Vinegar has provided people with culinary and health benefits for thousands of years. Vinegar was used by ancient Babylonians as a preservative and as a condiment, which they flavored with herbs and spices. Ancient Romans drank it as a beverage. Hippocrates proclaimed its medicinal uses. The Greeks used vinegar to make pickled meats and vegetables. During the Civil War it was used to treat scurvy, and in World War I it was used to treat wounds. Now it is being tested as a treatment for type 2 diabetes and in preventing the buildup of fats, including triglyceride levels.
Identification
The word vinegar is taken from the French "vinaigre," or sour wine. It was discovered in a cask of wine gone "bad." Wine vinegar, like other vinegars, is made in a two-step process that turns sugars -- as carbohydrates -- into acetic acid, according to the Vinegar Institute. You can make wine from any material that contains sugar.
Triglycerides
"Triglycerides are the chemical form in which most fat exists in food as well as the human body," states the American Heart Association. Triglycerides are derived in blood plasma from fats in food or from other sources in the body, such as carbohydrates. Food components that are not used by your tissues right away are converted to triglycerides and stored in fat cells.
Effects
If you have excess triglycerides in your body, you have a condition called hypertriglyceridemia, which may lead to coronary artery disease. The condition might also be a caused by untreated diabetes. Triglyceride levels are normally checked as a part of cholesterol testing, and a normal level is less than 150mg. High is 250 to 499mg, and very high is anything over 500mg. Those with high levels should try to reduce their weight, eat healthier and exercise regularly.
Apple Cider Vinegar and Weight Loss
According to Mayo Clinic nutritionist Katherine Zeratsky, there is little evidence to suggest that the apple cider vinegar diet can help you lose weight. Proponents believe that drinking a small amount before meals, or taking apple vinegar supplements, helps curb your appetite and burn fat.
Although drinking apple cider vinegar occasionally is safe, regular consumption can irritate your throat or interfere with insulin or diuretics, which can dangerously lower your potassium levels.
Triglycerides and Vinegar
Apple cider vinegar may not help with weight loss, but a component in vinegar looks more promising. In a 2009 Japanese study reported on the U.S. government's Pub Med website, acetic acid, a key component in vinegar, was found to suppress body fat accumulation in obese subjects. In a 12-week study, subjects drank a beverage with no vinegar, 15ml of vinegar or 30ml of vinegar daily. "Body weight, BMI (body mass index), visceral fat areas, waist circumference, and serum levels were significantly lower in both vinegar intake groups than in the placebo group." So vinegar may be useful in lowering triglyceride levels and reducing obesity.
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