How Vinegar Reduces Glucose Spikes? Blood Sugar Monitoring with Vinegar for Diabetics

As the majority of my faithful readers are aware, I am dedicated to assisting diabetics in discovering secure, non-drug methods of decreasing the blood sugar. The application of vinegar in meals or as a complement to a healthy diet, exercise, and stress management is one promising and easy strategy. But is consuming vinegar or adding extra vinegar to meals really that simple for decreasing the blood sugar? How is it possible to employ this basic, low-cost chemical in this manner?

I looked over the scientific literature in order to respond to this topic, and I've provided a summary of what we currently know below. I hope this encourages you to forgo the sweets and decreasing the blood sugar with "go sour" instead!

Vinegar and Bread

In 1998, researchers from the United Kingdom, Liljeberg et al., published one of the earliest investigations on the impact of vinegar upon blood sugar. In the research they conducted, scientists divided healthy people into two groups and randomly allocated them to either the white bread or the white bread with vinegar challenge. The team also evaluated the difference in blood flow rates between marker chemicals given without or with vinegar. Their outcomes were noteworthy in a number of ways:

For many hours after consuming the white bread testing meal, adding vinegar considerably reduced the normal blood sugar level;
It also decreased the insulin response; and
The marker molecule showed slower blood levels when vinegar was introduced, indicating that vinegar may function by reducing the rate at which food departs the stomach (a process known as the "gastric emptying").

Although this research did not involve diabetics, it clearly showed how vinegar might assist with lowering blood sugar soon after meals that contain carbohydrates with an elevated glycemic index, such as white bread, and supported a fundamental mechanism of action which vinegar may have for diabetics.

What do we currently understand about vinegar's effects on diabetics? Keep on reading!

Sweet, but Sour Dreams

When White along with Johnston published a short clinical trial through Diabetes Care2 in 2007, I first began to devote attention to the data indicating vinegar can treat diabetes. In their study, people with diabetes type 2 consumed either 2 tablespoons of vinegar made from apple cider before bedtime or followed a conventional diet plan for two days. The study's findings showed that people who took the vinegar at night had considerably lower morning fasting blood glucose!

Intriguingly, this study questions the mechanism underlying the benefits of vinegar because the treatment with vinegar was not administered during meals but still reduced blood sugar, pointing to a potential second mechanism for delaying stomach emptying. The authors cited fundamental science studies by Fushimi et al. that support vinegar's additional method of enhancing glucose storage within the liver along with fat metabolism.

Complexity of Vinegar

Since the publication of their groundbreaking study in 2007, Johnston et al. have kept looking into the effects of vinegar. Several unanswered points about the application of vinegar to decrease blood sugar were clarified by further study that was published in 2010. These issues included dosage, time of administration, as well as the impact of meal content on vinegar effects.

In this research, vinegar was given to only a few of diabetic participants in the form of either 10 grams (or about 2 teaspoons) or 20 grams (or about 4 teaspoons) of vinegar or a single dose of acetic acid (as sodium acetate). Randomly chosen groups received the therapy either alongside meals or 5 hours prior to meals.

The research's results revealed numerous significant conclusions, including: Vinegar proved most effective in lowering blood sugar if consumed with a meal. Additionally, the effects appeared to be the greatest if vinegar was consumed with food which contained higher levels of complex carbohydrates instead of only straightforward sugars (such as glucose itself), indicating a potential effect upon the metabolism and digestion of complex carbohydrates. Just ten grams of the vinegar drastically decreased blood sugar levels after meals for approximately 20%, yet sodium acetate showed no effects.

The findings of the research published by Liatis et al. during 2010 also add complexities (and clarity). In this study, 20 grams of vinegar made from wine were given to a small group of individuals with type 2 diabetes along with a meal that either contained higher glycemic index carbohydrates as well as carbohydrates with a low glycemic index.

Glycemic index relates to the level at which sugar gets into the bloodstream shortly after eating a variety of food. If the sugar enters rapidly, the food is categorized as "high glycemic index," but if it gets into slowly, the meal is considered "low glycemic index". According to their research, vinegar only works to lower blood sugar levels after consuming carbs with a high glycemic index.

A Fly on the Vinegar?

Fair enough, not each of the studies on vinegar demonstrates that it can lower blood sugar levels after meals. Using a 75-gram test for oral glucose tolerance along with 25 grams on white vinegar, van Dijk et al. (2012) issued a brief report on their research. They discovered no differences in blood sugar levels between the tests with and without vinegar.

The results actually are in line with the research of Johnston et al., who discovered that vinegar was ineffective when used with simple sugars (such as glucose through an oral sugar tolerance test), but rather appeared to be successful only when more complicated starches were consumed. Although at first glance this result appears inconsistent, that is actually in line with their findings.

What should you do regarding your blood sugar if you're in a pickle?

Adding (or ingesting) vinegar could assist in lowering your blood sugar levels and lessen the need for further drugs, despite the fact that it may be an acquired taste. Although I wouldn't encourage you to use months testing vinegar to figure out if it could be helpful when your blood sugar isn't well controlled, I do believe it's safe and perhaps useful enough for a private experiment.

Several strategies are worthwhile to attempt. The simplest, though not always the most effective, method is to consume 2-3 tablespoons of vinegar made from apple cider before going to bed. The next morning, cautiously track the fasting blood sugar levels; if they appear to be falling, keep up the experiment.

One word of caution: when you use drugs known to induce hypoglycemia, such as insulin or sulfonylureas such as Glipizide® or Glyburide®, you might want to start with a lower dose and gradually raise it once you've had an opportunity to see how it affects you.

Adding vinegar to starchy dishes or taking vinegar alongside starchy meals serves as an alternate experiment. According to the current evidence, this strategy may drop your blood sugars following meals the most (i.e., as much as 20% lower), but it does demand more self-discipline and may even include taking a tiny bottle of vinegar alongside you during your meals. Once again, as a result of the possibility of greater likelihood of hypoglycemia, exercise caution if you use sulfonylureas and/or insulin (particularly mealtime as well as "bolus" insulin).

If you've got a chance, provide us some comments on your own vinegar tests. We are curious about your findings. Until then, pucker up!