Apple Cider Vinegar for Weight Control

I remember about a year or so ago, at work, my boss or someone else in my practice group read that drinking shots of apple cider vinegar, or ACV, to help encourage weight loss and digestion.  So, naturally, all the women in my group tried out this concept because my gosh, if you could help control your weight or to even actually lose weight just by doing a shot of vinegar at every meal, why not, right? 

Well it turns out that it turns some people’s stomach to do a shot of the mouth-puckering stuff, but for me I could definitely handle it because I’m used to chewing my vitamins to get the most out of them, and I have a fairly strong stomach.  I have to say that apple cider vinegar did work on me as a mild natural appetite suppressant first of all, but not enough of one to make any big dents in my many times bottomless appetite. 

So, there we were, doing shots of organic apple cider vinegar, or ACV, every day, before every meal.  Before you knew it, the place where we sat began to smell like a big vinegar factory!  Most of us were doing it with Braggs infamous ACV with “the mother”, which is the enzymes and good stuff that’s left over in the distill process of organic vinegar and is a must if you want to glean all the positive benefits of apple cider vinegar.  It looks like little spindly white pieces floating around in the vinegar, and must be shaken to get a little in every shot.

I think that my experience with ACV did help me as far as digestion and acid reflux goes, but I’m not so sure that doing the vinegar shots alone would actually result in any weight loss as some have said before.  I didn’t change my diet while doing it, and subsequently did not lose weight, so I have a feeling that those that claim they lost weight by only doing vinegar also were watching what they were eating a little more than usual.  Or maybe they really did still eat the same and lose weight, I just find it a little suspect.

I still believe that ACV has tons of health benefits, and do believe that it assists in your stomach acid’s ability to digest foods properly, so I think if you’re trying to lose weight, maybe if you’re taking some sort of natural appetite suppressant diet pill, you could add ACV to your regimen since it can help break down food easier and also may keep you more regular, enhancing your digestive process and therefore your weight loss quest. 

There are a plethora of additional health benefits of ACV that can be read about.  Some claim that it has helped their skin clear up, they don’t get sick as often, they never get upset stomachs, it helps with constipation, and even may help fight some diseases.  So that alone should make apple cider vinegar a worthy friend to all that think about taking it for its beneficial health properties.