Often touted as an all-purpose medicine and supplement, natural vinegar's healing virtues have been extolled in both Western and Eastern civilizations.
According to Yang Lu-yin's own study, vinegar has been used as medicine in China since the Ming Dynasty.
"The use of vinegar as medicine started early in human history, but now it is reduced to a cheap flavor enhancer. My job is to restore vinegar to its original healing status," the 38-year-old brewer said.
Medical professionals are cautious on vinegar's healing properties since little scientific research has been done on its effects. "More studies need to be done before we can start to understand and analyze the vinegar's healing properties. Before that happens, it's only safe to say that natural vinegar is one of several beverage options containing nutrients and vitamins," said head of the dietetics department at National Taiwan University Hospital (台大醫院營養部), Cheng Chin-pao (鄭金寶), adding that people suffering from gastric ulcers or other digestive problems should drink vinegar after meals, but diluted with more water than is commonly suggested.
Yet in the eyes of Yang, rather than seeing vinegar as a too-good-to-be-true miracle cure, it is a supplementary source of vitamins, minerals, enzymes and amino acids, which contemporary diets rich in processed foods often lack.
On a site next to the vinegar brewery, Yang and her family's future house and a showroom for foreign buyers and distributors are under construction.
"Our friends and families were worried sick when we first moved here with little money in our pockets but we have found the ideal life," Yang said.
For more information on Luyin natural vinegar, visit www.luyin.com.tw.
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