Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as the wine vinegar diet. No health or fitness professional endorses a diet with this name; however, a number of sources describe the health benefits of red wine vinegar. While any diet that overemphasizes one particular food is likely to be unhealthy, there are easy ways to add wine vinegar to a healthy diet to take advantage of its health benefits.
Identification: Wine Vinegar
According to The Vinegar Institute, wine vinegar begins with grapes. The juice goes through a double fermentation process to produce vinegar. In the first fermentation, yeast converts the sugar in the grape juice to alcohol. In the second, a bacteria called "acetobacter" turns that alcohol into acid. Retail vinegars must contain at least 4 percent acidity, while wine vinegar is usually between 5 and 6 percent acidity.
Red Wine Vinegar
Red wine vinegar, in particular, may provide a number of health benefits. In "The Healing Powers of Vinegar," author Cal Orey notes that red wine vinegar may contain the same types of antioxidants present in red wine: tannins, catechins and quercetin, to be exact. Red wine vinegar also contains polyphenols, a different type of antioxidant that helps protect your body against the signs of aging.
Selecting Vinegar
Celebrity chef and green cooking pioneer Alice Waters offers suggestions for choosing your wine vinegar in "In the Green Kitchen: Techniques to Learn by Heart." She suggests keeping red wine vinegar, white wine vinegar, champagne vinegar, sherry vinegar and balsamic vinegar on hand. Waters believes it's worth paying a bit more for quality wine vinegar -- inexpensive vinegars are usually made with lesser quality wine, which affects the overall taste. She also suggests you choose unpasteurized wine vinegar for enhanced flavor.
Dietary Vinegar
Adding wine vinegar to your diet can be as simple as drizzling it over your salad. In "Vim & Vinegar," author Melodie Moore offers more easy suggestions for adding vinegar to foods you already eat. She suggests adding 2 tsp. of vinegar to a pot of dry beans as they cook; you can also add 1 tsp. of red wine vinegar to vegetable soup to make it tangier. Wine vinegar can add tang to canned sauces or gravy, Moore notes. White wine vinegar, in particular, can bring out the flavor of cantaloupe or canned fruit if you sprinkle a few drops over the fruit.
Single Ingredient Diets
Should you come across a diet that urges you to eat one single food or food group, it's best to avoid it. Diets like this do not provide adequate nutrition and can actually harm your body. The American Heart Association's book, "No-Fad Diet," notes that no single food or ingredient can burn the calories you eat. Any weight you lose when following a fad diet is likely to come back once you go off the diet. Instead, the AHA suggests you eat a combination of healthy foods that provide balanced nutrition.
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