Sour Over Vinegar

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As long as there have been people needing to lose weight, there have been other people trying to sell them stuff to lose weight with. The more people there are who need to lose weight, to more pills, potions, diets, and machines appear to come to the rescue.

Apple cider vinegar has been touted as a cure all for everything from digestive ailments to rheumatism. Hippocrates, the “Father of Medicine” reportedly gave it to patients as a healing tonic in 400 BC. To the best estimates of modern-day herbalists, apple cider vinegar first appeared in weight loss remedies in the 1970s – although modern proponents claim that this was the secret weight loss cure of Ancient Egypt. The secret recipe that started the modern-day trend was a blend of Apple Cider Vinegar, kelp (seaweed), lecithin, and vitamin B6. The story was that the lecithin emulsified fat, iodine in the kelp increased thyroid function (speeding up metabolism), B6 somehow metabolized the freed fat, and the vinegar would then breakdown or dissolve the fat and accelerate metabolism. Other theories have tied weight loss benefits of Apple Cider Vinegar to increased detoxification or improved pH.

In the 80s and 90s this remedy mostly went underground as it was replaced by herbal stimulants like ephedra and guarana, and later even more exotic substances. But Apple Cider Vinegar seems to have re-emerged in recent years with a renewed vigor – and mostly recently it has shown up in an FDA action against a company in Florida called Confidence Inc. Confidence, sells a weight loss product called Metaboslim. The company website www.confidenceusa.com says some pretty appealing things about the product, which also contains Hawthorne, Tea, Cassia, and some Calcium. To quote from their website:

1. The main ingredient in MetaboSlim is Apple Cider Vinegar – – the most natural fat eater that also eliminates toxins.
2. Apple Cider Vinegar can transmit orders to the fat cells to drain and send fat to the muscles through the bloodstream. This redirected fat can be eliminated by the muscles as they burn calories.
3. Therefore MetaboSlim can help to eliminate fat deposits on the stomach, hips, legs and butt in a very brief period and also stop the development of new fat cells. It works like an anti-fat police force and plays an important part of a healthy weight management program for individuals wanting to loose weight.

Amazing. I am currently going to skip a compelling discussion of illegal claims – which all of these are under Federal Trade Commission regulations. If you are interested in knowing more about deceptive tools used in weight loss product advertising, look at last week’s blog and follow the links to the FTC educational site. What I find more interesting is that Confidence seems Confident enough to keep making these product claims on their web site even after they were forced by the FDA to recall this product earlier in the year when it was found to contain the weight loss drug sibutramine. Not only is this potentially dangerous for people to take a drug without their knowledge, but it is the worst form of deception. (To see the FDA recall letter follow this link http://www.fda.gov/oc/po/firmrecalls/confidence08_07.html People who took the adulterated product will not attribute their results (good, bad or dangerous) to the natural ingredients in the product. No wonder people don’t trust the dietary supplement industry!

Is there any evidence at all that Apple Cider Vinegar can help you lose weight? Not much. I did find a study done in Egypt in 2001 that showed that mice given a high dose of Apple Cider Vinegar for 4 weeks had significant weight loss compared to those on a controlled diet. However, the vinegar-eating mice also had pretty significant damage to their livers, stomachs, and small intestines – including erosion of the lining of the stomach and intestines (ie, ulcers) and changes in the cells of the liver. Not good for the mice. I also found a case report of a woman who suffered an acid burn in her esophagus from taking Apple Cider Vinegar tablets. As part of the follow up to that case, investigators tested many products and found that some of them were so acidic (containing acetic acid levels over 20%) that they were in the range that the Consumer Product Safety Commission considers poisonous to humans.

Apple Cider Vinegar has some very good and valid uses. You can use it in salad dressing, it makes a great addition to marinades or to tenderize meat, you can clean gold jewelry with it, and you can use it as a natural weed killer in your garden. But as a weight loss agent, it is probably not effective, and it could be harmful.

References:

1. Hill L. L., Woodruff L. H., Foote J. C., Barreto-Alcoba M. Esophageal Injury by Apple Cider Vinegar Tablets and Subsequent Evaluation of Products. JADA; 105(7): 1141-1144 (July 2005).
2. Mohamed el-OA, et al. The effect of cider vinegar on some nutritional and physiological parameters in mice. J Egypt Public Health Assoc. 2001;76(1-2):17-36.

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