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Apple Cider Vinegar

Khovde07
Khovde07 Posts: 508 Member
I was talking with my sister this weekend and telling her how my weight loss was going. She suggested taking 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar in the morning. Apparently some people swear by it. Something about alkaline and acidity. I started to tune her out as soon as she started because it sounded pretty hokey and the women in my family have a reputation of losing weight in the non-healthy way and trying to drag me into it (think eating 500 calories a day).

But I'm having trouble seeing how this could be dangerous with only 1-2 tablespoons a day. It still seems hokey to me, though. Google articles were pretty split in opinions. Has anyone else heard of using ACV?
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Replies

  • juggernaut1974
    juggernaut1974 Posts: 6,212 Member
    Yes it comes up almost daily here.

    It's hokey/woo/whatever term you want to use, with regards to claims that it aids in weight loss or fat burning.

    Some people say it can aid in settling an upset stomach or other 'non-weight' related uses, which I imagine probably varies from person to person.

    The danger - if taking it raw - is primarily the damage it can cause to tooth enamel.
  • Birkah
    Birkah Posts: 33 Member
    I get fairly awful reflux and am trying to avoid Barrett's Esophagus like my mom (thanks, genetics). 2tsp of ACV in the morning helps me. I don't think it magically melts away fat, or is a miracle cure-all. I drink it mixed in hot water with a little lemon and cayenne for flavor (I like the spicy) and to clear up my sinuses.
  • sndrd49
    sndrd49 Posts: 234 Member
    It's nice to dress a salad with a little olive oil.
  • Wetcoaster
    Wetcoaster Posts: 1,788 Member
    http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.ca/2008/04/houston-we-have-problem-apple-cider.html

    While apple cider vinegar is relatively harmless for most people as normally consumed, believing it can cure, prevent or treat health problems also puts people at risk who are deterred from seeking needed medical care for serious health issues. M.D. Anderson, according to Natural Standard Monograph (2007), also warns that theoretically, long-term use could diminish bone mineral density and interact with and increase the risk of toxicity of cardiac glycoside prescriptions, such as digoxin; and potentiate the potassium-lowering effects of insulin, laxatives and diuretics, such as Lasix.
  • Nikion901
    Nikion901 Posts: 2,467 Member
    http://authoritynutrition.com/6-proven-health-benefits-of-apple-cider-vinegar/
    This one ... seems to think there may be benefits of all sorts.

    My sisters primary care physician recently adviced she take up drinking a mixture of organic apple cider vinegar and warm water in the morning as a possible assist in her battle with goaty arthritis that she got from being on a low-carb/high-protein diet to reduce her diabetic high sugars. She reduced her AiC but ended up with acidosis and has been under care for that for the past 2 years now.

    I doubt he would have recommended she give it a try if he didn't think there was at least some chance that it would benefit her and, at least, do no harm.
  • rankinsect
    rankinsect Posts: 2,238 Member
    sndrd49 wrote: »
    It's nice to dress a salad with a little olive oil.

    Also forms a key part of my favorite marinade for chicken.
  • Khovde07
    Khovde07 Posts: 508 Member
    rankinsect wrote: »
    sndrd49 wrote: »
    It's nice to dress a salad with a little olive oil.

    Also forms a key part of my favorite marinade for chicken.

    Oh I've never tried it for a marinade but that sounds like an awesome idea!
  • sndrd49
    sndrd49 Posts: 234 Member
    rankinsect wrote: »
    sndrd49 wrote: »
    It's nice to dress a salad with a little olive oil.

    Also forms a key part of my favorite marinade for chicken.
    Oooooo.......please share!
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    rankinsect wrote: »
    sndrd49 wrote: »
    It's nice to dress a salad with a little olive oil.

    Also forms a key part of my favorite marinade for chicken.

    It's amazing in chocolate cakes (put in enough to make it fluffy, not enough to taste it).
  • summerkissed
    summerkissed Posts: 730 Member
    I love ACV I use it to preserve beetroot and as a salad dressing I also drink 2tbls daily with water (the alkaline/acidity thing is not true though) I use it as its a mild diuretic and helps keep my water retention under control without medication
  • ClosetBayesian
    ClosetBayesian Posts: 836 Member
    Substitute ACV for the regular vinegar in vinegar pie (http://www.heritagerecipes.com/pie-recipes/vinegar-pie.htm). Tastes like an apple pie, texture of a custard.
  • MaxandEv
    MaxandEv Posts: 3 Member
    I haven't read much about ACV, but I use it regularly to reduce water bloat. A friend swears by 10 ml. in water before a meal says it's help reduce the amount he eats and has lost 30kg.
  • snickerscharlie
    snickerscharlie Posts: 8,578 Member
    When I first started losing weight, I did the one tablespoon before meals thing. Literally choked it down. Did this for a week and realized it really started to taste more and more like vomit every time I did it. So then I did some research and lo and behold! It's total bs. In fact the largest source of all of the benefits of ACV was from the site of the biggest producer of it. No conflict of interest, there.

