The unexpected science of VINEGAR: you won’t believe it! | Episode 5 of 18

so as they were having a vinegar drink before a meal the vinegar and the acetic acid was leading to a much smaller glucose Spike even though they were eating the same food as the control group that was getting the bigger [Music] Spike hello angels and welcome to the glucose goddess show I'm Justin CH I'm a biochemist obsessed with helping you feel better and today we're covering the incredible the magical the awesome vinegar hack so let's get to it let's be honest it might seem a little bit strange that vinegar an ingredient that most of us

have in our kitchen actually has a really good positive impact on our glucose levels and when I first discovered it I also thought it was a bit strange I thought it was maybe like some Instagram fat or something that didn't have any scientific backing but in fact when I looked at the studies and all the clinical trials that had been done on vinegar I was was super pleasantly surprised so over the course of the past decade scientific teams across the world have studied the impact of vinegar on our health and to run the studies they

do something like this they recruit a bunch of participants and they put them into two groups both groups follow a similar diet with similar calories similar composition for several weeks but in one group The participants also add to their day a tall drink oh water so you know a big glass of water like this with a tablespoon of vinegar in it once a day while the other group also takes a drink of something that tastes like vinegar but isn't actually vinegar so they are drinking a placebo drink then the scientists follow both groups and monitor

their health markers their glucose levels their triglycerides their wait and they just wait and see what happens and this is the remarkable thing that they observed the researchers found that by adding just one vinegar drink before meals for 3 months the participants reduced their visceral fat that's the fat that's really damaging and dangerous and is between our organs and reduce their triglyceride levels and if they had diabetes they started to see improvements in their diabetes markers just by adding this one tablespoon of vinegar a day so what the heck is going on and how is

this working exactly well the researchers identified a molec in vinegar called acetic acid it's all in here this is about 4% acetic acid this is an example with apple cider vinegar and the researchers found that this acetic acid was the reason that the meals the participants were eating were seeing on average a 30% reduction in the glucose Spike of the meal and up to 20% reduction in the insulin Spike of the meal so as they were having a vinegar drink before a meal the vinegar and the atic acid was leading to a much smaller glucose

Spike even though they were eating the same food as the control group that was getting the bigger Spike so what was going on it was very intriguing and then there's also a study that found that in women with PCOS so that's a hormonal imbalance that leads to infertility Mis periods Etc just adding One vinegar drink a day also started putting the PCOS into remission why probably because the vinegar was acting on the insulin resistance of these participants so in terms of the mechanisms of action of acetic acid scientists discovered two main things the acetic acid

in vinegar temporarily inactivates this enzyme that we have in our digestive system called Alpha amas and the job of alpha amales is to break down carbs into individual glucose molecules as we eat the carbs so for example if you have a big bowl of pasta or a cookie that pasta or that cookie break breaks down into individual glucose molecules and then those glucose molecules make their way to your bloodstream which leads to the glucose Spike but apparently the atic acid was slowing down that process by slowing down Alpha amase the enzyme responsible for the breakdown

so what does that mean for us it means that we eat the carbs that we like but if we have a vinegar drink before there's less of a glucose bike from them so fewer consequences of that big rush of glucose on our body we get all the pleasure and the dopamine from the carbs and the enjoyment with less impact on our body just with that one tablespoon of vinegar so that's the first mechanism of action the scientist also found that acetic acid in vinegar tells our muscles to soak up more glucose than usual so why

do muscles even soak up glucose in the first place because glucose is your body's favorite source of energy and your muscles like all other parts of your body are looking for glucose constantly to fuel themselves to create energy and in the case of of muscles to contract and so apparently acetic acid was telling our muscles to soak up more glucose than usual to store away for later use for energy instead of letting it float around in the bloodstream and creating a big gluco spike this is quite an incredible result that just one tablespoon of vinegar

before a meal can reduce the consequences of carbs on our glucose levels it'll reduce the glucose Spike by up to 30% and the insulin release by up to 20% and most of us have this in our kitchen it's a safe ingredients it's actually been around for a super long time and it's had a reputation for health benefits for Millennia but only today with modern science do we actually understand why it works so you might be wondering what kind of vinegar can I use well most vinegar is totally work this is apple cider vinegar just because

it's kind of the you know trendy hot one but you don't have to have apple cider vinegar acetic acid is found in white vinegar red wine vinegar in Cherry vinegar in rice vinegar in whatever Vin vinegar you want but do not use cleaning vinegar okay if it's next to the mops and the toilet paper at the supermarket that is not drinkable vinegar and one more note as well try to avoid the very syrupy balsamic vinegar that one that looks kind of like a glaze because that has a lot of sugar in it so you can

