There are many trendy diets that come and go. However, one diet that continues to stand the test of time is the apple cider vinegar diet. Not only is can this diet help you shed some pounds, it also offers several other health benefits along the way as well. Plus, losing weight can also help fight the negative psychological effects that come with weight gain as a whole.
There’s a lot that you can benefit from when it comes to apple cider vinegar. Here’s all you need to know about this healthy diet.
What is Apple Cider Vinegar?
Since time immemorial, apple cider vinegar – or ACV – has served as a health tonic. Research has also reaffirmed the uniqueness and significance of apple cider vinegar in terms of health benefits. Before we highlight the benefits and how to consume this vinegar, we should have an overview of its basic components.
Apple cider vinegar is a vinegar created by fermenting apple juice. It is made by crushing apples and then squeezing out the juice of the apple. Afterward, the juice is made to undergo alcoholic fermentation by adding bacteria and yeast to the apple juice. During this process, the juice (sugar) is converted to alcohol. The resulting alcohol is made to undergo a second fermentation process in the presence of an acetic acid-forming bacteria known as Acetobacter specie. The product of the fermentation process is vinegar. Notably, acetic acid is the major active component of the product.
Traditionally, the production of ACV takes about a month to complete. Although some manufacturers have accelerated production time to about a day, it has a sour taste and strong odor. It consists mostly of water, some acetic acid, and a trace amount of carbohydrate. The pH of vinegar is acidic with a value of about two to three for apple cider vinegar.
What is the “Mother” in Apple Cider Vinegar?
You might have heard of apple cider vinegar with “mother.” What exactly does this entail, though? Well, essentially, ACV with mother is when unfiltered and unrefined vinegar takes on a murky or cloudy look. This is due to the presence of yeast, protein, and beneficial bacteria. The mother is thus important due to the several health benefits it offers. For starters, it contains probiotics, which is a strain of good bacteria. Probiotics can help improve your digestive system and assist with your immune system as well. Our bodies need some good bacteria to fight off the bad bacteria, after all.
Mother also contains enzymes. Enzymes are essential elements of food digestion. Though food items contain enzymes, many of them are destroyed during the cooking process. With the supplementary enzymes available through apple cider vinegar’s mother, quality enzymes are made more accessible for prompt food digestion. Thus, this replenishes a lot of lost enzymes in your body. Overall, consuming raw apple cider vinegar has been proven to ensure satiety, effective body function processes, and other health and general body wellness benefits.
What To Look Out For To Ensure Vinegar Contains Mother
You can identify the mother by the cloudy appearance of the vinegar. If there is some cloudy sediment at the bottom of the vinegar, then you’ll know it has mother in it. Alternatively, you could easily look at the label of the vinegar to see if it has been pasteurized. If it has gone through pasteurization, then that means your vinegar does not have the mother. This is because pasteurization eliminates acetic acid bacteria in vinegar. Without acetic acid bacteria in vinegar, the mother cannot form.
Apple Cider Vinegar Benefits
ACV offers a plethora of health benefits. While an ACV diet can be an efficient approach to losing weight, there are also other perks to consuming ACV in general as well. Some of these benefits include the following:
- lowers blood sugar levels
- helps improve digestion as a natural laxative
- lowers cholesterol
- reduces fat
- is known to boost immunity
- can strengthen and improve hair health
- improves insulin sensitivity
- improves heart health
- lowers blood pressure
Aside from these health benefits, ACV is also a popular alternative to cleaning agents. You can use it to disinfect surfaces and even as a natural odor neutralizer. Additionally, you can utilize ACV as a salad dressing, a food preservative, a marinade, and even as a facial toner! There are varying ratios to diluting ACV for these purposes though, so do take note to thin out your formula with water depending on what you’re using it for.
How To Drink Apple Cider Vinegar
Apple cider vinegar is a safe supplement to consume when done in moderation. As it carries a lot fo benefits, it is advisable to follow the recommended dosages when consuming ACV. This is to avoid unnecessarily increasing your body pH, because ACV’s pH is slightly acidic.
