At first, it sounds like just another English grandmother’s home remedy. However, apple cider vinegar has more to it than accessibility. It’s now a trendy natural therapy for good reason, including benefits to our metabolic and digestive health. But can newer products such as apple cider vinegar gummies be just as effective as the traditional vinegar? Let’s look at the evidence explaining how it all works.
Apple Cider Vinegar Benefits In Weight Loss
If you’re looking for that “one weird trick” to help you lose belly fat, apple cider vinegar may be the remedy for you. A Japanese study compared 15mL and 30mL doses of apple cider vinegar to a placebo, to see what effect it had on body weight and composition. Apple Cider Vinegar Benefits in weight loss by reducing the production of body fat, through the AMPK gene. After three months, body weight, BMI, waist circumference, visceral fat, and blood levels of triglycerides (fats) were all lower in both apple cider vinegar groups.
Apple cider vinegar’s acetic acid content reduces the production of body fat, through the AMPK gene. This gene is becoming more well-known in the world of antiaging and longevity promotion for a number of reasons. It promotes fat burning, cellular energy production and clearance of cellular “garbage”, so you can look and feel your best.
Apple Cider Vinegar Benefits For Controlling Blood Sugar
Diabetes and metabolic syndrome are sadly extremely common in today’s world, and prevention is far better than any treatment. Apple cider vinegar may be helpful in these situations by restoring blood sugar control and insulin sensitivity, long before any issue turns into clinical diabetes.
A clinical trial including people with and without diabetes tested the benefits of 20mL of apple cider vinegar after eating a high-carbohydrate meal. Compared to the placebo, apple cider vinegar increased insulin sensitivity by 34% in people without diabetes, and by 19% in volunteers who did have diabetes. In cases of insulin resistance, both blood sugar and insulin levels rise higher after meals. This is because the body is trying to achieve a response to insulin by pumping out more of the hormone.
Besides ramping up AMPK gene activity, the acetic acid in apple cider vinegar may also slow the absorption of sugar into the bloodstream, by slowing carbohydrate digestion. A lower peak in blood sugar means that your insulin pathways are not burnt out, and can instead recover to a healthier level of function.
Apple Cider Vinegar To Balance Gut Bacteria
If you spend enough time in natural health circles, you will hear about the importance of preventing and treating dysbiosis. This is a state of imbalance in your gut bacteria, which are essential for regulating your immune system, mental health, and of course, digestion. Dysbiosis involves both low populations of friendly, anti-inflammatory species of bacteria, and overpopulation of harmful pro-inflammatory species.
These pro-inflammatory species that cause trouble in high populations include Candida, E. coli, and Staphylococcus aureus. A lab study on apple cider vinegar found that it mostly wiped out all three of these species, with immune cells barely reacting to their then-harmless presence. The cell integrity of the microbes was seriously damaged, thanks to acetic acid. As immune cells did not need to react to any of the three microbe species, they only produced a small fraction of the inflammatory chemicals that they would make under normal circumstances.
Inflammation in the intestines leads to gut wall damage (leaky gut), which causes even more inflammation. When the gut wall is “leaky”, bacteria, toxins they may produce, and undigested food can enter the bloodstream. Your immune system then reacts to this “invasion”, and you may develop food intolerances alongside an increase in inflammation.
Should I Take Apple Cider Vinegar Gummies?
You may have heard that you must swallow plain, liquid apple cider vinegar, as the bitterness triggers a response in the nerves serving our digestive systems. However, many of its benefits come from the presence of acetic acid. You take in acetic acid regardless of whether you drink a shot straight from the bottle, or chew on apple cider vinegar gummies. ACV gummies are the friendlier option if you suffer from heartburn or simply cannot stand the bitter, strong taste of the vinegar on its own. Rejuvences Apple Cider Vinegar Gummies, for example, are easier and more delicious to chew on than plain tablets or vinegar.
Overall, evidence-backed apple cider vinegar benefits include weight loss, better blood sugar control, and antimicrobial properties, all thanks to acetic acid. As these are direct effects of acetic acid that don’t rely on you tasting the bitterness, you can reach for the ACV gummies if you can’t tolerate the vinegar’s bitter flavour.