Health benefits of apple cider vinegar

Apple cider vinegar has been used as a cure-all for years. The home remedy is touted to work for everything, from weight loss to minimising heartburn. While you’ve likely heard there are a ton of health benefits of apple cider vinegar, how it helps might remain a mystery. These expert-backed reasons below helped us clarify what exactly apple cider is good for. Read on:

It’s good for your gut

Apple cider vinegar has antibacterial components that can help support gut health and promote good gut bacteria. Apple cider vinegar can help boost gut health and digestion in a couple of ways.

Adding it to salads and raw vegetables [as well as protein] can help break down the tough-to-digest fibres, meaning it’s easier for you to digest, and ensuring you reap the benefits of all the vitamins and minerals in those foods. Additionally, the probiotics in fermented foods can be beneficial to the health of your microbiome. To reap these benefits, you need organic, unfiltered apple cider vinegar. It must come with the mother, the darker strands of yeast and bacteria formed during fermentation.

Apple cider vinegar helps to stimulate your stomach acid, which is completely necessary for digestion. It helps break down your food quicker and helps you absorb more of the nutrients from your food. Additionally, when you don’t have adequate stomach acid, it can throw off your microbiome. This can lead to bloating, trouble with digestion, acid reflux, etc. If you have depleted stomach acid, apple cider vinegar can help build it back up and mitigate those digestive challenges.

It can lower blood sugar

Apple cider vinegar has been clinically proven to help maintain healthy blood sugar levels. Because of this apple cider vinegar can aid in the management of type 2 diabetes.

When we eat foods that are high in sugar or refined carbohydrates, this causes our blood sugar levels to increase. In response to this, our pancreas secretes a hormone called insulin, which tells our body to store our food as fat. Clinical studies have shown that consuming apple cider vinegar, either in a meal or right after, can significantly lower our postprandial blood glucose level (our blood sugar level after eating).

It boosts immunity

About 70 per cent of our immune system is housed in our gut. If the gut is not functioning properly, this will have an adverse effect on our immune system. Because apple cider vinegar promotes good bacteria in our gut, it can also help support immune health.

Additionally, having an adequate amount of stomach acid can help protect from certain types of bacteria and viruses. You’re more likely to be able to combat illness when your microbiome is healthy and not dysregulated or in dysbiosis.

Apple cider vinegar can also help you get healthy when you’re ill. Some experts suggest having apple cider vinegar to benefit kidney disease, sore throats and more.

It helps manage weight

Apple cider vinegar is a great tool to help you healthily manage body weight. Apple cider vinegar consumption is clinically proven to help control appetite, manage weight gain and help maintain healthy cholesterol levels. Studies have linked weight gain to too much acidity in the body. Because apple cider vinegar helps to alkalise or balance these levels, it is said to aid in weight loss.

It increases energy

It all comes back to the gut once again. If you have poor digestion, your energy levels are going to be tanked. When trying to digest a big meal that’s hard to digest, you often feel sluggish and bloated with low energy because you’re not absorbing nutrients properly. Folding apple cider vinegar into your regimen will help aid digestion and ultimately promote better energy levels.

It’s good for your hair

It turns out that apple cider vinegar isn’t only good for what’s going on inside your body, it can also benefit your hair. Apple cider vinegar can aid in ensuring healthy hair growth by protecting your scalp and keeping it clear of growth-hindering build-up.

It’s good for your skin

The anti-inflammatory and pH-regulating properties that make apple cider vinegar great for hair also help with skin. Apple cider vinegar has been shown to help in the management of eczema, dry skin and potentially acne. It can be used as a toner or cleanser on the skin.

Antioxidant-rich apple cider vinegar is a natural chemical exfoliator that helps brighten and reduce redness while minimising the appearance of pores, post-blemish marks and reducing breakouts. It’s commonly used in treatments to balance pH, kill blemish-causing bacteria and address hyperpigmentation.

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