Drinking apple cider vinegar has become a popular way to lose weight in recent years, but can it really help people slim down?
A new study found that Lebanese teenagers and young adults who drank up to one tablespoon of apple cider vinegar daily for 12 weeks dropped an average of 15 pounds, according to Health.
Study author Rony Abou-Khalil said that the researchers set out to analyse a potential solution to obesity that would align with the growing interest in non-pharmaceuticals.
“We were motivated to explore potential natural remedies for weight reduction that could offer safe and effective alternatives to traditional interventions,” he said.
They chose to test apple cider vinegar, which has been used for many years as a health tonic and is prepared from crushed and fermented apples.
While using apple cider vinegar on a daily basis might aid in weight loss, there are more effective and proven weight loss methods.
“To lose weight, you need to be in a calorie deficit, i.e, take in fewer calories than you burn,” Melissa Mitri, a private practice dietitian explained.
“You can do this by reducing your calorie intake in your diet, exercising more, or, ideally, combining both.”
Ultimately, these old standbys are probably a surer path to long-term weight loss than jumping on the apple cider vinegar trend.
It isn’t clear that apple cider vinegar can affect weight and body fat, as there’s only one study suggesting this and its findings haven’t been replicated.
The 2018 clinical trial involved 39 participants on restricted calorie diets, those who consumed about 2 tbsp (30 mL) of apple cider vinegar daily over 12 weeks lost significantly more weight and body fat than the participants who did not consume apple cider vinegar.
According to this study, adding 1 or 2 tbsp of apple cider vinegar to your diet may help you lose weight. It may also reduce your body fat percentage, help you lose belly fat, and decrease your blood triglycerides.
However, the participants were all either overweight or living with obesity based on their body mass index (BMI) and knew they were drinking the vinegar. This means there was no comparison between a control and a placebo group.