    So now the bottle in my fridge is only used for salad dressing. :)
  • tomteboda
    tomteboda Posts: 2,171 Member
    Does anyone know where this dietary fad started, anyway?
  • Nikion901
    Nikion901 Posts: 2,467 Member
    tomteboda wrote: »
    Does anyone know where this dietary fad started, anyway?

    No ... but I do know the cider vinegar as a cure has been around for many decades. I have a family member who took cider vinegar tonics before breakfast every day more than 30 years ago to help with arthritic pain. It didn't do anything but give him acid indigestion years later.
  • French_Peasant
    French_Peasant Posts: 1,639 Member
    tomteboda wrote: »
    Does anyone know where this dietary fad started, anyway?

    Hippocrates and Galen advocated using apple cider vinegar, and it has been used well into the 1900s in the form of "switchel," an old timey energy drink of water, vinegar, ginger and honey. Agricultural workers would drink it during hot, demanding activities like haymaking. Today it's all the rage with the hipsters. Apparently ACV has been used for generations in North Africa as a weight loss technique according to one Dutch peer reviewed article that focused on a Moroccan girl destroying her teeth. A quick search of PubMed shows that most of the peer reviewed articles on ACV involve people destroying their teeth and bones or burning themselves.

    Just because it is not supported in the current peer reviewed lit doesn't mean it doesn't work, however. Hippocrates and Galen also advocated honey for healing wounds, and just within the past few years the medical community has been raving about this great new antibacterial...honey! Vinegar also has antibacterial properties, and researchers are just starting to look into the benefits of fermentation, where unpasteurized cider might play a key role.

    Regarding weight loss, i think there is a lot to be said for the placebo effect, considering that the ability to lose weight is overwhelmingly a mental game. As long as the qty used is small and well diluted, it's not going to hurt to drink an unproven magical potion if it serves as the cornerstone for other heathy habits. It's no weirder a magical crutch than subtracting the weight of your eggshells from your calories count, a discussion I read with interest and amusement last week.
  • dubird
    dubird Posts: 1,849 Member
    tomteboda wrote: »
    Does anyone know where this dietary fad started, anyway?

    Hippocrates and Galen advocated using apple cider vinegar, and it has been used well into the 1900s in the form of "switchel," an old timey energy drink of water, vinegar, ginger and honey. Agricultural workers would drink it during hot, demanding activities like haymaking. Today it's all the rage with the hipsters. Apparently ACV has been used for generations in North Africa as a weight loss technique according to one Dutch peer reviewed article that focused on a Moroccan girl destroying her teeth. A quick search of PubMed shows that most of the peer reviewed articles on ACV involve people destroying their teeth and bones or burning themselves.

    Just because it is not supported in the current peer reviewed lit doesn't mean it doesn't work, however. Hippocrates and Galen also advocated honey for healing wounds, and just within the past few years the medical community has been raving about this great new antibacterial...honey! Vinegar also has antibacterial properties, and researchers are just starting to look into the benefits of fermentation, where unpasteurized cider might play a key role.

    Regarding weight loss, i think there is a lot to be said for the placebo effect, considering that the ability to lose weight is overwhelmingly a mental game. As long as the qty used is small and well diluted, it's not going to hurt to drink an unproven magical potion if it serves as the cornerstone for other heathy habits. It's no weirder a magical crutch than subtracting the weight of your eggshells from your calories count, a discussion I read with interest and amusement last week.

    The one problem with using woo as a weight loss tool is that a person believes that is what helps them and doesn't pay attention to what really causes weight loss. I'm not saying everyone who tries the ACV tonics will be a yo-yo dieter, but it seems to me that a lot of people that try things like that are constantly gaining weight back once they lose it. Someone who uses that while learning how to adjust their eating habits would probably be fine, but that appears to a be a small minority of people.
  • senecarr
    senecarr Posts: 5,377 Member
    tomteboda wrote: »
    Does anyone know where this dietary fad started, anyway?

