By Ian Newton

Vinegar is a widely used addition to salads but it is a valuable addition to your pantry as a health promoting food. Not all vinegar is suitable it must be unfiltered, unpasteurised apple cider vinegar.Apple cider vinegar is acetic acid which gives it, its characteristic slightly sour taste.

Aren'’t acids bad for me?
Generally in health we strive for a alkaline diet. That is foods and drinks which measure above 7.2 on the pH scale. There are of course always exceptions to the rule. The problem with making definitive health statements, is that as soon as you do someone always says, well what about so and so.

The reason that it is OK to consume cider vinegar is that all acids are not the same. Within your body you have many acid processes occurring. Hydrochloric acid which is a highly corrosive substance which carries dire warnings on the bottle, resides happily in your stomach to digest your food. Citric acid is an intrinsic component of our energy system.

We consume amino acids to build our cells and essential fatty acids for our joints, brain and cardiovascular system.We manufacture uric acid and lactic acid as bi-products of human life and easily break these down or excrete them.

Acids become alkaline.
Apple Cider Vinegar as an acid has a similar ability to the acids in lemons and limes. The citric acids bi-carbonise in the gut and become alkaline. Cider vinegar is believed to produce an alkaline bi-product as it metabolises. This is evident because if you consume cider vinegar over time you can measure your saliva and urine and you will see it is becoming more alkaline.

Ensure you purchase an organic non pasteurised cider vinegar as the regular supermarket variety will not have the viable enzyme action which is critical for its health benefits.

pH testing.
You can purchase pH strips at your local pharmacy. They should come with a colour chart which shows the various states of your urine. Yellow is acidic, purple is alkaline, with shades in between.It is best to test urine and saliva first thing in the morning.

Benefits of an alkaline system.
Once you move above 7.2 on the ph scale you will experience less inflammation,therefore less joint and muscle pain, less infections,therefore more energy and a renewed sense of wellbeing, fewer colds and Flu’’s, d Cancer cells rarely survive in an alkaline environment.

These healthy acids which are safely, conveniently easily consumed cause us to think more carefully about dismissing foods as being unhealthy just because we have a negative association with a world i.e. acid.

After all the world is a complex blend of acid, alkaline and neutral compounds.Ask any knowledgeable gardener how important it is to get the right acid alkaline balance right in order to grow healthy plants.

About The Author

For specific Vinegar information go to http://www.livingwellpublications.com/wellness/vinegar/

Ian Newton is a natural health specialist from Australia. Assisting businesses and individual to be happier, healthier and more effective.

By Davina Dee

Much is written about the chakras but often in a more complicated way than is necessary or is easily translated to our modern day lives. The term is much more common to us nowadays but the relevance of the chakras and the energy that makes them up is often overlooked.

Here I start right at the beginning with a simple definition and explanation, hopefully you will be intrigued enough to find out more for yourself and to discover how working with the chakras, the energy within and around the body can ultimately have a very positive effect on your daily life.

1) What are Chakras; what does the word mean?

The word Chakra comes from a very ancient language (Sanskrit, I suppose we in The West would equate it to being used a bit like Latin). The translation of the word means wheel, popularly termed as a spinning disc. This was as early as 3000BC- and it is recorded in these ancient texts what the psychics and mystics of the time were seeing in the energy field of the human body.
They noticed that where energies met with each other they naturally converged, joining together and the natural motion they took was to swirl around and around. Hence that motion was likened to a wheel turning round and round. So they are centers of energy, points where two or more energies converge, their motion is circular or spinning. It doesn'’t stop there they also act as filters of energy and move in and out, opening and closing, forever attempting to self regulate, just as the rest of the human body does.

2) Where are the Chakras?

They are all over the human body and beyond it, for from the chakra points, the energy bleeds out to make up the human aura and even beyond that! For our purpose here though, we will keep to the human body itself. There are many more but it is generally accepted that there are seven Major Chakras- again for ease of explanation we will keep to the most commonly accepted seven. These are located from the base of the spine, right to the top of the head.
Many diagrams show the chakra system as being at the front of the body, in reality they exist to the front of us and to the back. Imagine them stemming from the central spine, reaching out like a flower at seven main points, to the front and the rear. The energy doesn'’t stop there, but those are the major routes and from those major routes, a great many more minor routes trickle out.

3) The Seven Chakras

Each of the individual Chakras has its own significance, attributes and characteristics; they hold information about us on a physical, mental, emotional and spiritual level. They are each linked to a major nerve plexus within the body itself and have associations to the organs of the body in their immediate area. Each energy center has its own color attributed to it, as they each have a different frequency or vibration to their energy, as does every color. The use of color works with our subconscious mind.

Below is a list of the Chakras, with their location and a very brief taste of the sorts of links they each have to our lives:

1) The Base/Root Chakra (red) - is situated at the base of the spine and concerns our physical wants, needs and instincts.

2) The Sacral Chakra (orange) - located mid/lower belly is all about our desires, what we attract, our creativity and fertility.

3) The Solar Plexus Chakra (yellow) - sits above the belly button and is all about our personal power, our will power and is linked to the digestive system.

4) The Heart Chakra (green) - covers the heart and central chest. This Chakra is about our ability to give and receive love, is linked to the whole circulatory system and about looking after our own wellbeing.

5) The Throat Chakra (blue) - the neck and throat. This is all about communication in all of its forms and our ability to stand up and speak our truth.

6) The Third Eye Chakra (indigo) - the forehead, between the eyes. This is the seat of intuition in many ways - though not the only one! It has direct links to our imaginative minds, whether positively creative or overactive with worry and fear!

7) The Crown Chakra (violet) - the top of the head. This Chakra is our gateway to our spiritual realisation in many ways and can also relay information about our mental health.

There is so much more to the chakras and the potential of the information they hold, they are energetic links between our physical and spiritual bodies, our conscious and subconscious. When you understand the energy within and around your body better you can start to manage it yourself in a much more conscious and holistic way. You can appreciate better what is good for you, what drains you, how to balance the energies, to help promote better stability within the body and mind. You can then move on to start to consciously work with this energy to create more of what you want in your daily life, improving your outlook on every level, from physical health, to love and relationships, work and career.

About The Author

Davina is a natural intuitive, hypnotherapist and Reiki Master, she has a common sense, easy to understand attitude to the whole subject of the human spirit.
You can discover more about the chakras at http://www.secretaura.com