The Benefits of Apple Cider Vinegar
If you're not really sure what apple cider vinegar is or what the supposed claims, benefits and myths are around it... this might be a useful place to start.
Photo by 9dreamstudio from Getty Images
21st March, 2021
What is apple cider vinegar?
It's vinegar (surprising, I know) made from fermented apple juice. When you dig down into the main components of apple cider vinegar, you'll notice these are water and a substance called acetic acid (otherwise known as ethanoic acid).
Being perfectly honest I had never really thought about apple cider vinegar or knew anything about it before a client asked whether it helped with weight loss. Before I researched apple cider vinegar, my skepticism had me assuming I'd find no credible research but I actually found quite a lot! I have already written a post on Instagram so if you would like the condensed version of the information below, you can head on over to my page @catherinekerrfitness to check it out.
What are the claims?
On Instagram, you can quite literally search the hashtag #applecidervinegar, which returns over 400 thousand post results. That’s a staggering amount of information, how are we to know what’s fact and what’s fiction?
There are many apple cider vinegar products on the market and this likely causes confusion when there is so much inaccruate information readily available out there.
It appears that apple cider vinegar is used in home remedies to treat topical skin treatments such as dandruff, dry skin, sunburn, warts and toenail fungus. I don’t have enough knowledge on skin conditions to be able to comment on these claims but I will explore other claims, so keep reading!
Apple cider vinegar is also orally consumed through drinks or in tablet form.
Health claims for these drinks and supplements include:
Reducing body weight
Reducing appetite
Source of antioxidants
Controlling blood sugar levels
Aiding in digestion
Reducing acid reflux
Lowering cholesterol levels
Lowering blood pressure
Improving energy levels
90% of the time you probably shouldn't get your advice from social media unless you know it comes from a credible, trusted and qualified source. I realise that you might be thinking "but Catherine, you're giving out advice on social media, why should we listen to you?"... great question and I'd like to think that I tick all three of those boxes and that I strive to make sure my evidence is backed by science and credible peer-reviewed science at best.
Basically, one good rule to live by is if someone is trying to sell you a miracle 'weight loss' or 'muscle building' product that will solve all your health and fitness problems in one go, it's probably too good to be true. In all honesty it’s often the repetitive and mundane actions that will get us closer to our fitness goals.
Going back to apple cider vinegar, I will explore the claims made around weight loss, blood cholesterol, blood pressure, appetite and digestion. Although for the record, I am not a medical professional nor do I claim to be one, I'm merely highlighting the evidence to let you make an informed decision. Fantastic!
What evidence is there?
Blood pressure - the disease, diabetes, impairs the body’s ability to handle blood glucose but may also negatively impact the body's ability to regulate blood pressure by reducing the ability of the veins to dilate (get wider in diameter to allow more blood flow), this explains why so many who suffer with diabetes also experience vascular damage which negatively affects things such as the eyes, kidneys and extremities.
Acetic acid (the main component in ACV) consumption has been shown to reduce blood pressure in type 2 diabetic patients through aiding in vasodilation. One study showed a decrease in blood pressure of 21-30mmHg! To put this in perspective, a healthy resting blood pressure is about 120/80mmHg, and anything beyond 140/90mmHg is considered to be high. So if someone who is diabetic were sitting with a high blood pressure of 140/90mmHg, a reduction of 20mmHg would have them sat at a healthy range. I think that's a pretty incredible potential health benefit! Although that's not to say everyone with diabetes would react this way and we certainly can't generalise this into a non-disease population.
Blood lipids - Atherosclerosis is a buildup of plaque on artery walls, which can lead to various health complications including stroke, angina and heart attack. Caused by high blood cholesterol (more specifically LDLs). There are two types of cholesterol (HDL - high density lipoproteins and LDL - low density lipoproteins); HDL present little risk to our vascular health whereas LDL do. This is because they have an affinity to travel to and be deposited in our central vascular system (in arteries around the heart and lungs) which we know is extremely dangerous and puts us at risk of a multitude of health complications including heart attack.
t is worth noting that consumption of cholesterol in your diet is NOT inherently bad unless you consume high levels of saturated fats. High saturated fat intake is closely linked with increased blood LDL levels but when low saturated fat is consumed the same is not true, even when dietary cholesterol consumption is high (I won't go into the whole egg debate here but there is some food for thought).