    I always assumed it happened because someone misunderstood someone's advisement to "take some hard apple cider vinegar, and your troubles will go away".
  • summerkissed
    summerkissed Posts: 730 Member
    tomteboda wrote: »
    Does anyone know where this dietary fad started, anyway?

    My grandparents used it for years in cooking, for medicinal purposes and we have always used it on the farm, for the chooks as a mild antibacterial when molting, the goats for rumin troubles and Chrystalization in urinary track, the horses drink it also. Nan used it for water retention (as I do) pop used it for gout.....it's been around for many many years!
  • senecarr
    senecarr Posts: 5,377 Member
    tomteboda wrote: »
    Does anyone know where this dietary fad started, anyway?

    My grandparents used it for years in cooking, for medicinal purposes and we have always used it on the farm, for the chooks as a mild antibacterial when molting, the goats for rumin troubles and Chrystalization in urinary track, the horses drink it also. Nan used it for water retention (as I do) pop used it for gout.....it's been around for many many years!

    If they used it for medicinal purposes, doesn't it make it a medicine?
  • summerkissed
    summerkissed Posts: 730 Member
    tomteboda wrote: »
    Does anyone know where this dietary fad started, anyway?

    My grandparents used it for years in cooking, for medicinal purposes and we have always used it on the farm, for the chooks as a mild antibacterial when molting, the goats for rumin troubles and Chrystalization in urinary track, the horses drink it also. Nan used it for water retention (as I do) pop used it for gout.....it's been around for many many years!

    As for the weight loss fad I didn't actually know it had claims it could help you lose weight lol I had heard the alkalizing myth but we all know that's impossible!

  • summerkissed
    summerkissed Posts: 730 Member
    edited February 2016
    senecarr wrote: »
    tomteboda wrote: »
    Does anyone know where this dietary fad started, anyway?

    My grandparents used it for years in cooking, for medicinal purposes and we have always used it on the farm, for the chooks as a mild antibacterial when molting, the goats for rumin troubles and Chrystalization in urinary track, the horses drink it also. Nan used it for water retention (as I do) pop used it for gout.....it's been around for many many years!

    If they used it for medicinal purposes, doesn't it make it a medicine?

    Does it? I'm sure you will tell us.....
  • French_Peasant
    French_Peasant Posts: 1,639 Member
    senecarr wrote: »
    tomteboda wrote: »
    Does anyone know where this dietary fad started, anyway?

    My grandparents used it for years in cooking, for medicinal purposes and we have always used it on the farm, for the chooks as a mild antibacterial when molting, the goats for rumin troubles and Chrystalization in urinary track, the horses drink it also. Nan used it for water retention (as I do) pop used it for gout.....it's been around for many many years!

    If they used it for medicinal purposes, doesn't it make it a medicine?

    It makes it a φάρμακον. A medicine, a drug, a poison, a magical talisman, a recipe, a charm, a universal cure for all ailments, a tasty libation, and madness, all wrapped into one.
  • French_Peasant
    French_Peasant Posts: 1,639 Member
    Khovde07 wrote: »
    I was talking with my sister this weekend and telling her how my weight loss was going. She suggested taking 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar in the morning. Apparently some people swear by it. Something about alkaline and acidity. I started to tune her out as soon as she started because it sounded pretty hokey and the women in my family have a reputation of losing weight in the non-healthy way and trying to drag me into it (think eating 500 calories a day).

    But I'm having trouble seeing how this could be dangerous with only 1-2 tablespoons a day. It still seems hokey to me, though. Google articles were pretty split in opinions. Has anyone else heard of using ACV?

    I had the chance to take a deeper look at a peer-reviewed database, and found a smattering of double-blind, randomized, peer-reviewed articles that supported the notion that ACV has an effect on satiety, so there may be something to it, but more research is needed, obviously. Here are two articles linked from a glucose control subsection of a review article:

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16321601

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16015276

    Also, here is the review article that led to the satiety articles--well worth reading the whole thing, both for what might have some potential vs. what NOT to do, like burning your esophagus:

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1785201/#R50

    Your mileage, of course, may vary, but it appears to work for some people and has shown potential in the research.


  • tomteboda
    tomteboda Posts: 2,171 Member
    @jmbmilholland Thanks for the heads-up about Hippocrates & Galen. That doesn't surprise me overly much. I'd not categorize medicinal use as historical evidence of a dietary fad, nor discount it although a great many traditional medical approaches have some degree of efficacy.

