I make switchel by the jug in summer: cider vinegar, ginger, maple syrup, water. This year I have been drinking it instead of water most of the day, which is probably the question answering itself.
My teeth feel more sensitive than they did and I have had some heartburn. Is there a sensible amount of this, and is the vinegar the problem or the sugar?
Both, for different reasons, and sipping it all day is the part doing the damage rather than the total amount. Vinegar is acidic and repeated contact wears at tooth enamel over time, and all-day sipping means your teeth are never out of it.
Dilute it properly rather than drinking a strong mixture, have it with meals instead of continuously, use a straw, rinse with plain water afterwards, and do not brush immediately, because brushing straight after something acidic is harder on enamel than waiting.
Is a glass with lunch and that is it a reasonable rule, or am I overcorrecting?
A glass with food is a sensible shape for it and it is roughly how the drink was used originally. The jug-instead-of-water version is the new part. Nobody here can tell you a number for your own teeth, which is a dentist question, but moving from all day to with meals is the change that matters.
The maple adds up too. A jug a day of sweetened drink is a sweetened drink habit whatever else is in it.
One thing to flag rather than advise on, because it is genuinely not a forum question: vinegar and ginger can interact with some conditions and medications. Diabetes, digestive disorders, anything you are taking regularly, that is a conversation with whoever prescribes it rather than with us.
Otherwise: dilute it well, keep it in the fridge, follow your recipe's storage time, and treat it as a drink rather than as hydration.
@reflux_on_empty · 2d ago
The heartburn is its own signal and worth taking at face value. Acidic drinks and ginger both bother some people's stomachs, and on an empty stomach particularly. Starting small and seeing how you feel is the whole method there, and you have skipped past that into a jug a day.
With food rather than between meals helps the reflux as much as it helps the enamel.
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