Day 1: Jessica Apple will check her blood sugar. Jessica Apple will down a spoonful of vinegar. Jessica Apple will consume at least 20 grams of carbohydrates and will not take any rapid insulin, flower essences, or eye of newt. Jessica Apple will check her blood sugar at 30 minutes, 60 minutes, 90 minutes post-prandial.
As we all know, no experiment is good without its placebo partner. So…
Day 2: Same as day 1, but replace vinegar with water
No doctor or medical practitioner has told me to do this experiment. I do not recommend you try this at home or anywhere else. This is intended for entertainment purposes only. Don’t even take it as information.
Preparation: 1 spoon, 1 glucometer, 8 test strips, apple cider vinegar or Apfelessig if that’s all you can find in your local supermarket (feline assistant optional), teflon tube for coating of esophagus (optional), one spoonful of water for placebo, carbohydrates
Now, I must drink my Apfelessig. Prost! Zum Wohl! In keeping with the theme of the post, I have chosen an apple as my carbohydrate. According to NutritionData, one medium apple has 25 grams of carbohydrate.
Day 1: An apple with vinegar
starting blood sugar: 97
30 minutes: 116
60 minutes: 95
90 minutes: Result is clear. Why waste a test strip?
Day 2: An apple with water
starting blood sugar: 83
30 minutes: 125, feeling sluggish
45 minutes: 139
60 minutes: Out walking to avoid seeing 160
Conclusions:
I cannot make them. Yes, it looks as if apple cider vinegar did lower my blood sugar on Day 1. There are, however, so many, many variables and my experiment is unscientific, and probably contaminated by cat hair, and one trial is proof of nothing.This clearly necessitates further study and as my cats and I record this data, my husband is asking whether drinking half a liter of vinegar will enable him to eat a giant bowl of ice cream. Perhaps he will be the next guinea pig
It did work for her (see day 1 vs. day 2 results).
And recent research says this effect does occur in type 1 diabetics. See this study: Vinegar Decreases Postprandial Hyperglycemia in Patients With Type 1 Diabetes
The participants in the study consumed a meal of bread, cheese, turkey ham (?), orange juice, butter, and a cereal bar, so I don’t think your criticism of her choice of an apple makes much sense.
When she said, “result is clear, why waste a strip?” she meant that the vinegar had caused her blood sugar to return to normal by 60 minutes, so it is clear that her BG would continue to be normal at 90 minutes. Ideally, she would have tested at 90 minutes, anyway, but she felt the results were obvious–that the vinegar had done the trick.
She isn’t make any conclusions because, as you know, with diabetes, you can never be fully certain what’s going on. Also, she does not want to get in trouble for giving out medical advice.
And orange juice is a . . .
No takers?
Does it have to be apple cider vinegar? We use balsamic or red wine vinegar on salad and she usually has a salad at dinner. And, obviously, it does seem as if the salad with the vinegar should come before the meal. I had heard of this, but I know she won’t down a teaspoon of vinegar before each meal, would have to come in the form of being sprinkled on some veggies. I can see it did work, but you would need a longer period of time to see if it works reliably most of the time.