They say an apple a day keeps the doctor away, but what about apple cider vinegar (ACV)? It seems like every time I turn around, I’m reading something new about its miraculous healing benefits, and grocery stores now stock it in both the condiment and the vitamin aisles. Is ACV a modern-day snake oil, or is there something to all the hype?
A Long History of Healing
Though ACV has become big news only recently, its healing properties are nothing novel. In Apple Cider Vinegar: History and Folklore, Victoria Rose writes that people all over the world have used the liquid to treat various ailments for at least ten thousand years. The Babylonians used it as a condiment and a preservative. Hippocrates, the father of medicine, and his fellow Greeks and Romans relied on its healing properties. ACV has also been found in Egyptian urns dating back to 3,000 BC.
More recently, medieval Parisians used ACV as a deodorant and healing tonic, believing it capable of preserving youth. Japanese samurai also drank it for vitality. Christopher Columbus carried the liquid in barrels aboard his ships because it helped to prevent scurvy—though vitamin C wasn’t actually discovered until much later, in 1933—and American Civil War doctors used it to clean wounds and sterilize instruments.
Americans started using ACV in the 1950s, after author D.C. Jarvis promoted it in his best-selling book, Folk Medicine: A Vermont Doctor’s Guide to Good Health, as a kitchen remedy for head lice and poor digestion, among other afflictions. Then its popularity took off as part of the alternative-medicine movement of recent years.
The ABCs of ACV
ACV is the product of a fermentation process in which bacteria and yeast break down the sugars in pulverized apples and turn them into alcohol, which then becomes acetic acid, or vinegar (from the French for “sour wine”). During fermentation, a thick layer—called the “mother of vinegar”—forms on the bottom of the liquid. Proponents of ACV consider this “mother,” which they say contains living enzymes and beneficial bacteria, especially valuable and opt for raw and unpasteurized (rather than distilled) vinegar to cultivate it.
Vinegar’s main property is its acidity, but different vinegars have other acids, vitamins, mineral salts, and amino acids. According to several natural-health sources, ACV contains vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin A, vitamin B1, vitamin B2, vitamin B6, beta-carotene, bioflavonoids, acetic acid, propionic acid, lactic acid, enzymes, amino acids, potash, and apple pectin. It also contains the minerals and trace elements potassium, calcium, magnesium, phosphorous, sodium, copper, and iron.
Good for You Inside ...
Nowadays, ACV is most popular as a purported weight-loss aid. A tablespoon a day taken before meals, some claim, will help to curb appetite and increase metabolism. According to Mayo Clinic nutritionist Katherine Zeratsky, RD, LD, there’s no evidence to support such beliefs, but a 2005 study found that consuming small amounts of vinegar with meals helped people increase feelings of satiety. It doesn’t have to be ACV, though; plain old white vinegar will do.
Researchers have also tested claims about ACV’s benefits for diabetes, cholesterol, blood pressure, heart health, and cancer. A 2007 study published in Diabetes Care showed that eleven people taking two tablespoons of ACV before bed lowered their morning glucose levels by 4 to 6 percent. Two laboratory studies of rats in 2006 suggested that ACV may also lower cholesterol and blood pressure. And research at the University of Texas indicates that all vinegar may be able to kill or inhibit the growth of cancer cells, especially esophageal cancer.
Less researched is the alkaline-acid theory. Some in the alternative-health sphere believe that most ailments—especially inflammatory diseases like diabetes, arthritis, and allergies—are caused by bodily pH levels that are too low. The way to correct that imbalance, according to the theory, is to replace grains, meat, and dairy products (all acidic foods) with a plant-based diet and to consume ACV daily. It seems counterintuitive—combat acidity with an acid? But believers in the alkaline-acid theory argue that ACV, alone among the vinegars, has an alkalizing effect on the body, making it an effective cure for everything from the common cold to clinical depression.
