Can drinking vinegar really lose weight?

Question: Does apple cider vinegar really help you lose weight? Does it have other health benefits?

Answer: Humans have used various forms of vinegar such as apple vinegar, red wine vinegar, rice vinegar, and distilled white vinegar as medicinal materials for centuries. Hippocrates once suggested using vinegar to treat sores. It is also used to soothe jellyfish stings, said Carol S. Johnston, deputy director of the Arizona State University Nutrition Program. But despite rumors on the Internet that vinegar has new effects as an aid in dieting and suppressing appetite, drinking vinegar can only help you lose weight if "you are a very, very patient person."

Much of the claim that vinegar can lose weight is based on a 2009 clinical trial among obese adults in Japan, which found that people who drank drinks containing one or two tablespoons of vinegar a day lost 2 to 4 pounds after 12 weeks, or 0.9 to 1.8 kilograms, while a control group who drank a given regular drink did not lose weight. The study used apple cider vinegar because researchers believed it tasted relatively good.

Dr. Johnston said several studies have shown that drinking a small amount of vinegar before eating meals containing starch can inhibit starch digestion to some extent, thereby reducing subsequent blood sugar responses by 20% to 40%.

"Vinegar can take away some of the starch, or it can make some of the starch a little like cellulose, making some of the starch not digested," she explained, adding that in vitro studies have shown that acetic acid in vinegar inhibits enzymes that help digest starch.

Dr. Johnston's own research also found that people who drank a tablespoon of vinegar had lower fasting blood sugar levels. Swedish researchers also reported that people who drank vinegar felt more full, but other researchers believed the effect was due to the nausea.

Dr. David S. Ludwig, professor of nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health,"Always Hungry?" The author, who literally translates it as "Hungry", said that slowing the rise in blood sugar after a meal can help lose weight.

Dr. Ludwig said: "The main problem with modern diets is that the refined carbohydrates we eat are digested and absorbed too quickly, causing blood sugar and insulin to surge and then drop sharply after a few hours," triggering the next round of hunger. He advocates eating carbohydrates that are slowly digested, such as beans, fruits, vegetables and whole grains. However, he warned that vinegar should be used "in doses that have been consumed by humans for hundreds of years, rather than pharmacological doses" and called for more research.

Pure vinegar is difficult to swallow and may cause you to suck out of your breath, inhale vinegar into your lungs by mistake, causing pneumonia. Published case reports have linked vinegar consumption to vocal cord cramps, fainting and esophageal damage. Doctors in the Netherlands reported a case of a 15-year-old girl who insisted on drinking a cup of apple cider vinegar a day to lose weight, and her teeth were corroded.

When someone tells Dr. Johnston that they want to try vinegar to help lose weight,"I always tell them to dilute it to 8 ounces of water 0.22 kilograms of 1 tablespoon of vinegar and eat it with the first bite." The goal is to mix this acid and starch into the intestines." Any vinegar will do as long as it contains at least 5% acetic acid, but she points out that certain fancy vinegar drinks contain added sugar, which can lead to an increase in calorie counts.

However, several dietitians working with people with diabetes urge people to exercise caution. Dr. Margaret Powers, director of health and education at the American Diabetes Association, registered dietitian and diabetes educator, said drinking vinegar is not part of any of the association's nutritional recommendations. She said vinegar should not be seen as a "panacea" to lose weight or manage diabetes.

Katherine Zeratsky, a nutritionist and registered dietitian at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, agrees. "There is nothing wrong with vinegar itself," she said. "But if someone with diabetes thinks,'Oh yeah, if I don't want to take medicine, I can treat myself with vinegar,' then my advice is: No." There are also rumors touting that applying vinegar to the skin can treat onychomycosis, head lice and warts, but there is little scientific evidence to support the effectiveness of these treatments.