The Best 5 Health Benefits of Apple Cider Vinegar

What are the health benefits of apple cider vinegar? Apple cider vinegar is commonly used in salad dressings and other recipes, but its applications go far beyond cooking. In fact, apple cider vinegar is full of amazing health benefits. What are those benefits, you might ask?

Let’s explore the top 5 health benefits of apple cider vinegar right now.

Health Benefits of Apple Cider Vinegar

Many of apple cider vinegar’s (ACV’s) health benefits comes from the way it is created. First apples are gathered and either chopped up or crushed. They are then soaked in water and left at room temperature for a long period of time. This period will allow the sugar from the apples to ferment naturally and eventually form a type of alcohol known as ethanol.

However, apple cider vinegar is not considered an alcoholic beverage, so what happens to the alcohol content? After the ACV is done fermenting, the manufacturer is responsible for adding certain yeast bacteria to the mix. This yeast ferments the alcohol even further until it is no longer alcohol but instead acetic acid.

Acetic acid is the primary component in ACV and is responsible for giving it its biting flavor and smell. Even though acetic acid is what causes ACV to smell unpleasant, it is what makes ACV so healthy. There is, however, another component of ACV called the mother.

“The mother” may sound like an intimidating name, but in reality, it is a collection of protein and enzyme clumps that are believed to be extremely healthy. The mother is typically brown and gives apple cider vinegar its cloudy, brown appearance.

Lower Blood Sugar and Diabetes

Diabetes, specifically type 2 diabetes, is defined by high blood sugar levels. These high levels are caused by a resistance to insulin, though they can also be caused when the body is unable to produce enough insulin.

Many people have high blood sugar because they eat large amounts of carbs and sugar. High blood sugar can be detrimental to the body over time because of how sugar inflames the body and can cause or accelerate certain chronic diseases.

It is believed that apple cider vinegar can increase insulin sensitivity significantly. This, in turn, can lower blood sugar. In fact, studies have shown that after eating complex sugars like carbs and then taking ACV, blood sugar was lowered by 31%.

Improve Weight Loss

Everyone wants to lose a few extra pounds, so how can ACV help with that? Several studies have shown that apple cider vinegar can cause people to feel full. When you feel full, of course, you don’t feel like eating as much.

Ultimately, when you don’t eat as much, you aren’t consuming as many calories and start to lose weight. Taking a tablespoon or two of ACV along with your meal can increase your feeling of fullness and cause you to eat less by as much as 200 calories.

Apple cider vinegar itself only has around 3 calories per tablespoon, so you don’t need to worry about gaining weight that way.

Improved Skin Health

Everyone wants to have beautiful, flawless skin. However, many suffer from dry, flaky skin or inflammatory skin conditions like eczema. Using apple cider vinegar on the skin may be the answer.

This is because skin is naturally acidic while ACV is considered basic, meaning it sits on the opposite side of the pH scale from acids. By using ACV on the skin, it can help balance out the skin’s acidity.

ACV may also help prevent skin infections because of its ability to kill bacteria. However, it is important that ACV is diluted before it is used on the skin as it can damage the skin if used directly. ACV may also not work on people with sensitive skin and may cause skin irritation.

Health Benefits of Apple Cider Vinegar: Anti-Bacterial Properties

Vinegar has long been used as a natural cleaner because of its anti-bacterial properties. It also has a long history of being used in medicine to disinfect wounds and fungal infections.

ACV can also be used as a preservative. Food often spoils because of bacteria such as E. coli. Some studies have shown that ACV is able to prevent the growth of E. coli bacteria and ultimately prevent or slow food spoilage.

Because of its anti-bacterial properties, apple cider vinegar may also be used to treat acne.