The ACV for Weight Loss Myth

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If you’ve been hearing a lot of health benefits about apple cider vinegar, you’re definitely not the only one. But do any of these benefits have any merit, and can these benefits help with weight loss?

Let’s take a practical look at apple cider vinegar, so you can decide if it’s actually worth adding into your weight loss diet.

How is apple cider vinegar made?

Apple cider vinegar (ACV) is made by fermenting apples with yeast and bacteria. The process involves several steps:

1. Crush apples: Crushed apples are placed in a large container or vat.
2. Add yeast: Yeast is added to the crushed apples to convert the natural sugars in the apples into alcohol. This is called alcoholic fermentation.
3. Add bacteria: Bacteria called Acetobacter are then added to the mixture, which converts the alcohol into acetic acid. This is called acetic acid fermentation.
4. Ferment: The mixture is allowed to ferment for several weeks or months, depending on the desired strength and flavor of the vinegar.
5. Strain: After fermentation is complete, the vinegar is strained and bottled.

Where it goes from here differs depending on the manufacturer:

• At the most refined end, the apple cider vinegar is pasteurized and filtered until clear. The result is a vinegar that is very similar in composition to regular white vinegar.
• At the least refined end, the apple cider vinegar is neither pasteurized nor heavily filtered. The result is a cloudy liquid with some sedimentation called the “mother”, which most people associate with the most “beneficial” form of apple cider vinegar.

Nutritional benefits

ACV is a low-calorie, acidic liquid that contains several vitamins and minerals. Unfortunately, most of the nutrients are only present in very low concentrations, meaning ACV is not a significant source of these nutrients.

Here are some of the nutrients that can be found in apple cider vinegar:

• Acetic Acid: ACV is high in acetic acid, which has been linked to various health benefits, including improved insulin sensitivity and blood sugar control.
• Potassium: ACV contains small amounts of potassium, a mineral that plays a crucial role in maintaining fluid balance in the body and supporting heart health.
• Magnesium: ACV contains small amounts of magnesium, which is important for muscle and nerve function, bone health, and the production of DNA and protein.
• Vitamin C: ACV contains a small amount of vitamin C, an antioxidant that helps protect cells from damage and supports immune function.
• B Vitamins: ACV contains small amounts of B vitamins, including thiamin, riboflavin, and vitamin B6, which are important for energy production, brain function, and the metabolism of nutrients.
• Probiotics: ACV that contains the mother contains trace amounts of bacteria used during the fermentation process.

Benefits for weight loss?

The idea that apple cider vinegar (ACV) could be helpful for weight loss is not new and has been around for decades. However, there is limited scientific evidence to support this claim, and the origin of this idea is not entirely clear.

Some people believe that the association between ACV and weight loss began with a study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association in 2005, which found that consuming vinegar with a high-carbohydrate meal led to greater feelings of fullness and satiety in participants, potentially leading to lower calorie intake later in the day. This study did not specifically look at ACV but rather vinegar in general.

Others believe that the idea gained popularity due to a marketing push by companies selling ACV supplements or products. There have been claims made by some companies that ACV can boost metabolism, suppress appetite, and help burn fat. However, there is limited scientific evidence to support these claims.

Let’s go over some of the common claims made about ACV that are related to weight loss.

Blood sugar control

The first claim is that apple cider vinegar can help with glucose control. The idea is that apple cider vinegar helps your body to better use glucose and carbohydrates in your body to convert it into energy, and hopefully leave less of it for fat production.

In theory, controlling blood sugar levels might help with weight loss, particularly in those with poor glucose control like insulin resistant individuals and diabetics.

There are some studies that look at vinegar to help control and lower blood sugar levels that have shown some mild benefits.

Unfortunately, none of them has definitively shown that this effect on blood sugar actually translates to any substantial weight loss.

There are plenty of reasons why this might be the case. Most likely, the mild effects on blood sugar are not enough to have an impact.

So you might see some small effects on controlling blood sugar by taking apple cider vinegar, it’s just not likely going to affect your weight.

Another interesting thing to note is that many of these studies are simply using acetic acid, or regular white vinegar, not necessarily apple cider vinegar.

So you likely don’t even need to use apple apple cider vinegar to achieve this effect, and could just use regular white vinegar.

