Apple Cider Vinegar Drink + Health Benefits Of Apple Cider Vinegar

Apple cider vinegar is a vinegar made from fermented apples. It has so many uses that it’s often touted as a cure all substance. It can be used as conditioner for your hair; as a skin cleanser; or to relieve pain and irritation from sunburns, bee stings, and poison oak. But in this post, I’m gonna focus on the health benefits from drinking it.

Health Benefits:

1) Improves Digestion

The acidic nature of apple cider vinegar works well with your stomach acid to maintain an acidic environment during digestion. This is important for quickly and fully breaking down the food in our stomach. Which in turn improves digestion and nutrient absorption, while preventing heart burn and bloating. (1, 2)

2) May Help With Fat Loss

As crazy as this sounds, multiple studies have found a correlation between consuming 1-2 tbsp apple cider vinegar a day and weight loss (particularly around the stomach). It’s believed that the vinegar increases satiety leading people to eat fewer Calories. (3, 4, 5) While this is definitely not a magic weight loss supplement, you may see some weight loss (especially around the belly) when consuming apple cider vinegar regularly.

3) Improves Blood Sugar Management

Apple cider vinegar has been shown to reduced blood sugar (both fasting and post carb containing meal) and to improve insulin sensitivity. (3, 6) Therefore it aids in overall blood sugar management and may be helpful for curing or preventing insulin resistance and diabetes (but again this isn’t a magic cure).

4) Can Help Kill Harmful Bacteria

Due to the fermentation process in making apple cider vinegar, it has lots of beneficial bacteria. These bacteria aid in gut microbiome health, digestive health, immune health, weight maintenance, and more! (You can learn more about the health benefits of consuming fermented foods here). (1, 2, 3)

These beneficial bacteria also help fight off harmful bacteria and keep a good bacterial balance in your gut. Apple cider vinegar is also great for breaking down biofilms due to its acidity. Biofilms are a matrix made of various materials that hide pathogens from being detected by your body. (Chris Kresser has a great article on biofilms, you can read here if you’d like). (1)

Breaking up biofilms leaves no place for pathogens to hide, allowing your immune system to kill the pathogens and your body to excrete them.

To get the most benefits from apple cider vinegar, I suggest buying raw, unpasturized, unfiltered, organic apple cider vinegar that contains the mother (a colony of beneficial bacteria). (1, 2, 3) This will ensure you get more of then beneficial bacteria, responsible for many of the health benefits I just described.

To consume, I recommend putting 2-3 tbsp in a 16 oz glass of water. I also like adding cinnamon, ginger, lemon, and salt as you’ll see in the recipe for my apple cider vinegar drink below. Anyways, I hope you found this helpful and I hope you enjoy this drink!

With love from my kitchen to yours,

Kayley

Apple Cider Vinegar Drink

* Note: This drink has very little to no Calories or macronutrients.

Works Cited

1. Bucko, Alexandra.Through Health and Back. Accessed 12 May 2021. https://www.instagram.com/throughhealthandback/

2. Nagdeve, Meenakshi. “12 Proven Health Benefits of Apple Cider Vinegar.” Organic Facts. 10 March 2021. https://www.organicfacts.net/apple-cider-vinegar.html

3. Gunnars, Kris. “6 Health Benefits of Apple Cider Vinegar, Backed by Science.” Healthline. 8 April 2021. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/6-proven-health-benefits-of-apple-cider-vinegar#1.-High-in-healthful-substances

4. Johnston, Carol S, and Amanda J Buller. “Vinegar and peanut products as complementary foods to reduce postprandial glycemia.” Journal of the American Dietetic Association vol. 105,12 (2005): 1939-42. doi:10.1016/j.jada.2005.07.012

5. Tomoo KONDO, Mikiya KISHI, Takashi FUSHIMI, Shinobu UGAJIN &
Takayuki KAGA (2009) Vinegar Intake Reduces Body Weight, Body Fat Mass, and Serum
Triglyceride Levels in Obese Japanese Subjects, Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Biochemistry,
73:8, 1837-1843, DOI: 10.1271/bbb.90231

6. Östman, E., Granfeldt, Y., Persson, L. et al. Vinegar supplementation lowers glucose and insulin responses and increases satiety after a bread meal in healthy subjects. Eur J Clin Nutr 59, 983–988 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1602197