With the fall season now here, it’s the prime time to take advantage of the full nutritional benefits of apples! This amazing fruit is jam-packed with essential vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and fiber, making it a powerhouse for your health, and even your weight loss goals.
Not only that, but the process of fermenting apples to create apple cider vinegar takes this health-boosting fruit and makes it even better for you – with the addition of important enzymes and acids that make it incredibly healing, revitalizing, and potentially even slimming.
Apple cider vinegar (or ACV for short), is not a new remedy… In fact, it’s been utilized for centuries for it’s amazing health potential. But, it’s been increasingly popular in recent years – as it continues to be recognized for its potential benefits for your gut, immune and digestive systems, skin and hormonal health, and more!
And as research continues to show that properties within apples and apple cider vinegar may benefit overall health – including helping to balance blood sugar, lower cholesterol levels, and more – you may be wondering, can apple cider vinegar actually assist with weight loss?
In this article, we’ll answer the question of how apple cider vinegar can potentially help you meet your weight loss goals by most importantly being an incredible addition to a nutritious diet – that can help you get more fresh, whole foods, and less processed foods in every day. Read on to discover more!
What is Apple Cider Vinegar?
Apple cider vinegar is made from a combination of fermented apples and water – and the process creates a substance called “acetic acid”. This acid is responsible for many of the potential health benefits in apple cider vinegar.
However, many ACV products on store shelves are filtered, giving it more of a consistency of apple juice mixed with water, and does not have all of the benefits of the fermentation process.
Instead, an unfiltered ACV will have the “mother of vinegar” still in the bottle, a fibrous substance that contains enzymes, acid, and proteins within it - the most beneficial components that occur in vinegar during the fermentation process.
How Does ACV Potentially Help With Weight Loss?
When it comes to apple cider vinegar and weight loss, it’s important to look at all of the amazing properties that raw and unfiltered ACV naturally possesses to be able to see how it can clearly make a difference for your waistline if utilized correctly. Let’s take a look at them now!
1) Supports Satiety and Fullness
One of the most important qualities of apple cider vinegar that enables it to support your overall weight loss goals is that it’s rich in a water-soluble fiber called pectin. This fiber creates a “jelly-like” substance when combined with water, which is exactly what it will do in your stomach to help keep you full. Since apples are a high-pectin food and apple cider vinegar contains the same amount of pectin as apples, you’ll reap the amazing benefits of this satisfying fiber.
2) May Help to Control Appetite and Cravings
Along with the benefits of consuming a high-pectin substance, the acetic acid in ACV – which is what gives apple cider vinegar it’s strong taste – may also help to suppress appetite, giving you a double dose to help control unhealthy cravings and select nourishing foods over those that are high in bad fats and calories.
In addition, by giving your body a “healthy carb” in the presence of the high-fiber apple cider vinegar before or while you eat, you can help to keep blood sugar levels balanced.
3) Supports Gut Health & Good Digestion
Apple cider vinegar can also support weight loss by assisting with good digestion, since the acid helps with the digestion of protein in the body. Especially when you have ACV before or during a meal, you increase the amount of acid in your stomach, enhancing digestive processes.
In addition, the acetic acid in ACV supports optimal gut health by helping to kill off bad bacteria in the gut, and boost good bacteria (or probiotics) in the intestinal tract – supporting better digestion and balanced pH levels.
4) Supports a Revved Up Metabolism
Next, since apple cider vinegar supports good digestion, it also helps increase the availability and utilization of protein in the body. Protein is needed to make insulin, which helps convert glucose to energy and helps maintain a faster metabolism that is more efficiently able to burn fat.
5) Helps Regulate “Feel Good” Hormones
Having enough available protein in the body is also important for hormone balance, and making sure you have enough “feel good” hormones to combat stress and ensure a good night’s sleep – namely tryptophan and serotonin. Since apple cider vinegar releases protein during digestion and helps with the utilization of it, it also helps to maintain hormonal balance in the body, which can support you not indulging in overeating due to stress.
6) Source of Potassium
Apples and apple cider vinegar are also both sources of potassium. In fact, one apple contains almost 10% of all the potassium you need daily. This healthy helping of potassium can therefore help to balance the amount of sodium in your diet. Taking in too much sodium can increase water retention and bloating, but increasing the amount of potassium you ingest can help restore fluid balance.
7) Stimulate an Appetite for Whole Foods
Finally, taken before or during a meal, apple cider vinegar may actually help spark your appetite for fresh, healthy whole foods. Vinegar is a stimulator for the taste buds and may make it easier to appreciate the flavor of whole foods like fruits, veggies, and whole grains, that support a healthy diet. And by craving these foods, it may make it easier to avoid processed foods packed with salt and unhealthy fat and carbs.
Our Recommendation for Getting ACV Into Your Daily Diet
Now that you know what an awesome, health-promoting substance apple cider vinegar can be, let’s talk about the best way to consume it every day. Though we definitely recommend that you add apple cider vinegar into your meals (like in salad dressings, marinades, and sauces) wherever possible, there is also a way that you can potentially reap the benefits on a more regular basis, and this is with apple cider vinegar pills, or an ACV supplement.
While many people are trying to utilize the benefits of ACV by consuming it straight off the spoon or in a mixture combined with water, we don’t recommend this, because it could bring unwanted side effects…
Potential Side Effects of Drinking ACV Straight:
Bad, strong taste – Apple cider vinegar is a potent liquid! Though it may taste good on your food when toned down with other ingredients, taking a shot of ACV or adding to a glass with a little water is still quite intense and unpalatable.
Acid burn in throat or stomach – As you know, apple cider vinegar is a strong and powerful acid, and though this acid can do good when it reaches the right places in your body, getting to those places is trickier. If you continually drink apple cider vinegar straight, you could potentially burn your throat, esophagus, or stomach with the acid.
Teeth decay – Next, acid is also not something that’s great for your teeth, and if you’re exposing them to this strong vinegar every day, eventually it may wear away at the enamel and could cause teeth problems.
Inconvenience – Finally, drinking apple cider vinegar before every meal is not very practical or convenient, especially if you’re frequently on-the-go.
How to Use Apple Cider Vinegar Pills Instead
Taking apple cider vinegar pills can help you reap the potential benefits of ACV without the unwanted side effects.
We recommend that you take one capsule of a high quality apple cider vinegar supplement that also includes digestive enzymes and herbs like papaya and ginger, with a lot of water during 1-2 of your meals.
By doing this, you can support your overall wellness, help reduce bloating, and promote cravings control, greater fat-burning, and better digestion after every meal.
In conclusion, apple cider vinegar should be considered a welcome part of a healthy, whole foods diet, and apple cider vinegar pills are a convenient way to utilize this magnificent healing liquid on an effortless schedule!
Learn more about the best apple cider vinegar pills. Read more articles to help you live your best life while you climb towards your health and weight loss goals!
Sources:
Holzapfel, Cynthia. Apple Cider Vinegar for Weight Loss & Good Health. Healthy Living Publications, 2002.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19661687/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16015276/
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/apple-cider-vinegar-pills#side-effects
https://www.womenshealthmag.com/weight-loss/a20631267/apple-cider-vinegar-pills-weight-loss/
