Who is healthier, people who like to add vinegar to their meals or those who don’t? The truth is surprising

When you open the spice cabinet in the kitchen, the most indispensable thing is: vinegar.

Old vinegar, balsamic vinegar, rice vinegar, white vinegar, fruit vinegar... In daily cooking, all kinds of vinegar can be combined with different ingredients to produce magical chemical reactions;

Vinegar is indispensable on the dinner table. We dip dumplings in vinegar, add vinegar to noodles, and add vinegar to hot pot condiments. Vinegar is an important prop to awaken the taste buds.

However, the role of vinegar in our lives is far more than that. In recent years, there has been more and more discussion about the various magical effects of vinegar. What are the facts about vinegar and what needs further research? Today we will make it clear in one article.

Adding some vinegar to your meals has so many benefits

Generally speaking, the fermentation process of traditional vinegar is divided into two steps:

The raw materials containing sugar or starch are first fermented with alcohol, and then a little bit of Acetobacter (vinegar koji) is added to start the acetic acid fermentation. The resulting product is vinegar[1].

Image source: Reference [2]

In terms of sequence, vinegar is a product of wine, but the reason why vinegar is so addictive is actually because of the acetic acid.

Acetic acid is the main component of vinegar. It is the source of the sour taste in vinegar and the soul of vinegar. When it meets other flavors, magical things happen:

Vinegar enhances salty flavors

When you dip your food in vinegar while eating, you always feel that the food has richer taste. This is because the original salty taste of the food becomes more obvious under the contrast of the acetic acid.

If you want to improve your heavy-tasting diet, try adding some vinegar to your meals, which can reduce your salt intake without you noticing .

Vinegar can neutralize alkaline taste

In daily life, if we put too much alkali when steaming steamed buns or other pasta, we will add a little vinegar to reduce the alkaline taste of the pasta through the acid-base neutralization effect.

In addition, vinegar has antibacterial effects, and adding a little bit when cooking pasta will not easily cause mold.

There are various kinds of vinegar in our kitchen. They are all fermented from different raw materials and blended to suit our tastes with the joint action of multiple microorganisms.

But the functions of vinegar are far more than that.

Copyrighted images from the gallery. Reprinting and using them may cause copyright disputes.

Are these magical properties of vinegar true?

In fact, vinegar exists in our lives not only as a condiment.

Historically, vinegar was originally produced for medicinal purposes, and for centuries it has been used as a food preservative, household disinfectant, etc.

For example, grain vinegar contains active ingredients such as organic acids and natural phenols, which have been shown to have good antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antibacterial effects [3].

However, with the deepening of research, the efficacy of vinegar has exceeded people's imagination, making it difficult to distinguish the true from the false.

1 Can drinking vinegar help you lose weight?

Japanese researchers used black vinegar made from fermented brown rice, conducted animal experiments and preliminary human studies, and concluded that the ingredients in black vinegar may be used to control obesity[4].

This result is encouraging, but it is too early to draw a conclusion.

Since this is a short-term experiment and the product is single, more in-depth and long-term clinical trials are needed to evaluate and prove the effects of vinegar on lipid metabolism and obesity.

Furthermore, many fruit vinegars or other vinegar drinks on the market often contain a lot of sugar. If you drink vinegar for a long time for the purpose of losing weight, it will only add extra calories and increase the chance of obesity, which will be counterproductive .

2 Can vinegar control blood sugar and even prevent diabetes?

In a randomized cross-controlled experiment in 2020, the blood sugar fluctuation curves of 15 healthy women were recorded while they ate the same amount of rice and dried apples soaked in vinegar.

The experimental results showed that adding 30 ml of vinegar to each meal resulted in a more gradual change in blood sugar levels compared to eating only apples and rice [5].

Blood sugar changes over time after a meal. The black curve (VDA+R) is vinegar + apple slices + rice, which is smoother than the yellow curve (DA+R) apple + rice. Image source: Reference [6]

A similar experiment was conducted on patients with type 2 diabetes. The subjects added 15 ml of vinegar to each lunch for one month. The results showed that vinegar had an inhibitory effect on the increase in blood sugar after meals [6].

Since then, many studies have found that combining food with vinegar can not only affect the GI value of food, but also control postprandial blood sugar and insulin levels in both healthy subjects and diabetic patients [7].

However, these experiments are currently all conducted abroad, and the types of vinegar used in many research centers are not exactly the same as the types commonly used by Chinese people.

Although we have high hopes for the efficacy of vinegar, and the research value of vinegar products in blood sugar regulation is also worth looking forward to. However, before the emergence of truly reliable and applicable research results, the disease should be treated as it should be, and do not try to delay the disease without authorization .

3 Can vinegar fight cancer?

Many studies from medicine and nutrition have shown that diet, especially fermented foods, plays a vital role in regulating a variety of diseases including cancer. The fermented foods mentioned here, of course, also include vinegar.

However, so far, only a few studies focusing on the anti-cancer activity of vinegar have been conducted in experiments involving animal subjects and cultured cells, and the corresponding mechanisms have not yet been fully determined .

