Apple Cider Vinegar Weight Loss
By
Al Bullington
Apple cider vinegar has been recommended for
improved health for thousands of years.
Sometimes traditional health remedies have
some basis in fact, even if the facts aren't
understood. All kinds of claims are made for
vinegar, often by people selling something!
Is it possible that vinegar could in some
way contribute to weight loss? And how could
this be?
What is apple cider vinegar?
Allow apple juice to ferment
and you get an alcoholic "hard" cider. This
can be accomplished in less than a week
simply by leaving fresh apple juice on your
kitchen counter to spontaneously ferment.
Leave the fermented apple cider on the
counter for about two more weeks and just as
easily you get apple cider vinegar.
A certain genus of bacteria
and certain strains of yeast in some way
locate the vinegar and consume the alcohol
in the hard cider and transform the alcohol
to acetic acid. So just exposure to the air
turns fresh squeezed apple juice into
vinegar in just a few weeks.
Apple cider vinegar weight
loss?
The idea that vinegar can
help with weight loss is not new. You can
read testimonials in many places about how
vinegar has helped someone lose weight.
Often the suggestion is to take a spoon full
of vinegar or two before each meal. Of
course if you don't like the taste of the
vinegar, you can probably find a source of
pills containing apple cider vinegar! That's
the idea, just take a little vinegar before
each meal and lose weight.
In this case there is a
recent Arizona State University study that
suggests that vinegar can help with weight
loss and suggests why. Only part of the
study involved vinegar. The vinegar was
consumed as a diluted drink before meals and
did alter the glycemic effect of meals. The
glycemic effect relates to how fast insulin
rises in response to sugars entering the
blood stream. Eat low glycemic foods ( whole
grains, non-starchy vegetables, legumes) and
you get a feeling of fullness and will take
in less energy during a day. Eat high
glycemic index foods (processed grains,
potato products, white flour and sweets) and
excess carbohydrates you eat will be mostly
stored as fat. In this study, apple cider
vinegar reduced the glycemic effect of
certain meals. The effect though was quite
small.
So it does seem that apple
cider vinegar can help you feel full after a
meal and can alter the digestion of what you
eat to help with weight loss. But don't
expect huge results. The results are small.
Long term weight loss.
Altering your diet and
exercising are the way to real weight loss.
If you really want to lose pounds and feel
better, change your lifestyle to eat more
healthy foods and get regular exercise. But
there are many small steps you can take on
the way to a more healthy way of living.
Using apple cider vinegar does appear to
help with weight loss, but it's only a small
effect.
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