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Apple Cider Vinegar · Malus domestica
Herbs & Plants
Apple Cider Vinegar
Malus domestica
Apple cider vinegar is apple juice fermented twice — once into cider, and again into acid. The cloudy strands at the bottom of an unfiltered bottle are the culture that did the second half.
Benefits
Blunts the rise that follows a plate of bread, rice or pasta.
It moves the average a person carries, not only the spike after a plate of food.
Total cholesterol comes down; the other blood fats do not move.
What It Is Known For
The trials that measured it were measuring blood sugar, and weight is not what moved.
They carry sugar and almost no vinegar, which is the wrong way round.
There is nothing here to measure and nothing has tried.
It can make heartburn worse rather than better, which is the opposite of how it is sold.
Key Active Compounds
What makes vinegar sour, and the reason it acts on blood sugar.
The cloudy culture left in unfiltered bottles.
Traditionally Used
Diluted in water and used around the house.
How to Take It / Use It
Stir 1 tablespoon into a large glass of water and drink it just before a meal. Never drink it neat.
Why It Works
Acid makes the stomach empty more slowly, so sugar reaches the blood in a gentler wave.
Cautions
Vinegar dissolves tooth enamel, so drink it through a straw and rinse your mouth with water afterward.
Never drink it undiluted, because it can burn the throat and the food pipe.
Vinegar can make heartburn worse rather than better.
Vinegar slows how fast the stomach empties, which is a problem for anyone whose stomach already empties slowly.
Heavy daily use over years has pushed potassium low enough to cause trouble.
Where It Comes From
Cider vinegar is made wherever apples grow. Crushed apples ferment first into cider, and a second fermentation turns the alcohol into acid. Unfiltered bottles keep the culture that did it, which is what the cloudy strands are.
How We Choose It
We check every product so you don't have to. A apple cider vinegar only makes our list if:
- Any vinegar does this, not only apple cider. The acid is what works, so a cheap bottle of white or wine vinegar does the same job.
- Raw and unfiltered, with the mother. The cloudy sediment is the live culture, and filtered vinegar has had it stripped out.
- One ingredient: apple cider vinegar. Nothing sweetened, colored or flavored.
- Sold in glass, not plastic. Acid pulls compounds out of plastic over months on a shelf.
- No gummies. They carry sugar and almost no vinegar.
If no product meets these standards, we don't list one. No exceptions for affiliates.
See our picks
Sources3
- Vinegar consumption and post-meal glucose and insulin: systematic review and meta-analysis. Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice. Meta-analysis
- Examination of the antiglycemic properties of vinegar in healthy adults. Trial
- University of Chicago Medicine. Apple cider vinegar, what holds and what does not. Article