The evidence I found suggested that 8 weeks consumption of ACV can significantly reduce blood cholesterol in people who are already at risk of atherosclerosis (the buildup of plaque in the artery walls). Interestingly, similar was found in diabetic rats and healthy humans… don't worry, the humans weren't in the same experiment as the rats!
We also know that reducing dietary saturated fats will have a similar effect on blood LDL levels although I'm not sure exactly to what magnitude when compared with apple cider vinegar consumption. My advice to reduce blood LDL would be to reduce your saturated fat intake and replace it with unsaturated fat options opposed to drinking ACV however, the choice is of course yours!
Weight management - obesity is closely associated with type 2 diabetes; the consumption of ACV may be beneficial in weight management and thus reductions in type 2 diabetes risk factors. Basically, the acetic acid in ACV tastes gross and makes people feel nauseous and so, reduces appetite (the desire to eat)... doesn't sound enjoyable to me and I'd far rather advise a balanced and nutritious diet alongside exercise. This reduced desire to eat may result in consumption of less food and ultimately less calories but I’m not convinced as it would involve consuming the drink several times a day and we aren’t sure what the long term implications are of regularly drinking apple cider vinegar.
Hyperglycemia and insulin resistance - the hormone insulin plays an important role in transporting glucose molecules (digested from food) from the blood into cells in the body. Without sufficient insulin production there is a risk of hyperglycemia (too much glucose in the blood which can lead to health complications). Healthy individuals are very good at managing blood sugar levels and produce insulin in the pancreas when it’s required after eating. However, type 1 diabetics’ pancreases are unable to produce enough insulin to manage their blood glucose levels and therefore have to inject insulin on a regular basis. Type 2 diabetics produce sufficient levels of insulin but their cells are not as good at recognising that insulin wants to carry the glucose into the cell therefore the insulin has to try more times to get glucose into cells which often results in elevated production of insulin.
When it comes to insulin resistance there were two main nuggets of information that I found around ACV.
Firstly, acetic acid (as we know is in ACV) has been shown to delay gastric emptying (the speed at which food is moved from the stomach to the small intestine) and thus slows the rate at which sugars digest and enters the blood; this may be beneficial in diabetics as it somewhat regulates the rush of glucose into the bloodstream and makes it more manageable to move into the cells. However this should not be construed as being useful in a healthy population as they already have sufficient insulin levels.
Secondly, ACV with a high carbohydrate meal was shown to improve insulin resistance in type 2 diabetic and insulin resistant patients, which means that insulin doesn't have to try as many times to carry the glucose from the blood into the cell, thus reducing blood glucose levels more quickly.
We can gather from this information the ACV might be able to play a role in the management of type 2 diabetes day to day but it’s likely more research needs to be done and there are other (better) methods like a well-managed diet, exercise and resistance exercise.
Cognitive benefits - there is one more bit of interesting research I came across that suggested using ACV as a daily food additive may reduce the risk of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's however, there is still a lot of research to be done in this and the paper was only published this year. I think this area of research is incredibly fascinating especially given what a horrific disease Alzheimer's is. And, I suppose in fitness we rarely touch upon the cognitive benefits of certain foods!
Where does your apple cider vinegar come from?
Another useful nugget of information to be aware of is depending on where you get your apple cider vinegar, it may have different properties due to the production methods used and thus increased or reduced the effectiveness on all of the above claims! And very rarely will you find this information on the packaging of commercial apple cider vinegar products.
Conclusions around apple cider vinegar consumption
In diabetic patients it may reduce blood pressure somewhere between 21-30mmHg.
May aid in lowering blood cholesterol in patients who are already at risk of atherosclerosis.
Suppresses appetite.
It may play a role in managing blood sugar levels in diabetic patients who have an already reduced capacity to move glucose from the blood into cells.
There is some preliminary research that suggests there are cognitive benefits.
Not all apple cider vinegar is made equally and it's actually really difficult to know which commercial brand is best.
I would also like to add that another possible side-effect of drinking apple cider vinegar drinks regularly is tooth erosion! So if you’re protective of your smile and really want to consume apple cider vinegar, you’d be better taking it in tablet form.
Other than that, you could use apple cider vinegar to clean your windows and mirrors, and then your house will smell like a chip shop!