healthy chicken with balsamic vinegar
Jennifer IserlohIn this Skinny Chef column, Jennifer Iserloh shares her recipe for healthy chicken with balsamic vinegar and explains why vinegar is great healthy cooking staple.

I've often wondered what the Italian word "balsamico" means. Apparently, it comes from the same root as the English word "balm," a substance that has curative or soothing properties.

While Medieval folk doctors prized vinegar as a powerful home remedy and cure and quite a few holistic websites still tout these claims, there isn't a lot of hard-core medical research or data out there to support health claims about vinegar. But there has been one very small-scale study by a diabetes doctor, in which she gave her patients "2 tablespoons of vinegar before a meal - perhaps, as part of a vinaigrette salad dressing. It dramatically reduced the spike in insulin and glucose that come after a meal."