| A
kitchen staple could help you lose weight and control
diabetes--and it's probably in your pantry right now.
Researchers
at Arizona State University had different groups of
people drink vinegar to test its effect on blood sugar.
They
gave four teaspoons of vinegar mixed in water, or mixed
in a saccharin solution, or a placebo that tasted like
vinegar--to three groups of people: those who were healthy,
those with insulin resistance (or prediabetes), and
those who already had type 2 diabetes, which is the
kind you get later in life.
They
then had the subjects eat a high-carb meal of bagels
and orange juice and tested their blood sugar levels
to see if the vinegar had any effect.
An
extension of the study looked at weight loss in people
who drank vinegar twice a day for four weeks.
The
results of the study were very interesting:
Blood-sugar
levels dropped 34 percent in the prediabetics and 20
percent in the diabetics, compared to the subjects drinking
the placebo.
In
the extended study, people who drank the vinegar solution
twice day for four weeks lost an average of about two
pounds, compared to the control subjects.
The
researchers speculate that that vinegar may interfere
with enzymes that break down carbohydrates to make them
easier for the body to absorb.
They
concluded that while it's not a substitute for a healthy
diet and exercise, vinegar may help control blood-sugar
fluctuations in people with insulin resistance. This
may be important because the body can be damaged by
chronic spikes and dips in blood-sugar levels, not to
mention a person's energy level--when blood-sugar levels
go up and down, the person can be irritable and sometimes
sleepy. |