Consider an alternative theory: the vinegar is a digestive aid (just like pineapple) and your root cause or part of it is, in fact, indigestion. I only suggest this because I found indigestion to be the one and only consistent cause to heartburn/reflux in myself. Seems like some foods don’t want to break down from normal stomach acid but will respond to other acids. So that’s my theory. But whether it’s accurate or not, it does work.

pineapple is a digestive aid due to an enzyme it contains which breaks down protein. it's pH is not entirely relevant, although acids also break down proteins.

Doubtful, at least for my case. Effect appears immediately and takes hold in under two minutes.

A common argument for vinegar is that the microbiome in your gut needs bacteria to feed on nutrients your body doesn't absorb easily (fiber) and that vinegar (usually apple cider vinegar) helps the bacteria in your gut digest this fiber (via fermentation).

Basically, vinegar makes your stomach bacteria happy, which makes your greater digestive tract happy in turn.

I don't know how true this is, but I do know greater amounts of research are being done on the microbiome as of late, and we're learning just how important it is for our overall health. So it wouldn't surprise me if this explanation is close to correct.

I do the same. I have found it enormously helpful.

Vinegar is a base not an acid. It will counter high acid.

For acid issues raw ginger is powerful.

Vinegar is literally an acid (acetic acid in particular). You can test this yourself at home by mixing it with baking soda.

Plain vinegar is while apple cider vinegar is a base. For some reason did not picture someone drinking plain vinegar.

Vinegar is made by first fermenting sugar into alcohol with yeast and then a bacteria converts the alcohol into acetic acid.

White vinegar is distilled so it contains to a certain level of purity only acetic acid and water.

Apple cider vinegar uses apples as the source material and isn't distilled so it contains some apple flavor.

Apple cider vinegar is just white vinegar with a little flavor.

It's also a favorite of health wonks. It don't mean the opposite of everything the crazies say is true, but you get a lot of people with virtually no information "teaching" each other about apple cider vinegar which leads to the silly idea that apple cider vinegar is a base.

Apple cider vinegar is made through the same fermentation process as regular vinegar, just using apples to create cider and then further fermenting it to create vinegar (hence "apple cider" vinegar). All vinegar is made through the fermentation of ethanol (and that ethanol is fermented from a variety of sources depending on which type of vinegar you are buying). Furthermore, the Wikipedia page[1] clearly says

> Acetic acid and malic acid give [apple cider] vinegar its sour taste.

Not to mention that bases don't taste sour (they taste bitter or soapy), and given that you can use apple cider vinegar (as with any other vinegar) to add sourness to food I'm a little confused why you'd think two types of vinegar have fundamentally different chemistry.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_cider_vinegar

Like lemon, apple cider vinegar is said to produce alkaline byproducts and lower your body pH after consumption, which might be true but doesn’t mean either is a base.

Isn’t the active ingredient in vinegar an acid, namely acetic acid?

You've apparently read too many homeopathic pamphlets.

Get pH paper and test them both. They're both acetic acid and low pH. If it wasn't, it wouldn't be vinegar.

If it was basic, it would be some acetate salt.