Bob's N=1: Apple Cider vinegar and blood sugar

(Bob M) #1

I’ve tested taking one tablespoon of Apple Cider (AC) vinegar on an empty stomach, with some water, and seeing what the results were. Using a pin-prick style blood sugar meter (Bayer Contour EZ) I thought I got about a 10 point BS decrease in about/over an hour. However, the results were inconsistent and the variance in those types of meters are terrible. So, I decided to try an AC vinegar test with a FreeStyle Libre continuous glucose monitor (CGM):

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What this shows is Tuesday, where I had a workout of BBS (body by science) and HIIT (“high” intensity interval training), about 50 minutes, after about 34 hours of fasting. On Wednesday, I had a BBS but no HIIT (ran out of time), and I only made it 22 hours of fasting the day before, so I had dinner Tuesday.

On Wednesday at 1:06 PM, I chugged a tablespoon of AC vinegar and water, so see the results on my blood sugar. I took blood sugar every half hour or so. My conclusion? It’s unclear whether AC vinegar at 1 Tbspn does anything to my blood sugar.

My blood sugar pattern is that I get a low around midnight, it goes up all day until around noon, then goes down all day. If you look at Tuesday (no AC vinegar), my BS was 98 at 3:02 pm. On Thursday, after taking AC vinegar, my BS was 98 at 3:10 pm. So, I can’t tell if the AC vinegar did that on Thursday, or if that’s my normal pattern.

The FreeStyle Libre output for Thusday doesn’t show much of a dip:

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So, I’m not sure AC vinegar does much, at the 1 tablespoon level.

I’ll try some additional tests, potentially at higher amounts also at night, to see if I can get my morning blood sugar to decrease. I’ll report back.

(Cancer Fighting Ketovore :)) #2

What I’ve read is that ACV doesn’t do much to lower BS when taken by itself, but can help lower it when taken with a meal. It might be worth doing some testing for a few days when you eat the same thing and test, and then eat the same meal WITH taking the ACV.

(MC) #3

I take a full dropper full of ACV bitters at night to help with the dawn effect. It ranges from 99 -113 no matter what I do (IF or late night snacking). The ACV brought it down into the mid 80’s in the morning.
Surprisingly, it does nothing to bring down my blood sugar after a meal. It actually rose by ten points (compared to the meal alone) after two hours. And the extra doses gave me acid reflux.

(KM) #4

I’ve been bingeing on youtube videos extolling the virtues of vinegar before a meal as one of the useful biohacks against insulin resistance, along with eating your carbs at the end of the meal and eating any carbs later in the day, as insulin resistance seems lessened then. I realize the idea of vinegar - acv or otherwise - has been around a while. Was wondering if Bob - or anyone else - has done any further experiments with it.

(Bob M) #5

I don’t have a CGM, and without that, it’s really tough to test.

Also, if I eat keto, I have no blood sugar rise. Take this example:

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You can’t tell when I ate (the Tuesday morning blood sugar rise was from exercising, not eating).

So, I’d have to test using carbs, but I don’t eat carbs enough to test. And, without a CGM, it’s nearly impossible to make nice graphs like those above.

(KM) #6

Thank you!