To reiterate, research has shown that you can use this ACV to reduce blood sugar levels. High blood sugar level arises from the deficiency in insulin functionality. But how do you take ACV to manage this condition and maximize all its other benefits? An apple cider vinegar diet can be integrated with high carb meals. This can slow the rate of you stomach emptying and prevent high blood sugar spikes. Only a small vinegar level is required to achieve this effect.
Moreover, if you take four teaspoons (20ml) of apple cider vinegar diluted with water before eating a high carbohydrate meal, you reduce the level of sugar absorbed into the bloodstream. You should also note that taking said quantity of ACV, which is equivalent to 0.68 fluid oz before a low carbohydrate meal or high fiber meal, will not significantly lower blood sugar levels.
Apple Cider Vinegar and Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome
Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) is a hormonal disorder associated with the irregular menstrual cycle, ovarian cysts, and high androgen hormones. It affects many women, though similarly, many women are unaware that they suffer from PCOS. Interestingly, ACV has been known to help alleviate some symptoms of PCOS. To help remedy PCOS with apple cider vinegar, be sure to follow these instructions:
- Measure one tablespoon of apple cider vinegar. This amounts to about 15 ml.
- Measure out about 100 ml of water.
- Combine both and take immediately after dinner.
According to one study, consuming this amount of ACV on a consistent basis can help improve hormone levels and regulate periods better. It’s worth noting, however, that further research still needs to confirm such results. Nevertheless, it doesn’t hurt to make a practice out of taking 15 ml of ACV, if only just to improve PCOS symptoms.
How To Drink Apple Cider Vinegar For Improved Digestion
You can drink ACV to improve digestion, especially alongside protein-heavy meals. The underlying theory is that when you take apple cider vinegar, it increases the acidity of your stomach. When the stomach environment is acidic, it facilitates an improved production of an enzyme called pepsin. This enzyme breaks down protein, giving you relief from the discomfort associated with indigestion.
To improve your digestion with ACV, be sure to follow these steps:
- Measure out 15 to 30ml of ACV. This amounts to approximately one to two tablespoons.
- Prepare one glass of drinking water.
- Mix the vinegar with your drinking water.
- Drink before eating any protein-heavy food.
Although there is yet to be comprehensive research to support this claim, substances and supplements similar to ACV like betaine HCL can significantly increase the acidity of the stomach. This in turn improves digestion.
Other studies claim that ACV may be used as a remedy for acid reflux. It is believed that ACV can help balance your stomach’s pH levels by neutralizing stomach acid. As such, some people drink diluted ACV to relieve acid reflux symptoms. However, do take note that there is still no concrete research that guarantees ACV can indeed relieve acid reflux symptoms.
Drinking ACV For General Wellness
As stated earlier, drinking ACV begets several health benefits. However, it’s best to manage your intake of it despite the health benefits it offers. The exact dosage for ACV has not been extensively qualified. But, ideally, you should never take up to 8 ounces (or 237 ml) of ACV at a time. At this amount, consuming ACV would just be counterproductive.
For general wellness of the body like prevention of heart attack, reducing the risk of cancer, and fighting infection, moderate intake is advised. It’s worth noting, though, that animal and test-tube studies have shown that ACV can help manage the aforementioned ailments.
Nevertheless, consuming ACV through other means can be done. Try using ACV as a salad dressing to easily integrate it into your diet.
Using Apple Cider Vinegar For Weight Loss
One of the reasons why ACV is sought after is for its important role in reducing fat in the human body. This, ultimately, can lead to considerable weight loss. ACV achieves this by creating or increasing a feeling of fullness and therefore reducing the quantity of food you will consume in a day.
If you intend to use ACV for weight loss, try following these steps:
- Take 15ml to 30ml of apple cider vinegar.
- You may prefer to dilute the ACV in an 8-ounce glass of water or iced tea.
