Drinking apple cider vinegar daily is a sure way of improving every aspect of your health.
Raw, organic, unfiltered and unpasteurized apple cider vinegar (or 'ACV' for short) is one of the oldest and most useful remedies on Earth. It contains a wealth of raw enzymes and beneficial bacteria which are responsible for the majority of its health benefits.
Just keep in mind that you should never drink apple cider vinegar straight as it can burn your esophagus. Instead, mix one tablespoon with 8 ounces of water. If you don't like the taste, use a straw to minimize contact with your taste buds and teeth.
The following top 10 reasons you should start drinking a modest amount of ACV every day.
1. It will help your body maintain a healthy alkaline pH level.
Most of us tend to be more acidic than alkaline. One of the first steps toward better health is a body that's more alkaline. As the acid-alkaline balance is essential, with so many bodily functions occurring only at a certain level of acidity or alkalinity, the body is constantly striving to achieve a state of equilibrium. Just a small change in pH can have a profound effect on body functioning.
The first step towards great health begins with helping the body become more alkaline. The acid-alkaline balance is important. Many enzymes and chemical reactions in the body work best at a particular pH, and research has shown that high acid levels lead to a lack of energy, and higher incidences of infections, diseases and cancer.
While you might think that raw organic ACV is acidic, when consumed, it actually becomes alkaline. Acid forming foods includes processed foods, alcohol, sugar and other simple carbohydrates. Keeping your body more alkaline will naturally help keep your energy levels up and better able it to fight off illness and diseases.
2. It promotes healthy detoxification of the Liver and other organs.
In the process of helping to balance the body's pH, ACV works to help detoxify the body. Research has found that it specifically helps detox the liver, and that it can help stimulate circulation. ACV boasts a variety of healing processes for the skin and blood, helping to remove harmful environmental toxins that build up in the body, especially in the liver. It helps to flush it out and improve the natural blood filtration process while boosting energy levels. Another way ACV helps to detox the body is by breaking up mucus and cleansing the lymph nodes, which allows for better lymph circulation. When your lymphatic system is healthy, it can remove toxins from cells and improve the immune system response.
3. Drinking Apple Cider Vinegar eases digestive ailments.
ACV is very effective when it comes to a variety of digestive disorders as it stimulates digestive enzymes that help the body breakdown food. It can help indigestion, bloating, gas and even heartburn. In fact, experts say that taking just a teaspoon of ACV with a glass of water will bring relief from heartburn. Some theories suggest that heartburn occurs due to low stomach acid levels, and ACV helps bring that level up. Additionally, the healthy acids found in ACV, including acetic, isobutryic, lactic and propionic acid aids better digestion by controlling the growth of unwanted yeast and bacteria in the stomach and throughout the body.
4. Drinking Apple Cider Vinegar can help to prevent Osteoporosis.
More than one in four women in America over the age of 65 has been diagnosed with osteoporosis. To get this diagnosis means that they've lost 50 to 75 precent of the original bone material from their skeleton. This frightening condition is estimated to affect 200 million women worldwide - about one of every 10 women aged 60, one of every five women aged 70, and two of every five women aged 80.
Obviously, preventing this disease before it ravages your bones is key, and as ACV aids in the nutrient absorption of calcium, an essential mineral for preventing osteoporosis, it's one of the best tools you can use to reduce your risk. By drinking it before or after each meal, before bed or on an empty it will help to ensure proper calcium absorption and breaking the nutrients easier to strengthen your bones.
5. Can kill many types of bad bacteria.
Vinegar can help kill pathogens and some other bad bacteria. It has traditionally been used for cleaning and disinfecting, treating nail fungus, lice, warts and ear infections. The main substance in vinegar, acetic acid, can kill bacteria and/or prevent them from multiplying and reaching harmful levels. It has a history of use as a disinfectant and natural preservative.
6. Lowers blood sugar levels and fights diabetes.
By far the most successful application of vinegar to date is in patients with type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is characterised by elevated blood sugars, either in the context of insulin resistance or an inability to produce insulin. However, elevated blood sugar can also be a problem in people who don't have diabetes. It is believed to be a major cause of ageing and various chronic diseases.
So, basically everyone would benefit from keeping their blood sugar levels stable.
The most effective way to do that is to avoid refined carbs and sugar, but apple cider vinegar may also have a powerful effect.