Vinegar has become controversial, as a case-control study in Serbia found that people who regularly drank vinegar had a 4.4-fold increased risk of bladder cancer.[3]

Therefore, it is not credible that “vinegar can fight cancer”, and don’t try it lightly.

In addition, there is very limited scientific evidence that vinegar can regulate blood pressure. Research on whether grain vinegar can prevent neurodegenerative diseases (such as Alzheimer's disease) is also ongoing and has not yet been concluded [3].

Research progress on functional active substances in different vinegars. Image source: Reference [2]

It can only be said that the many studies on vinegar are very attractive to both ordinary people and researchers. However, for more accurate results, more rigorous and extensive experiments are still needed to explore.

Vinegar is delicious, but don’t be greedy

As a common condiment in everyone's home, vinegar has an irreplaceable position on the dining table. There are also vinegar lovers who add vinegar to every meal.

But such a healthy and delicious vinegar may have adverse effects on the body if consumed too much.

1. Corroded Teeth

In a recent comparative study, subjects who consumed 2 tablespoons of vinegar twice a day experienced increased tooth erosion.[8]

It is well known that the lower the pH value, the higher the acidity. The pH value of vinegar is close to 3 and even lower than 3 in some cases, which is highly acidic. Frequent consumption may cause tooth erosion and cause irreversible damage to tooth enamel, dentin, etc.

Different types of vinegar. Copyrighted images from the gallery, reprinting may cause copyright issues

2 Esophageal injury

One pathology report recorded a woman who drank a tablespoon of white vinegar to soften a crab shell stuck in her throat. A subsequent endoscopic examination revealed oropharyngeal inflammation and second-degree erosive lesions in the esophagus extending to the cardia.[9]

This is also the reason why we have always advised not to drink vinegar when there is a foreign object such as a fish bone stuck in the throat. Not only will it fail to dissolve the fish bone, but excessive vinegar will also irritate the wound, aggravate the pain and even cause ulcers .

3. Aggravate diseases such as gastric ulcer

Even if healthy people drink vinegar in large quantities over a long period of time, they will experience some stomach symptoms (acid reflux, flatulence, etc.). Patients who already have gastric ulcers or excessive stomach acid should not add vinegar to their meals .

Not only does vinegar corrode the gastrointestinal mucosa and aggravate the development of ulcers, but vinegar itself is rich in organic acids, which will prompt the digestive organs to secrete large amounts of digestive fluid, thereby increasing the digestive effect of gastric acid and causing ulcers to worsen.

The various condiments on the table make up our life full of flavor. When eating vinegar, remember that "a small amount is fine, but an excessive amount is harmful" so that you can enjoy the delicious taste more safely.

References

[1] Tang Shimiao, Luo Qing, Chen Yuanyuan, Zhao Jinyue, Zhou Mengzhou, Zhong Xiaoling, Wu Qian. Functional properties and harmful substances of vinegar[J]. Chinese Condiment, 2018, 43(7):195-199.

[2] Wang Zongmin, Bai Hua, Zhu Lanlan, Wang Yanbo, Peng Lin, Liu Jizhou, Wu Xudong, Song Yuedong, Song Yuanda. Functional substances in vinegar and their research progress [J/OL]. Food Science.

[3] KANDYLIS P, BEKATOROU A,DIMITRELLOU D, et al. Health promoting properties of cereal vinegars[J]. Foods, 2021, 10(2): 344.

[4] Hamadate N., NakamuraK.I., Hirai M., Yamamoto T., Yamaguchi H., Iizuka M., Yamamoto E., Iwama Y., Yazawa K. Effect of a dietary supplement containing Kurozu (a Japanese traditional health drink) concentrate on several obesity-related parameters inobese Japanese adults: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Funct. Foods Health Dis. 2013;3:310–322.

[5] Zhao W, Wang L, Fan Z, LuJ, et al. Co-ingested vinegar-soaked or preloaded dried apple mitigated acute postprandial glycemia of rice meal in healthy subjects under equicarbohydrateconditions. Nutr Res. 2020 Nov;83:108-118. doi:10.1016/j.nutres.2020.09.003. Epub 2020 Sep 10.

[6] Mahmoodi M, Hosseini-zijoudS M, Hassanshahi G, et al. The effect of white vinegar on some blood biochemical factors in type 2 diabetic patients[J].Journal of Diabetes andEndocrinology,2015,4(1):1-5.

[7] Li Shuang, Fan Zhihong. Regulatory effect of vinegar on postprandial blood glucose[J]. Chinese Condiments, 2017, 42(1): 153-156.

[8] Anderson S., GonzalezL.A., Jasbi P., Johnston CS Evidence that daily vinegar ingestion maycontribute to erosive tooth wear in adults. J. Med. Food. 2020

[9] Chung CH Corrosiveoesophageal injury following vinegar ingestion. Hong Kong Med.J. 2002;8:365–366.

Author: jting Popular Science Creator

Reviewer: Gao Chao, Associate Researcher, Institute of Nutrition and Health, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention