Five ways apple cider vinegar can improve your health

Apple cider vinegar can help your health by curbing cravings and making you feel full for longer. Try it in this refreshing sparkling beverage.

apple cider vinegar sparkling drink

Photo, Julie Daniluk.

Do cravings derail your efforts to eat healthy? Our hormones cause our cravings because they influence how we feel, what we want, and how fast our body stores fat. When your stomach is empty, it produces a hormone called ghrelin that causes hunger. Think of ghrelin as the gremlin that sabotages your weight loss efforts. If you let yourself go hungry, your cravings will be too intense to resist.

Apple cider vinegar is one of the healthiest ingredients you can add to your diet because of its effect on ghrelin. Acetic acid, the active ingredient in vinegar, has the power to reduce the hunger hormone and help you control your cravings.

You can read my free report “50 Ways to Leave Your Cravings” for more, but start with these five remarkable ways apple cider vinegar improves your health:

1. Apple cider vinegar can aid weight loss
Apple cider vinegar has the ability to delay gastric emptying time. This means that your body will feel fuller for longer and you will not get hungry as quickly. This is a great craving killer that can also improve nutrient absorption for people who are low in specific digestive enzymes and beneficial bacteria.

2. It may protect against cardiovascular disease

3. Apple cider vinegar is great for diabetics
Apple cider vinegar may slow the release of sugar (from foods) into the bloodstream and avoid dangerous spikes in blood glucose. This lowers your body’s need for insulin and takes the stress off of your pancreas. When your blood sugar is balanced, you’re less likely to crave carbohydrates.

4. It helps out your liver
Apple cider vinegar is composed mostly of acetic acid, which has been shown to have the ability to protect our liver cells; this research is studying its effect on liver tumours. These trials are still taking place in animal studies, but are showing promising results with minimal side effects.

5. Apple cider vinegar is the ultimate household cleaner
Apple cider vinegar has anti-viral properties both inside and outside the body. Try switching your old chemical cleaner for apple cider vinegar and water to kill bacteria and viruses that can linger on surfaces. Lab tests show a vinegar cleaning solution, made with household products, is more effective in killing the H1N1 virus than many commercial brand cleaners.

Apple cider cocktail

2 tbsp (30 mL) apple cider vinegar
1 tsp (5 mL) maple syrup
2 cups (500 mL) natural sparkling water

1. Add the vinegar and maple syrup to a tall glass.
2. Pour the water into the glass to fill it, and stir until well mixed. Serve over ice if desired.

Nutritionist Julie Daniluk hosts Healthy Gourmet, a reality cooking show that looks at the ongoing battle between taste and nutrition. Her book, Meals That Heal Inflammation, advises on allergy-free foods that both taste great and assist the body in the healing process.

-Article originally published August 2011. 

9 comments on “Five ways apple cider vinegar can improve your health

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  6. I am so happy to read this article. I recently purchased a Saskatchewan based Apple Orchard (Petrofka Orchard). We process and sell Apple Cider Vinegar and add in “Mother of Vinegar”. I have several customers who have told me the great benefits it has brought to their physical health. I can’t wait to try your Apple Cider Cocktail and share it with my customers. Thanks again Diana Fedosoff


  7. I love Apple Cider Vinegar! It’s so healthy. The main thing I use it for is to keep control of my mild acne, it makes such a different just having a tablespoon of this amazing health tonic every day.


  8. #2 in your article says apple cider vinegar can help prevent hardening of the arteries. However a nurse told me it could CAUSE hardening of the arteries. So confused!
    Which is true?


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