Can vinegar help balance your blood sugar? Here’s what a scientist says

When I first heard about vinegar as the new wellness trend, I’ll admit I thought it was the next ‘warm water with lemon.’ But one person managed to convince me of its benefits: Jessie Inchauspé, better known as the Glucose Goddess.

The French biochemist and author of Glucose Revolution and The Glucose Goddess Method shared how to make the most of vinegar’s properties to improve our health. “Lemon is good if you like it,” she explains. “But if what you want is to level your glucose, lemon and vinegar act in different ways.” Lemon has citric acid, which affects stomach acidity. Vinegar, on the other hand, contains acetic acid, which is a much more powerful molecule, she says in an exclusive interview. “Acetic acid slows down the enzymes that convert food to glucose. The difference is that, to get the same results from one tablespoon of vinegar, you’d need the juice of three lemons.”

If the aroma of vinegar makes your stomach turn (that’s me, honestly), “then you can add a little lemon. It’s better than nothing,” she explains. The scientist also shares some tricks to help mask vinegar’s strong taste if the idea of taking a spoonful feels inconceivable. “One of my favourite tricks is to add a green starter to your meals so you can kill two birds with one stone and use vinegar as a dressing,” she says on her website. Other options include freezing vinegar into ice cubes or—my favourite and, in my opinion, the most tolerable—adding it to hot cinnamon tea.

If you want to give vinegar a chance to help with sugar levels, lose weight and reduce cravings and constant hunger, then you need to know how to choose the right one. Inchauspé names white vinegar, rice vinegar or coconut vinegar as good choices. “What should be avoided is balsamic vinegar and vinaigrettes with added sugars,” she says. “Those defeat the main purpose, which is ultimately to manage your glucose levels. The important thing is to read labels, because some flavoured vinegars or vinegar sauces are misleading at first glance and contain high levels of sugar.”

You also can’t leave out the well-known apple cider vinegar. In Inchauspé’s research, she found that it contains important nutrients such as magnesium, iron, amino acids, natural probiotics and powerful antioxidants. “It helps improve digestion and reduces inflammation,” she explains to her over 3 million followers on Instagram.