IAs I have explained in my profile I do not use vinegar in any form. It is promoted as being valuable for this way of eating.

What can I use instead. Doe lemon/lime juice have the same effect?

Welcome Kingfisher, a quick bit of online research suggests lemon juice is similar in action to vinegar, in that it contains antioxidants and also helps in regulating blood sugars. So, I think you could substitute lemon juice for vinegar as you have such an aversion to that particular substance.

Bes of luck on the BSD

Yes, thank you. I wondered which property of dilute acetic acid ( lower the pH ? ). Lemon juice will do that too and possibly have other helpful compounds.

Vinegar brining is a quick and dirty shortcut to make pickles. The kind you find in a grocery store are almost all like that. Traditional pickles, on the other hand, are raw, unpasteurized and fermented using a saline fluid and various spices alone. They’re sour but that’s from the extraordinarily healthy lacto-bacilli produced in the fermentation process. There is zero vinegar involved. I used to hate dill pickles too, but after a few weeks on the Fast 800 and the complete elimination of sugar from my diet, I started to crave it. Then I found the real fermented pickles (and kimchi, garlic sauerkraut, horseradish leek kraut, gingered carrots, red cabbage kraut, even beets) and they were a complete revelation to me. Now I can’t let a day go by without eating at least 3 fermented products.

I’m not saying you should run right out and find some properly fermented pickles. I doubt you’ll find them all that different from the vinegar brined crap because it’s probably not the acetic acid that’s really bugging you so much as the sour flavor it imparts which vinegar mimics on the cheap. I am saying that you should keep an open mind and not get too hung up on your old habits. You wouldn’t be considering so drastic a lifestyle change as the BSD if your old habits were something work clinging to. Your tastes change enormously when you cut out sugar and refined carbs. If you’re anything like me, you won’t even recognize yourself because of how profoundly altered your palate has become.

Good luck!

Fermented foods are recommended, but that does not equate with vinegar as on sale in the UK, and even less so with acetic acid.
ISTR they are recommended for the beneficial bacteria/yeasts they contain, rather than the acids.
Unfortunately, although pickling and fermenting things is in itself a time honoured method of preserving certain foods and to make somewhat impure water safe to drink, modern hygiene regulations insist that everything be pasteurised thereby killing almost all bacteria and yeasts, good or bad.
I suspect that this is why I am having such poor results with making yogurt using shop bought yogurt as starter.