Red wine vinegar may not seem to be very Paleo-friendly at first. After all, it’s wine (fermented grape juice) that has been further fermented into vinegar. Our cavemen ancestors probably weren’t fermenting anything, which puts things like wine in a sort of gray area on the Paleo menu, but there’s no reason we can’t include vinegar.
More What Ya Call Guidelines Than Actual Rules
While hunter-gatherer societies provide an excellent basis for how we should eat, that doesn’t mean there isn’t room to accommodate other foods, especially ones that have sound science backing them up as health foods.
The Benefits of Fermented Foods
Fermented foods, such as red wine and vinegar, provide probiotics that introduce beneficial bacteria into our guts. Although we evolved with plenty of these little guys living inside us without even realizing it, times have changed. Living closer to each other has led to communicable diseases, which in turn has resulted in germophobia. Any and all germs must be eliminated. The problem with this approach is that it kills off the good guys as well as the bad guys. The result is that we are actually more likely to get sick without help from the friendly little guys in our guts.
Make Your Own
So don’t shun that bottle of red wine vinegar the next time you pass it in the grocery store. Instead, why not try it on salad, or as part of a marinade? Mark Sisson even has a recipe for making your own.
