Vinegar has been used for countless purposes like making pickles, killing weeds, cleaning coffee makers, polishing armor, and dressing salads.  It's also an ancient folk remedy, expected to relieve just about any ailment you can think of.  Over the years, apple cider vinegar has also been widely praised as a natural weight loss product. While many of the folk medicine uses of vinegar are unproven, a few do have a medical research backing them up.  Some small studies have hinted that apple cider diet could help with several conditions, such as diabetes and obesity.

How Apple Cider Diet Works

There are historical facts that Egyptians took apple cider vinegar for weight loss. Some claim it speeds up the metabolism while some claim it burns the calories to reduce appetite. To lose weight, just take two teaspoons of apple cider vinegar, mixed in water, before every meal. 

Apple Cider vinegar is obtained from the fermentation of apple juice. The fermentation provides alcoholic apple cider that is combined with oxygen to produce acetic acid. The pH of apple cider vinegar is very beneficial for the body. Apple cider diet helps to detoxify the liver which plays an important role in weight loss. 

In order to complete the apple cider vinegar diet, you must take one, two, or three teaspoons of apple vinegar before each meal. While it can be quite difficult to get three teaspoons down initially, after a couple of days most people have no problem working up to it. Any more than three is most likely beyond what your stomach can handle anyway, due to the strongly acidic nature of the vinegar. There are now apple cider vinegar diet pills which are probably far easier to consume if you are set on trying this diet out. 

Apple cider vinegar is available in tablets and capsules. According to some nutritionists the combination of apple cider diet with kelp, vitamin B6 and lecithin is much more effective for weight loss than apple cider vinegar alone.

Apple cider diet doesn't give direct advice on meal plans or recipes. Dieters are advised to eat moderate portions, watch the nutritional composition of the food you eat, and get exercise.

Known Benefits of in Apple Cider Diet

Apple cider vinegar is quite rich in minerals, vitamins and other substances. It contains vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin, A, vitamin P, vitamin B1, vitamin B2 and vitamin B6. It also has a lot of beneficial minerals like manganese, iron, calcium, sodium, magnesium, sulpher, copper, phosphorus, silicon, chlorine and fluorine. 

Apple cider diet provides enzymes, amino acids, aldehydes, potash, alcoholic acids, propionic acid, and apple pectin. Apple pectin is a dietary fiber that is an essential component of a healthy diet. With more than ninety substances and a great deal of vitamins and minerals, apple cider vinegar can be one of the most important ingredients in a healthy diet. 

Small amounts of apple cider vinegar (two tablespoons) added to food, or taken along with a meal, have been shown by a number of medical trials to reduce the glycemic index of carbohydrate food for people with and without diabetes. This has also been expressed as lower glycemic index ratings in the region of 30%.

Additional Suggested Health Benefits of Apple Cider Diet

Apple cider diet has long been used as a health aid for weight loss and circulatory health. It is a very safe supplement, even for children. There are no known side effects resulting from using it. Apple cider diet attributes to a well functioning metabolism. Additional benefits include:

• Reducing cholesterol. (the dangerous LDL cholesterol type)
• Regulating the water content in the cells and body.
• Reducing water retention in the body.
• Reducing excess sodium from the body.
• Helps with regulating blood pressure.
• Assists in preventing circulatory problems.
• Helps with diminishing premature calcification of the arteries.
• Helps increase concentration and memory.
• Assists in controlling body temperature. 

Potential Risks of Apple Cider Diet 

On the whole, the risks of taking occasional, small amounts of apple cider vinegar seem low. But using apple cider vinegar over the long term, or in larger amounts, could have risks.  Here are some things to keep in mind. 

• Apple cider vinegar is highly acidic.  The main ingredient of apple cider vinegar is acetic acid. As the name suggests, it's quite harsh.  Apple cider vinegar should always be diluted with water or juice before swallowed.  Pure apple cider vinegar could damage the tooth enamel and the tissues in your throat and mouth.  Vinegar has been known to cause contact burns to the skin.
• Long-term use of apple cider vinegar could cause low potassium levels and lower bone density.  If you already have low potassium or osteoporosis, you should consult a doctor before taking it.
• Apple cider vinegar could theoretically interact with diuretics, laxatives, and medicines for diabetes and heart disease. 

What the Experts Say about Apple Cider Diet

Like many other fad diets, it's not clear as to whether there are any properties in the vinegar that will help you lose weight. In fact, vinegar has been around as a "diet miracle" since Lord Byron popularized it in the 1820's according to the American Dietetic Association's Fad Diet Timeline. 

The primary reason that this diet would work is that you are told to eat moderate portions, watch the nutritional composition of the food you eat, and get exercise. Just doing those alone is often enough to stimulate your body to maintain a healthy weight, if not lose weight.

Using apple cider vinegar supplements instead of the vinegar itself adds another layer of risk. Unlike medicines, supplements are not regulated by the FDA.  They aren't routinely tested for effectiveness or even basic safety.  A 2005 study looked at the ingredients of eight different brands of apple cider vinegar supplements.  The researchers found that:

• The ingredients listed on the box did not reflect the actual ingredients.
• The ingredients varied a great deal between different brands.
• The recommended dosages varied a great deal between brands.

Most disturbing, the chemical analysis of these samples led the researchers to doubt whether any of these brands actually contained any apple cider vinegar at all.

Bottom Line

Apple cider vinegar has been used as a weight loss remedy for centuries, but the mechanics is not always clear on how it works. It has been suggested that the apple cider vinegar works because it makes the body burn calories better, that it reduces the appetite or simply that it gets the entire metabolism working at top efficiency. Multiple trials indicate that taking vinegar with food increases satiety (the feeling of fullness) and so reduces the amount of food consumed. Even a single application of vinegar can lead to reduced food intake for a whole day.

The diet does not specify a meal plan or recipe to be followed. Need for doing exercise or guidelines to do exercises are also not given. But whatever the reason, the fact remains that it has stood the test of time as a fat-busting supplement, and has helped countless people to achieve weight management.