    Of course acetic acid is an antibacterial agent. Apple cider vinegar (any vinegar) is acetic acid. My guess on its use in salads is that it provides a nice antiseptic and we've become accustomed to the astringent flavor. I see no harm in it, aside from acid erosion of the esophagus if you're drinking the stuff straight on a regular basis (gastric acid is also harmful to the esophagus but most of us survive random bouts with GI distress and vomiting without the damage of, say, a bulimic).

    I use it in my hair to strip residue, too (alternate with lemon juice, mixed with Epsom salts and do a final rinse of beer). I use vinegar in cooking for acidity. I've been known to put it on my salads, though I strongly prefer basalmic vinegar.


    Johnston, Carol S., and Cindy A. Gaas. "Vinegar: medicinal uses and antiglycemic effect." Medscape General Medicine 8.2 (2006): 61.

    This was an interesting review, and well-written, too. I'm not sure I agree with the import of all references cited, but it was no half-assed effort on the writer's part.

    I'm very cautious about any direct-from-cutting-edge-research recommendations to the general public. And I think its unfortunate that so many of these enter conventional wisdom so rapidly these days.
  • AmberSpamber
    AmberSpamber Posts: 391 Member
    There are always going to be those out there that disagree with it. Honestly, I felt the same way but I starting drinking 2 TB daily to assist with killing my candida overgrowth and noticed that it made me feel amazing so I continued drinking it. It gives me energy, has totally cleared up my skin and helps with my stomach issues. I've also noticed it it helps kick a cold fast! While taking it I did feel that it increased my weight loss- but its hard to say that it was in fact the ACV as it could have just been a kick *kitten* week ya know? Do some research and make an educated guess on that and on how you feel. It is NOT easy to get down in the beginning, so add a little lemon to the water to cover the taste... Now.... I crave it. :open_mouth:
  • auddii
    auddii Posts: 15,357 Member
    There are always going to be those out there that disagree with it. Honestly, I felt the same way but I starting drinking 2 TB daily to assist with killing my candida overgrowth and noticed that it made me feel amazing so I continued drinking it. It gives me energy, has totally cleared up my skin and helps with my stomach issues. I've also noticed it it helps kick a cold fast! While taking it I did feel that it increased my weight loss- but its hard to say that it was in fact the ACV as it could have just been a kick *kitten* week ya know? Do some research and make an educated guess on that and on how you feel. It is NOT easy to get down in the beginning, so add a little lemon to the water to cover the taste... Now.... I crave it. :open_mouth:

    So, what is the biological mechanism of ingestion of vinegar resulting in the elimination of rhinovirus from the body?
  • senecarr
    senecarr Posts: 5,377 Member
    There are always going to be those out there that disagree with it. Honestly, I felt the same way but I starting drinking 2 TB daily to assist with killing my candida overgrowth and noticed that it made me feel amazing so I continued drinking it. It gives me energy, has totally cleared up my skin and helps with my stomach issues. I've also noticed it it helps kick a cold fast! While taking it I did feel that it increased my weight loss- but its hard to say that it was in fact the ACV as it could have just been a kick *kitten* week ya know? Do some research and make an educated guess on that and on how you feel. It is NOT easy to get down in the beginning, so add a little lemon to the water to cover the taste... Now.... I crave it. :open_mouth:

    You had a medically diagnosed candida overgrowth and physician advised taking apple cider vinegar instead of a prescription anti-fungal?
  • raychl88
    raychl88 Posts: 12 Member
    Not diet related...but I've been using diluted organic/raw ACV as a facial toner every other day and am happy with the results so far :)
  • summerkissed
    summerkissed Posts: 730 Member
    There are always going to be those out there that disagree with it. Honestly, I felt the same way but I starting drinking 2 TB daily to assist with killing my candida overgrowth and noticed that it made me feel amazing so I continued drinking it. It gives me energy, has totally cleared up my skin and helps with my stomach issues. I've also noticed it it helps kick a cold fast! While taking it I did feel that it increased my weight loss- but its hard to say that it was in fact the ACV as it could have just been a kick *kitten* week ya know? Do some research and make an educated guess on that and on how you feel. It is NOT easy to get down in the beginning, so add a little lemon to the water to cover the taste... Now.... I crave it. :open_mouth:

    Yes I hate it when I run out! I thinks it's one of natures little gems :wink:
This discussion has been closed.