You probably have a bottle of vinegar in your cupboard for use in dressings and recipes, but you likely didn’t know that vinegar can be beneficial for your health.
In fact, daily vinegar consumption can lower your weight and protect you from a variety of health problems.
1. Vinegar and Heart Disease Risk Factors
Regularly consuming vinegar can improve risk factors for heart disease, including cholesterol levels.
A 2012 study in the Life Science Journal found that several different types of vinegar lowered artery-clogging LDL cholesterol and triglycerides in diabetic rats. (1)
The vinegar also increased levels of healthy HDL cholesterol.
A second study in a 2007 publication of the Iranian Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism found that white vinegar significantly decreased LDL cholesterol levels while increasing HDL cholesterol levels in healthy rats.(2)
Furthermore, researchers for a 2011 edition of the Journal of Korean Forestry Society found that persimmon vinegar reduced triglycerides and LDL cholesterol levels in rats that were fed a high-fat diet.(3)
2. Vinegar’s Impact on Body Weight and Body Fat
You may find yourself in a smaller pants size if you add vinegar to your diet. In a 2009 study in Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Biochemistry, obese Japanese adults who consumed vinegar every day significantly reduced their body weight, waist circumferences, and visceral fat levels when compared to those who were given a placebo.(4)
In animal research, persimmon vinegar has been associated with lower abdominal fat levels among rats on a high-fat diet, according to researchers for the 2011 publication of the Journal of Korean Forestry Society.(3)
3. Blood Sugar Levels Reduced with Vinegar
Adding vinegar to your diet can reduce your risk of diabetes, or lower your blood sugar levels if you have already been diagnosed with the condition.
Researchers for a 2013 edition of TheFASEB Journal completed a 12-week study with individuals who were at risk of developing diabetes. (5)
One group of study participants served as a control, and the other group consumed 2 tablespoons of vinegar per day.
Fasting blood sugar levels decreased significantly among participants who consumed vinegar.
In patients with diabetes, daily vinegar consumption can slightly reduce A1c levels, according to the results of a 2009 study in Diabetes Research & Clinical Practice.(6)
Vinegar can also regulate blood sugar levels after a high-carbohydrate meal. Typically, when a person consumes carbohydrates, his or her blood sugar level increases.
A 2005 study in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that vinegar reduced this increase in blood sugar levels after participants consumed 50 grams of carbohydrates. (7)
A second study in the same journal found that adding vinegar to a potato meal also reduced this post-meal increase in blood sugar.(8)
4. Vinegar and Appetite Control
Including vinegar in your diet could also keep you from turning to snack foods between meals.
Researchers for a 2012 edition of The FASEB Journal found that 15 minutes after breakfast, satiety levels were higher among those who consumed 30 milliliters of apple cider vinegar with their meal than in those who did not have vinegar.(9)
Animal research has provided similar results. In 2012, researchers for Life Science Journal found that food intake was lower among rats who were given vinegar than it was among rats in a control group.(10)
Conclusion
Adding vinegar to your diet could control your appetite and keep you from mindlessly snacking on potato chips between meals, in addition to lowering your risk for heart disease and diabetes.
It can also keep you slim. If you cannot tolerate the taste of vinegar on its own, consider adding a tablespoon of it to a bottle of water.
Chances are, you will not notice the taste. You can also use vinegar to make salad dressings or to add flavor to vegetables, meat, and pasta.
Researches and references
(1) http://www.lifesciencesite.com/lsj/life0904/319_12252life0904_2141_2151.pdf
(2) http://ijem.sbmu.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-31-33&slc_lang=en&sid=1&sw=vinegar
(3) http://www.koreascience.or.kr/article/ArticleFullRecord.jsp?cn=HOMHBJ_2011_v100n2_232
(4) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19661687
(5) http://www.fasebj.org/cgi/content/meeting_abstract/27/1_MeetingAbstracts/1079.56
(6) http://www.diabetesresearchclinicalpractice.com/article/S0168-8227%2809%2900081-3/abstract
(7) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16015276
(8) http://www.nature.com/ejcn/journal/v59/n11/full/1602238a.html
(9) http://www.fasebj.org/cgi/content/meeting_abstract/26/1_MeetingAbstracts/638.15?sid=1669c8ca-1efe-46e0-b5cb-a13520bbf7b3
(10) http://www.lifesciencesite.com/lsj/life0904/360_10755life0904_2431_2440.pdf
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