Anyways, if you really wanted to control your blood sugar levels, a far more effective method would be to simply decrease your intake of sugars and carbohydrates in the first place, and increase your dietary intake of healthy fats and proteins.

Appetite and digestion

Another commonly claimed benefit is the ability of apple cider vinegar to help with appetite and digestion. The claimed mechanisms are two-fold:

1. The ability of apple cider vinegar to help stimulate digestive enzymes, and
2. To increase acidity in the stomach to help break down food.

Let’s talk about the first one. You may notice that when you taste something sour, you begin to salivate. Apple cider vinegar is quite sour and can help achieve this effect.

This is true for some people, sour flavors help to promote salivation, and release more enzymes to help break down food.

Unfortunately, this frequently increases appetite, and if you’re trying to control or reduce your appetite, stimulating it is probably the last thing you’d want to do for weight loss.

Let’s talk about the second one. Your stomach produces acid to help break down food. Apple cider vinegar is quite acidic, with approximately a pH of 2.5. So having some apple cider vinegar should help with increasing acidity right?

Well stomach acid is quite a bit more acidic than apple cider vinegar, with a pH of approximately 1.5. That’s a pH difference of 1.

Doesn’t seem like a lot, however the pH system is based on a logarithmic scale, meaning that a difference of 1 means that stomach acid is actually 10 times more acidic than apple cider vinegar per volume.

Given that the average adult stomach produces about 1.2 to 1.5 liters of stomach acid a day, and you can see why having 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar is a bit like pouring a cup of water into a lake to increase the water levels.

It’s not really going to make a difference.

If you really do have low stomach acid issues, I suggest just taking a digestive enzyme, or betaine HCl to more effectively manage low stomach acid levels.

Probiotics and nutrients

If you’ve taken a look at apple cider vinegar, you’ll notice that unfiltered apple cider vinegar contains a sediment at the bottom, known as the “mother”.

This sediment contains the residual products of production. It contains small amounts of fiber, minerals, and bacteria leftover from the fermentation process.

Some people claim that this sediment is what makes apple cider vinegar so beneficial.

You just need to take a brief look at the nutritional label and you’ll find out that the nutritional value of this small amount of sediment is miniscule. There’s basically no vitamins, a small amount of potassium, but nothing much else.

Realistically, the amount of probiotic bacteria that you’re getting from the sediment is going to be very small.

You’ll probably get more benefits from the probiotic fortified yogurts you get from the supermarket, or better yet from a probiotic supplement.

Also, not all probiotic strains are beneficial for human health. If you really want to get some probiotics into your diet, I suggest just taking a probiotic supplement.

Improved energy

Here’s another benefit that’s a little more anecdotal. I’ve heard a lot of patients tell me that it improves their energy in the morning or before a workout.

Apple cider vinegar doesn’t really provide any energy itself. It’s not going to be like drinking caffeine or coffee.

But if you’ve tasted something really sour, you might notice it seems to awaken all the senses, kind of like biting into a lemon.

So it might kind of perk you up temporarily in that way if you have a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar before a workout or in the morning.

In this case, you’d have to take the apple cider vinegar as a liquid, since you need to taste it, and apple cider vinegar supplements in pill form would be useless for this particular benefit.

Risks of ACV use

Although ACV is mostly safe to use, there are some of the possible risks of taking ACV, mostly related to the acidity:

• Tooth enamel erosion: ACV is highly acidic, and consuming it regularly or in excessive amounts may lead to tooth enamel erosion and tooth sensitivity.
• Digestive issues: ACV can irritate the digestive system and may cause symptoms such as stomach pain, bloating, and diarrhea, especially when consumed in large amounts.
• Delayed stomach emptying: ACV can slow down how quickly food leaves the stomach. This can cause problems for people with diabetes who have a condition called gastroparesis, making it harder to control blood sugar levels. This may increase the risk of low blood sugar episodes, especially in people who take insulin before meals.
• Damage to esophagus: Consuming undiluted ACV long-term may damage the esophagus due to its acidic nature.

• Skin irritation: Applying undiluted ACV to the skin may cause irritation, burning, and itching.

Apple cider vinegar comparisons

ACV vs white vinegar

Because so many of the benefits of ACV are related to the acetic acid, or vinegar component, you might be wondering if you could just use white vinegar instead.

For the most part, yes you could. The acetic acid content is pretty similar for both. In fact, I would say both are practically the same for their effects on weight, with apple cider vinegar having just a small amount of additional potassium.

