Shot of vinegar, anyone?
While a spoonful of sugar may help the medicine go down, experts say a spoonful of vinegar could be the key to weight management and an overall boon to the body.
On an episode of the podcast “Diary Of A CEO,” French biochemist and bestselling author Jessie Inchauspé, also known as the Glucose Goddess, extolled the virtues of chugging the common kitchen ingredient, along with a few other cheap and easy wellness hacks.
In addition to eating a savory breakfast and consuming veggies first, Inchauspé urged diners to down a tablespoon of vinegar, diluted in a large glass of water, 10 minutes before they tuck into their biggest meal of the day.
According to the health guru, vinegar can effectively reduce blood sugar levels, cholesterol and visceral fat, aka belly fat.
Inchauspé, whose focus is nutrition and glucose management, says, “Vinegar contains acetic acid, which interacts with your digestive enzymes and reduces the glucose spike of your meal by up to 30% without any effort.”
As The Post previously reported, glucose has a profound effect on how our bodies look and feel.
Glucose, otherwise known as blood sugar, naturally rises and falls throughout the day. Coupled with unhealthy modern food habits, this can create a “glucose roller coaster” of rapid spikes followed by rapid dips, leading to what’s colloquially known as a sugar high: Feeling wired, then irritable and exhausted.
Inchauspé promises her vinegar ritual can combat those consequences and deliver maximum health bang for your proverbial buck.
“If you want a super low effort, albeit not very delicious, hack to try, do that,” she says. “See how you feel with a smaller spike and a smaller crash, fewer cravings and less fatigue.”
For a healthy non-diabetic, fasting blood glucose levels should be less than 100mg/dL; two hours after eating, it should be under 140.
But even “healthy” foods can lead to significant surges: A large piece of fruit could cause your blood sugar to spike up to 60 mg/dL above your baseline. While it may go back to normal within the next two hours, that surge, Inchauspé said, can lead to feelings of fatigue — as well as wreak internal body havoc.
Why?
Glucose provides an immediate source of energy, which is great if you’re planning to run a marathon after an indulgent, carb-rich pasta dinner, but if you’re not, the hormone insulin will work to transform the glucose into fatty acids, which are then stored as fat.
Elsewhere in the episode, Inchauspé urged people to eat their veggies first as fiber breaks down slowly in the digestive system — while starches are turned quickly into glucose, leading to a spike.
Eating fiber first slows down the speed at which you digest starches, so glucose trickles into the bloodstream more slowly than if you had eaten the same foods in reverse order.
A veg-forward approach also lends itself to satiety, reducing the likelihood of mindless snacking.
When it comes to Inchauspé’s vinegar hack, the water portion of the equation is crucial as it dilutes the vinegar and protects your pearly whites from an onset of acidity.
In terms of what type of vinegar to use, Inchauspé says any will do — but apple cider vinegar might be the most palatable.
Previous research established drinking a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar before consuming food helped overweight people shed up to 18 pounds in just three months.
