy revisited - EFR 6-32

In the nutrition quackery arena, old "remedies" never die, they are just reinvented with a new marketing scheme every few years! The following from the National Council Against Health Fraud's newsletter provides a history of action on one such unproven "cure all" and NCAHF's comments. The last sentence relating to John Kellogg is indicative of the lack of ability, even among those who present dubious remedies, to agree on their cures!

Source: May/June 1996 NCAHF Newsletter, Vol. 19, No. 3 National Council Against Health Fraud

A recent court order resulted in the destruction of 13,320 half-gallon bottles of "Jogging in a Jug"--a mixture of grape and apple juices, and vinegar--because the product became an unapproved new drug due to health claims made by promoters. Jack McWilliams, owner of Third Option Laboratories, Muscle Shoals, Alabama, claimed that his vinegar product had helped him conquer his own arthritis and heart disease, and could reduce the risk of cancer in the internal organs. McWilliams claimed that the reason women craved pickles during pregnancy was because they wanted acetic acid (vinegar). Despite the court-ordered destruction of these jugs, Third Option is still in business and is working with the FDA on ways to market the product legally. Company officials met with FDA in 1992 and agreed to stop making health claims, but complaints continued, resulting in action on May 19,1994 that led to the court-ordered destruction. [FDA Consumer, Jan-Feb, 1996, pp.35-36]

ADDENDUM. Last year Third Option paid the FTC $480,000 to settle charges of false advertising. [Consumer Reports, July, 1995]

Comment. Apple cider vinegar has a long tradition as a folk remedy. In 1958, Vermont physician D.C. Jarvis (no relation to NCAHF's William Jarvis) wrote "Folk Medicine," a book which extolled apple cider vinegar and honey as remedies for just about everything, and even hunting dogs were said to perform better if given apple cider vinegar, Jarvis's book did not claim to be based upon science. It was folksy, anecdotal, and opinionated in its tone. Curiously, another health guru, John Harvey Kellogg, MD, taught that vinegar was a poison that belonged only in the laboratory.