A big difference between the two however, is the way both are produced commercially.

Apple cider vinegar comes from the dual fermentation of mashed up apples. Much like winemaking, the starting ingredients are naturally grown, and the process is largely biochemical in nature.

White vinegar used to be sourced from the fermentation of other plants like barley, grains, and grapes, much like apple cider vinegar was sourced from apples.

However, most distilled white vinegar today comes from an industrial process that converts large amounts of a toxic chemical called methanol into acetic acid in a process called Methanol carbonylation.

This process does put the white vinegar into contact with some toxic industrial chemicals, and although the distillation and purification process afterwards typically removes all these nasty chemicals, there are some people who are still concerned about trace amounts of these chemicals remaining.

I would say the risk is very low, since the distillation process is highly pure and is considered food-safe by the FDA. Also you’re typically only consuming like a tablespoon or two of this stuff per day, so any hypothetical impurities would be insignificant.

But if this still bothers you, that would be one of the few times I would consider apple cider vinegar over distilled white vinegar for weight loss.

Keep in mind that the cost for distilled white vinegar is far cheaper than organic apple cider vinegar, sometimes costing around 100 times less per volume. So if cost is a big factor for you, white vinegar is probably the way to go.

ACV vs lemon juice

What about lemon juice? Is it the same thing as apple cider vinegar?

Although they both taste sour, and have about the same acidity, or pH level, the source of lemon juice’s sourness comes from citric acid, rather than acetic acid.

These are completely different chemicals. So strictly speaking, they’re completely different from a nutrition and biochemical standpoint.

Nutrition-wise, lemon juice has a good amount of vitamin C, and small amounts of fruit sugar in it, but the overall calories provided by both are low.

For weight loss, the overlapping benefits lemon juice would have with apple cider vinegar would only be the things related to the sourness, like perking yourself up due to the sour taste, but beyond that nothing else.

ACV liquid vs pills vs gummies

If you really do want to try apple cider vinegar, aim for the unfiltered, organic apple cider vinegar.

Don’t bother with those apple cider vinegar pills or gummies, since you’re getting so little actual apple cider vinegar in those things.

Most of those pills or gummies have at most half a gram of apple cider vinegar per pill. There are 15 grams in a tablespoon of liquid.

You’ll need to take 60 or more of these pills or gummies per day if you’re planning to take the equivalent of 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar per day. That’s like the whole bottle.

How to use it for weight loss

If you have blood sugar issues like insulin resistance or are a type 2 diabetic, it might mildly help with blood sugar control. There’s also some weak evidence it might slightly help with cholesterol levels, if you have cholesterol problems.

However, it is not really going to be effective for weight loss. Much of the hype around apple cider vinegar appears to be more driven by a marketing push, rather than actual health benefits.

So, if you’re not sure about trying apple cider vinegar, a cheap alternative could be simply trying regular white vinegar, and seeing if that helps especially if you already have it at home.

Therapeutically, having white vinegar is not that much different than having apple cider vinegar for weight loss.

While I have nothing against people using apple cider vinegar for weight loss, I don’t believe it’ll be a game-changer for most people. And for those who do find it’s a game-changer, I suspect that if they switched to regular vinegar, they probably wouldn’t notice too much of a difference.

Can I have ACV while fasting?

Yes, you can have apple cider vinegar while fasting or intermittent fasting. In fact, some people find that consuming apple cider vinegar while fasting may have benefits such as improving digestion, increasing feelings of fullness, and stabilizing blood sugar levels.

However, these benefits are mostly perceived benefits, and highly dependant on the individual. For example, some individuals find that ACV stimulates their appetite and increases hunger.

Although ACV tends to be low enough in calories to not cause a break in most people’s fast, it is important to note that consuming any calories during a fasted state can technically break the fast, as it can trigger the release of insulin and disrupt the metabolic processes involved in fasting.

If your goal is to reap the benefits of fasting, it is best to consume apple cider vinegar during your feeding window or to limit your intake to a small amount (such as a tablespoon or less) during your fast.

Top supplement choices

• ACV (caps) – 10 to 20 caps / day
• ACV (liquid) – 1 to 2 tbsp / day

Learn more about

• Doctor Reviews: Keto ACV Gummies
• Other foods for weight loss
• Other weight loss supplements

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