have it at other times but if you're trying to make a vinegar drink that's not going to be the right one for you to use so you want to have this vinegar drink about 10 to 20 minutes before for eating your meal that contains carbs and if just a tablespoon of vinegar in water doesn't sound very delicious and I totally don't blame you if you click the link in the description of this episode I have a bunch of free recipes for you with tasty drink recipes you can make some teas some mocktails that'll help you

enjoy the taste more and another tip for you white wine vinegar can actually have a more um subtle and easy taste than apple cider vinegar if the apple cider vinegar thing in water doesn't doesn't work for you and I often get the question can I use lemon juice instead well the situation with lemon juice is that lemon juice contains citric acid while vinegar contains acetic acid so lemon juice is not as powerful and doesn't work in the same way but if vinegar is really not your thing you can totally switch to having some lemon juice

and water just know that the power is not the same to get as much power on your glucose levels as one tablespoon of vinegar gets you you need the juice of three lemons so if the lemon juice thing is your thing just keep at it don't worry too much about it and also know that you can actually put your vinegar in some dressings you can make salad dressings and put the vinegar directly in your food if that feels a little less gross to you so how many times a day can you do this listen in

the studies they already found that once a day is really powerful and helps you get a lot of benefits some people love the taste of vinegar and if that's you you can have it two or three times a day it's a safe ingredient so unless your doctor has told you you have a stomach issue and you shouldn't drink vinegar really do whatever floats your boat hey really quickly if you want to study your glucose levels and feel better than you currently do but you don't really know where to start and you don't want it to

be complicated because you're very busy well my recipe Club has got your back monthly super easy recipes to keep your glucose level steady to keep your Cravings low and to keep your motivation super high cuz it's fun and new every month check out the link in the description okay back to the episode so super easy tip the vinegar hack once a day before a meal that contains carbs is going to help you reduce your glucose Spike without too much effort now let's talk about vinegar pills you guys have for a long time asked me about

alternatives to vinegar that would be in a pill form you've told me that sometimes it's really hard to find vinegar or sometimes you forget to take the vinegar or maybe you have a parent who who really wants to study their glucose levels but having a vinegar drink just feels like way too much for them and I totally understand so I'm excited to announce that over the past two years I've been researching all of the science on the topic and unfortunately I found that a lot of vinegar supplements vinegar gummies vinegar pills Etc at best are

ineffective and at worse actually contain sugar and make the glucose Spike of a meal even even worse and when I say this I'm looking at you the vinegar gummies with the sugar in it those are not a good option avoid at all cost but as I was doing the research and speaking to many scientific teams across the world I actually identified four molecules that are brand new that if you put them together in a capsule and you take the capsule before the meal the capsule will reduce the glucose bike of your your meal by up

to 40% that's even more powerful than vinegar pretty exciting I know the four molecules are mulbury leaf extract lemon peel extract cinnamon and a whole bunch of antioxidants from green vegetables so where can you find this capsule well I have made it it's called anti-spike you can click the link in the description of this episode to read more about it but essentially the way it works is that the molecules and anti-spike grab 40% of the carbs that you just ate and instead of letting them pass through to your bloodstream where they're going to create a

glucose Spike and then lead to inflammation Cravings aging type two diabetes etc those carbs are brought down to your microbiome where your microbiome feeds on them and becomes healthier so if you're into having a little pill before your meal to reduce the spike this is the supplement that you need forget all the other ones this is the one that is scientifically backed by over 25 clinical trials that I have assembled for you now totally cool if you prefer doing the vinegar it's also a very cheap alternative but for those who have been asking me for

a supplement this is the one I recommend so in conclusion the vinegar hack 1 tbspoon of vinegar in a tall glass of water before a meal that contains carbs can cut the glucose Spike of that meal by up to 30% with very minimal effort on your part just you have to get used to the taste of vinegar and again I have recipes in the description of this episode if you want to make something that doesn't taste too gross so vinegar is an easy way to start you can have it as a drink you can have

it as a dressing you can make a nice little tea you can have it once a day or more if you feel like it it's an easy place to start but I also want to mention this is not the only hack I know it sounds like the easiest hack cuz it sounds a little bit like a Magic Bullet but it's really important that you also do the other hacks that are around food and changing how and what you're eating because the vinegar hack is not going to magically erase everything else that you're doing it's one

of the tools in your tool belt it's very interesting it's very easy and I use it every day and I recommend you do as well but it's not the only one so if you want a list of my 10 glucose hacks to make sure you're doing them all there's also a free pdf in the description of this episode that's all we have time for today I will see you next time [Music] time