Apple Cider Vinegar is known for its health benefits and many who have used it, claim that it helped them with their health and fitness goals. This includes weight-loss, reduced cholesterol, lowered blood sugar levels, and improved symptoms of diabetes. It is also an ancient popular medicine, used in food preparation in common kitchen in day to day life.
Apple Cider Vinegar is vinegar made from fermented apple juice, commonly used in salad dressings, marinades, vinaigrettes, food preservatives and chutneys. It is made by crushing apples, then squeezing out the juice. Bacteria and yeast are added to the liquid to start the alcoholic fermentation process, which converts the sugars to alcohol. Acetic Acid and Malic Acid combine to give vinegar its sour taste.
It is 94% water, 1% carbohydrates and no fat or protein. Its caloric and nutrient contents are negligible if we look at the nutrition table. Despite of this fact, there are several health benefits of vinegar itself which can’t be ruled out and now, people are using it to improve their health. Acetic Acid present in apple cider vinegar brings in most of its health benefits here.
Here are some of the health benefits of apple cider vinegar that are supported by scientific research.
1. Killing Harmful Bacteria
Vinegar can help in eliminating pathogens including bacteria. It has been traditionally used in cleaning, disinfecting and treating lice, warts and ear infections. Thousands years back vinegar was used to clean wounds too. We all know that it is used as food preservative also. According to studies, it eliminates bacteria like Ecoli from growing in food.
2. Lowers Blood Sugar Levels and Fights Diabetes
Type 2 type diabetes patients can benefit the most with apple cider vinegar. Type 2 type diabetes is characterized by high blood sugar levels, either because of insulin resistance or an inability to produce insulin. However, high blood sugar levels is also a problem with people who don’t have diabetes. IT is believed to be the major cause of aging and various chronic diseases.
Vinegar is shown to have numerous benefits for blood sugar and insulin levels. It is said that it improves insulin sensitivity during high carb meal by 19% to 34% and significantly lowers blood sugar and insulin responses. 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar before bedtime can reduce fasting blood sugar by 4%. Hence, it can be beneficial for people with diabetes and pre-diabetes.
3. Helps in Losing Weight and Reduces Belly Fat
Several studies suggest that vinegar can increase satiety, and hence, you eat fewer calories, eventually, losing weight. For example, if people take vinegar with high carb meal, they get increased feeling of fullness and end up eating fewer calories for the rest of the day. A study in 175 people with obesity showed that daily apple cider vinegar consumption led to reduced belly fat and weight loss. This study spans up to a time of 3 months and hence, real results will take time from body to body. However, it is always your lifestyle which plays the major role in losing weight but apple cider vinegar can help you with losing weight.
4. Lowers Cholesterol and Improves Hearth Health
The most common factor behind poor heart health is high level of cholesterol in the blood. This risk factor can be controlled to a certain level but most of the studies done in this respect are on animals. These studies on animals state that apple cider vinegar can lower cholesterol and triglyceride levels along with several other heart disease risk factors. There are also studies that vinegar reduces blood pressure in rats which is again a major risk factor for heart. The only human evidence so far is an observational study from Harvard showing that women who ate salad dressings with vinegar had a reduced risk of heart disease. However, this kind of study only shows as association.
5. May have Protective Effects Against Cancer
There is a lot of hype on the internet about anti-cancer effects of apple cider vinegar. In fact, many researches have shown that vinegar itself has anti-cancer effects and can kill cancer cells and shrink tumors. But researches and studies in this context only raises a probability and not a concrete evidence.
References
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5788933/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27665528
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9713753
https://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/27/1/281.long
https://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/30/11/2814.full
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16015276
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19661687
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16611381
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16611381
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26476634
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10232627
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1541-4337.12228
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15630260
About The Author
Rajul Tiwari is the Editor-in-Chief at bodyandstrenth.com and has 18 years of experience in media, content, publishing and education. She has worked with media houses like Daini..
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