Is Salt/C a form of human pickling?

I have been thinking about pickling for some reason so I looked through some pickling recipes. And here is what caught my attention. There are two common forms of pickling, slow fermented and fast. Both processes use salt and acid to produce the preservation effect. Slow processes use a small amount of acetic acid (vinegar) and lactic acid (a product of fermentation). Fast processes use a lot of acetic acid plus salt. And since slow can use acetic OR lactic acid, it seems that a variety of acids will work. Interesting, isn’t it? I wonder if ascorbic acid (from Vitamin C) has a function similar to acetic acid when combined with salt. Someone posted recently to the Yahoo LymeStrategies group about vinegar enhancing the effect of Salt/C… Could Salt/C be a human pickling process? After all, unlike cucumbers, humans have salt in their veins, maybe we are living pickles already… :0

LymePhotos says that salt taken alone is an age-old remedy, but if you look at pickles, Salt/C could also be an age-old remedy, if ascorbic acid can be compared to acetic/lactic acids, as present in pickled vegetables. And the plot thickens…

Here are the ingredients from a slow pickle recipe:

8 cups water
¼ cup vinegar
½ cup salt4 pounds of 4-inch pickling cucumbers2 tablespoons dill seed or 4 to 5 heads fresh dill2 cloves garlic (optional)2 dried red peppers (optional)
2 teaspoons whole mixedpickling spices (optional)

And here are ingredients for a fast recipe for sweet pickles, using all vinegar with no water, perhaps to manage the effects of the sugar on bad bacteria:

5 quarts (about 7 pounds) 1½-inch cucumbers½ cup pure granulated salt8 cups sugar1½ quarts vinegar¾ teaspoon turmeric
2 teaspoons celery seed2 teaspoons whole mixed pickling spice2 cinnamon sticks½ teaspoon fennel (optional)2 teaspoons vanilla (optional)


Did anybody notice the ‘other’ ingredients? They use peppers. Some of us have added cayenne pepper, interesting J. They add pickling spices that have medicinal value, such as turmeric, fennel (licorice), and garlic. Also these are common ‘supplements’ that I and others use. Certainly some of that is for flavor, but I find it interesting that those ‘flavors’ are also medicines to us.

Here is a link for fast pickles: http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/5000/5345.html

And for fermented pickles: http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/5000/5342.html

So perhaps we are pickling ourselves in a real sense following the fermented process. We even add the protiotics, fermenting our gut.

I guess the only remaining question is whether we are dill or sweet pickles :).

Humor for the day, or a useful clue? Wish I knew. Vinegar has been used to treat stomach acid problems and to lower infection levels in AIDS patients. So perhaps there could be a 'pickle protocol' for CFS-Lyme, Salt/Vinegar anyone?