Vinegar in its various culinary presentations is a popular flavoring agent in marinades, sauces and dressings. Adding tang to meats, salads and other dietary staples, it is extremely low in calories, making it especially alluring in view of Western civilization's increasingly bloated collective physique. In addition, the consumption of vinegar is associated with increases in the rate of numerous important metabolic processes.
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A Way to "Tart" the Day
In a 2005 article in the "European Journal of Clinical Nutrition," --stman and colleagues found that white -- i.e., distilled -- vinegar ingested along with a breakfast of white bread slowed the after-meal rise in blood levels of both glucose and insulin in a dose-dependent manner, and also made subjects feel more full in comparison to control subjects who ate the bread but did not take the vinegar. The implication is that consuming vinegar in the morning speeds up the metabolism by forcing an increase in the rate in the breakdown of glycogen -- the body's storage form of glucose -- in two ways: by lowering blood glucose and by depressing appetite in comparison to what normally occurs after a breakfast meal.
Going Green
Perhaps the most common use of vinegar in the nourishment world is as a salad dressing -- alone, with oil or as part of a vinaigrette. Investigators at the University of Milan discovered that a garden salad flavored with a small amount of white vinegar followed by 50 g of white bread resulted in a smaller rise in blood sugar than salad eaten with either olive oil or "neutralized" white vinegar followed by bread. This was unrelated to stomach-emptying time, suggesting that the acidity of the vinegar was responsible. So consider eating a lunchtime or dinnertime salad with your fat-free Italian dressing or Balsamic vinaigrette before the bread is served, not afterward.
Sour Dreams
Keeping blood glucose in a fairly narrow range throughout the day and night is important for everyone but vital in people with diabetes, a disease afflicting about one in every 13 Americans and marked by low insulin levels, a blunted target-organ response to insulin or both. Dr. Amanda White reported in the November 2007 issue of "Diabetes Care" that white vinegar taken at bedtime had a significant impact on the morning blood glucose levels of people with type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease. The importance of this finding is that white vinegar affects the metabolism of carbohydrates even when taken independent of foods, so a couple of teaspoons of vinegar before hitting the sack may keep you on an even keel the next morning.
References
- "European Journal of Clinical Nutrition"; Vinegar supplementation lowers glucose and insulin responses and increases satiety after a bread meal in healthy subjects; E. --stman; June 2005
- "European Journal of Clinical Nutrition"; Effect of neutralized and native vinegar on blood glucose and acetate responses to a mixed meal in healthy subjects; F. Brighenti; Arill 1995
- "Diabetes Care"; Vinegar Ingestion at Bedtime Moderates Waking Glucose Concentrations in Adults With Well-Controlled Type 2 Diabetes; A. M. White; November 2007
- Apple-Cider-Vinegar-Benefits: Apple Cider Vinegar Weight Loss Theories
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