- If the flavor is too strong for you to comfortably consume regularly, you may choose to add one to two teaspoons of raw honey to a dose of apple cider vinegar.
How Does Apple Cider Vinegar Help You Lose Weight?
You might be wondering just how ACV can affect your weight and help you shed some pounds. As highlighted earlier, ACV can influence certain conditions in your body. These conditions may lead to discouraging excessive intake by creating a feeling of fullness. Aside from this, ACV can also increase your metabolism rate. When you take ACV, an enzyme known as AMPK is increased due to the presence of acetic acid in the vinegar. This enzyme increases fat burning and decreases the rate at which sugar and fat are produced in the liver.
A study of treating rats with ACV shows that acetic acid could protect them from being overweight and increase the production of genes that reduced belly fat. This study has given indications of the promising effect of ACV in fighting obesity.
The acetic component of ACV can supress the center in your brain that controls appetite. Once this mechanism is initiated, it lowers your appetite for food. As a result, you take in fewer calories which in turn translates to well-managed body weight.
Using Apple Cider Vinegar to Help With Your Sore Throat
Sore throat, coughs, and other similar ailments are caused by viruses, bacteria, and even allergies. Although most sore throats can resolve on their own, it is important to know how to maximize the benefits of ACV to better speed up the healing process.
ACV has been reported to contain substances with profound antibacterial properties. Thus, you can rest assured that it can help relieve symptoms of sore throat caused by bacteria. Additionally, there is anecdotal evidence that sore throat responds well to the antibacterial properties found in ACV.
Homemade ACV Remedies and Their Uses
If you mix two tablespoons of honey and one tablespoon of apple cider vinegar in warm water, it can help suppress coughs alongside your sore throat. The honey helps in suppressing the cough.
Add one to two teaspoons of apple cider vinegar and salt to warm water. Gargle for about 30 seconds two to three times a day for sore throat relief.
Other homemade claims involving the benefits of apple cider vinegar in preventing, providing remedy, and correcting certain health conditions are:
- ACV can create alkaline environment in the body. This may kill off some microorganisms. Notably, these germs thrive better in a more acidic environment.
- Organic, cold-pressed apple cider vinegar has silky threads. These threads are called “the mother.” The mother boosts the immune system.
- Apple cider vinegar may help thin mucus secretions, making them easier to expel.
When To Drink Apple Cider Vinegar
The ideal time to drink apple cider vinegar is dependent on the major remedy you intend to get from its consumption. For weight loss, managing blood sugar levels, and assisting the digestion of high carbohydrate and high protein food items, it is ideal that you take apple cider vinegar before a meal. As with other diets, it is also recommended to maintain exercise. This could hasten the weight loss process initiated by consuming ACV.
That notwithstanding, you can also take apple cider vinegar before bedtime. That is because studies show that taking a small amount of ACV can help lower morning sugar levels. However, such claims still require further confirmation before being recommended as a standard treatment procedure.
Side Effects and Risks
Though it offers a number of health benefits, consuming ACV can also present some side effects. This is because ACV is acidic. The acetic acid in ACV, if taken in excess, could present any of the following side effects:
- Acid burning of the esophagus
- Damage to the stomach lining
- Acid reflux
- Frequent heartburn
- Acidic growth in the body
- Nausea
You can avoid any of the above side effects by simply taking the recommended quantity for any condition you which to remedy with the product. But if you start experiencing any of these symptoms, it’s best to consult a doctor.
Why Apple Cider Vinegar is Still Good For You
Conclusively, apple cider vinegar, a vinegar extracted through the two-step fermentation process, has antibacterial properties. Without a doubt, it is ideal for weight loss and useful as a remedy to a range of illnesses. With an overwhelming list of positive benefits, it’s clear that ACV is very much a beneficial to your body. Nevertheless, we need to reiterate that consumption of ACV still needs some dilution, especially if it contains the mother. You need to take it in moderation to avoid acidic growth in the body. Similar to other diets and lifestyles, moderation is key.