Vinegar has been shown to have numerous benefits for insulin function and blood sugar levels:
Improves insulin sensitivity during a high-carb meal by 19-34% and significantly lowers blood glucose and insulin responses. Reduces blood sugar by 34% when eating 50 grams of white bread.
2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar before bedtime can reduce fasting blood sugars by 4%.
For these reasons, vinegar can be useful for people with diabetes, pre-diabetes, or those who want to keep their blood sugar levels low to normal for other reasons.
7. Helps you lose weight by making you feel full
Several human studies suggest that vinegar can increase satiety, help you eat fewer macros and calories, even lead to actual lost kgs on the scale.
Vinegar along with high-carb meals can increase feelings of fullness and make people eat 200-275 fewer calories for the rest of the day. By reducing calorie intake, this should translate to reduced weight over time.
A study in obese individuals showed that daily vinegar consumption led to reduced belly fat, waist circumference, lower blood triglycerides and weight loss:
15mL (1 tablespoon): Lost 2.6 pounds, or 1.2 kilograms.
30mL (2 tablespoons): Lost 3.7 pounds, or 1.7 kilograms.
However, keep in mind that this study went on for 12 weeks, so the true effects on body weight seem to be rather modest.
That being said, just adding/subtracting single foods or ingredients rarely has a noticeable effect on weight. It's the entire diet/lifestyle that counts. You need to combine several effective methods to see results.
Overall, it seems like apple cider vinegar may be useful as a weight loss aid, mainly by promoting satiety and lowering glucose and insulin levels. But it won't work any miracles on its own.
8. Lowers cholesterol and reduces your risk of heart disease.
Cardiovascular disease (heart disease and stroke) is arguably one of the world's biggest causes of death. It is known that several measurable biological factors are linked to either a decreased or increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Several of these "risk factors" have been shown to be improved by vinegar consumption.
These studies showed that apple cider vinegar can lower cholesterol and triglyceride levels. Apple cider vinegar may also contain the antioxidant chlorogenic acid, which has been shown to protect LDL cholesterol particles from becoming oxidized, a crucial step in the heart disease process. There are also some studies showing that vinegar reduces blood pressure a major risk factor.
9. May have protective effects against cancer.
Cancer is a terrible disease, characterized by uncontrolled growth of cells.
There is a lot of hype online about the anti-cancer effects of apple cider vinegar.
Some studies have shown that vinegar can kill cancer cells and shrink tumours.
It is possible that apple cider vinegar may help to prevent cancer, but it is definitely premature to make any recommendations based on the current research.
10. It assists In the fight against Free Radical Damage
You've probably heard the term "free radicals," but do you really know what it means? The technical definition is that it's a molecule or atom that has an unpaired electron in its outer orbit. Free radicals are continually created in order to carry on the metabolic activity of the body and are essential to life. They fight infection by killing a variety of germs that we become infected with, but, when there is an overproduction of free radicals, it can cause all sorts of problems.
If there are more free radicals that can be handled by enzymes or antioxidant nutrients, it can cause oxidative damage to cell membranes, tissues, proteins and even DNA, which may result in diseases like ulcers, emphysema, arthritis and immune disorders. In fact, just about every disease you can think of is caused by free radicals.
And, the damage that's caused isn't limited to our inner body; it affects our outer appearance as well, resulting in wrinkles and a more haggard look.
While avoiding free radicals completely is virtually impossible, we can minimize our exposure and neutralize their effects by eating more antioxidants that stop free radicals from causing extensive damage. Antioxidants, found in a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, and some other foods, like apple cider vinegar, helps to reduce free radicals in the body.
From the little evidence available, I think that apple cider vinegar may be useful and is definitely a good candidate for some self-experimentation if you're interested in it. At the very least, apple cider vinegar seems to be safe. There are no side effects noted with normal consumption.
The best way to incorporate it into your diet is to use it in your cooking, for salad dressings, some people also like to dilute it in water and drink it as a beverage. Common dosages range from 1-2 teaspoons (5-10 ml) to 1-2 tablespoons (15-30 ml) per day. Definitely don't go above that, because excess consumption of anything may have harmful effects.
It is recommended to use organic, unfiltered apple cider vinegar with the "mother." Bragg's is by far the most popular option. It's not a "miracle" or a "cure-all" like some people seems to believe, but it does clearly have some important health benefits, especially for blood sugar and weight control.
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