Pickle Sickle Bob Is thinking about going back to school to become a health practitioner. He has been scouring the internet for articles on the health benefits of Pickles. Click here to see what he found. Great discovery Bob!

Important benefits of Pickle Juice and Pickles

Bob's Pickle Pops are a vegetable squeezed frozen juice ice pop treat that has NO added sugar and less than 5 calories. Wow! They are a healthier alternative to sugary pops. Closet pickle juice drinkers and lots of kids love the salty vinegary flavor. Children undergoing chemo enjoy the salty taste. People with cystic fibrosis need lots of salt every day, and people with MS enjoy the taste after treatments.

Vinegar appears to be very good for blood sugar levels. Carol S. Johnston, PhD, RD has written an article titled: Vinegar: Medicinal Uses and Anti-glycemic Effect has determined that vinegar before a meal can blunt blood sugar spikes by 30 percent.
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pubmed&pubmedid=16926800

Many pickles are made with vinegars. This healthy liquid has several positive properties in addition to its tangy taste. Vinegar is known to boost the immune system, ease digestive disorders, and can break down calcium deposits in a person's joints. In addition, vinegar is known to decrease high blood pressure, and help treat urinary infections. It is even said to re-mineralize your bones, balance your blood pH, and fight infection. Vinegar is also anti-bacterial and anti-fungal. It inhibits the growth of the E.coli bacteria, and when used in conjunction with salt, which is common in pickling, the anti-bacterial properties are amplified. Jonathan Heusman.

Sodium is good for hydration on a hot day and Bob's pickle pop has 10% of the USDA recommendations of sodium.

Pickle juice reduces mealtime glycemia in healthy adults

Carol S Johnston1 and Christy L Appel1

1 Nutrition, Arizona State University, Mesa, AZ

ABSTRACT

The antiglycemic effect of 20 g vinegar ingested at mealtime is well characterized; yet chronic vinegar ingestion is impracticable due to esophageal discomfort and astringent taste. Vinegar is more palatable when incorporated in a food matrix. This trial examined whether a pickle juice product possessed antiglycemic properties. Healthy, non-diabetic adults (13 F, 3 M; BMI: 25.4±1.4 kg/m2; age: 29.4±2.8 y) consumed pickle juice 56g or sugar free popsicles (71 g, Fla·Vor·Ice Light; Jel Sert Company, West Chicago IL) immediately prior to a carbohydrate load (1 buttered bagel and 6 oz fruit juice) in a randomized, crossover fashion with two weeks separating treatments. Fasting and postprandial blood samples were collected for glucose analysis. The incremental peak glucose concentration at 30 min post-meal was reduced 42% with pickle juice ingestion as compared to control (p=0.05). Postprandial glycemia (incremental area-under-the-curve) was reduced by the pickle juice treatment at 0-60 and 0-120 min as compared to control (-46%, p=0.038 and -39%, p=0.074). These data indicate that pickled food products possess antiglycemic effects similar to vinegar in healthy adults. Foods containing vinegar may help pre-diabetics and diabetics manage their condition and may be considered functional foods. This research was supported by the ASU Nutrition Research Fund.

Carol S Johnston, PhD, RD Professor and Chair Department of Nutrition Arizona State University has confirmed to us that yes pickles are wonderful sources of nutrition. “Our research is suggesting that the vinegar should perhaps be ingested with a potassium source as is the case with pickles. We recently completed a 12 week trial feeding our diabetic subjects pickles and they seem to work well.”

This letter was written for us in responce to a concern schools had about the pickle pop being a "Food of minimal nutritional value". The letter is positive because it states they do not prohibit it for the schools. Click on the image to access a PDF copy of the file for download.