Apple Cider Vinegar for weight loss: Having apple cider vinegar can aid your weight loss diet. However, it’s important to understand it can’t be solely responsible for losing weight. Apple Cider Vinegar, as the name suggests, is a vinegar that is made from fermented apple juice. It is sour and sharp in taste and has properties that lead to the burning of fat in many. However, not everyone can have it and hope for positive results in weight loss.
Traditionally, the ACV is used to assist salad dressings, as a food preservative, and in making different types of sauces. Speaking to india.com, Nutritionist and Yoga Guru Shailja Saraswat highlights that the role of Apple Cider Vinegar in aiding weight loss is vital but one shall not start consuming it without consulting a diet specialist or without understanding the ground of one’s body. “Is it good for all? To understand this, one should know their body’s constitution or nature (Prakriti – Vata, Pitta, and Kapha). ACV is sour and warm in nature and thus calms the Vata, mild impact on Kapha and definitely aggravates the Pitta, therefore anyone whose body’s constitution has Pitta dominance should avoid ACV as it can lead to skin burns and ulcers in the stomach,” she says.
How does Apple Cider Vinegar help in weight loss?
Shailja answers: “Historically, there is no evidence of using Apple cider vinegar in Ayurveda, however, fermented herbs are used to produce Ayurvedic medicines in the form of arishtas and asavas for ages. Apple cider vinegar has lots of therapeutic values and helps in losing weight apart from levelling blood sugar, improve acid production (Jathragini) in the stomach and promote & ease menstruation in females. So basically, weight loss through ACV happens because it aggravates pitta and thus increases the production of digestive juices, which in turn improves the individual’s overall metabolism.”
What is the ideal quantity of Apple Cider Vinegar in our daily diet?
Shailja says one should not make it a habit of having ACV daily and rather give break and then start again. “It’s advisable not to take more than one spoon ACV per day, dilute it well, and don’t take it regularly (drink for short periods than give a gap to restart again),” she says.
So while the use of ACV is helpful in losing those extra kilos, it is not advisable to take it without consulting a professional.