Last Updated on September 3, 2023

For centuries, apple cider vinegar has been used as a natural home remedy to treat several ailments, including swollen veins, sore throat, infections, and coughing. While there haven’t been many studies about it in the past, scientists have now started researching apple cider vinegar for detox and its prospective advantages more closely.

Apple Cider Vinegar Detox

Vinegar produced from the fermentation of crushed apples is called apple cider vinegar. It is a sought-after culinary agent, a dermatological cure, and a highly competent home remedy.

However, its high acetic acid content and prebiotic advantages show the potential to provide a lot more health benefits. Perhaps most notably, for use in an apple cider vinegar cleanse and detox drink. But, can this low-calorie solution be the key to unlocking a highly potent detoxification method?

What is a Detox?

Detox is the modern means of cleansing the body of toxins by adopting certain diets, such as the ketogenic diet, and eliminating specific food groups. It is widely used for losing weight, decreasing cholesterol, and supporting a healthier approach towards living.

Mixing apple cider vinegar with other healthy ingredients like cinnamon, turmeric, ginger, and lemon juice is a popular detox drink combination. People claim this drink recipe helps them get in shape, lower blood cholesterol, stabilize blood sugar levels, and thoroughly detox a fatigued body.

Benefits of Detox and Cleansing

Detox beverages are quickly becoming popular for reducing toxic substances and combating serious health concerns. They claim to have several benefits for our health, including but not limited to:

  • Improving liver and kidney function: In today’s world, diets frequently include loads of unhealthy foods. It is therefore essential to give your liver an occasional detox to increase its functioning. Detox drink recipes help filter toxins from the food we eat and also assist in separating them from good nutrients by enhancing the metabolic process.
  • Reducing inflammation: Taking a short break from an unhealthy diet and processed foods can help lower the toxins in the body that could trigger diseases and contribute to chronic conditions related to inflammation.
  • Enhancing digestive function: Detox beverages offer beneficial nutrients to your digestive system and serve as an effective cleanser to relieve digestive discomfort.
  • Helping weight loss: Proponents also claim that one of the best things about trying a detox is that it helps you lose weight naturally. Detox beverages boost your metabolism, helping you burn more calories at rest.

Furthermore, detox also impacts many important bodily functions, including:

What Danger Do Toxins Pose?

A human being encounters an average of 700,000 toxins per day. Here’s why it’s concerning:

  • Toxins directly damage enzymes: Each physiological function of the body responds to enzymes, whether it’s building molecules or breaking down food for digestion. When toxins poison these enzymes, our body loses efficiency in these significant areas. This could cause brain degeneration, weak muscles, or even cancer.
  • Toxins trigger inflammation in the body: Bodily inflammation (oxidative stress) can further damage the organs, muscles, and systems of the human body. It can even lead to arthritis and joint pain.
  • Toxins accelerate aging: These harmful substances are capable of causing DNA modifications, which in turn cause aging to occur at a faster pace.
  • Long-term exposure to toxins promotes the growth of cancerous cells: As per WHO, acute toxic poisoning could very well progress to a damaged immune system, cancer, and even death.

If not adequately eliminated, toxins can also cause inflammatory skin conditions, reproductive problems, bloating, headache, constipation, tiredness, nausea, and more. The list goes on, which is why a detox solution is crucial.

Does Apple Cider Vinegar Detox and Cleanse Your System?

Our bodies have a natural immune system that performs quite impressively in terms of detoxifying the body. The liver is the most important filtration system we have and it works constantly to keep us healthy. But how does drinking ACV help, and what do the experts say?

Currently, there has been no definitive proof showing that apple cider vinegar is directly responsible for removing alcohol or other toxins from your system. Proponents of apple cider vinegar claim that it’s effective in detoxifying the body from alcohol. However, that’s not entirely true, and here’s why.

Vinegar is the major component in apple cider vinegar detox drinks. Vinegar and alcohol break down to ultimately become the same chemical in your body, rendering it ineffective for dispelling alcohol. The addition of acetic acid (a major component of vinegar) might even delay the process if your body already contains too much acetate due to alcohol consumption.

Research Studies

Several clinical trials have found positive results in using apple cider vinegar for weight loss, gastrointestinal dysfunctions, and it may even help flush uric acid out of your body. While no formal research directly claims the detox effect of apple cider vinegar, none reject it either.

In one study by the Middlesex University, London, apple cider vinegar shows high antimicrobial activity against most dermatological dysfunctions, including yeast infections. This result hints at the potential for cleansing using ACV supplements.

ACV’s ability to combat excess lipids also came to light in several studies.

A 2014 Japanese study showed highly significant results in this regard. Three groups from a total of 175 participants were part of the trial. Two groups took an ACV dosage of 15ml and 30ml of ACV, respectively, while the third went without vinegar. The groups with vinegar intake reported significantly lower serum triglyceride levels, BMI and body weight.

After eight weeks of ACV consumption, another Iranian study concluded a positive influence on blood lipids. After the trial, patients with hyperlipidemia reported a reduction in their cholesterol and triglyceride levels.

The Journal of Functional Foods presented a trial concerning the modifications in body weight by ACV. For 12 weeks, participants consumed a restricted ACV diet. As a result, a significant reduction in BMI and body weight was reported.

The acid from vinegar has also proven to be a successful agent in regulating postprandial glycemic control. Various studies demonstrated its effectiveness in gastrointestinal distress. For instance, a study showed that an ACV diet accompanied with deglycyrrhizinated licorice produced a 50% acid reflux improvement after five days.

Apple Cider Vinegar Detox Drink Recipe

An apple cider vinegar drink, or as it’s referred to sometimes as apple cider vinegar water, can be made by following several recipes. You can always give it a personal touch with some greens, lemon juice, cinnamon, or even cayenne pepper.

However, all basic ACV drink recipes for detox ask for the following ingredients:

  • A tablespoon or two of ACV
  • 8 oz water
  • Any sweetener (sugar, honey, maple syrup, etc.) as per taste

Mixing Directions: Put in your ACV and purified water in a container. Thoroughly mix, add a sweetener of choice, and any additional ingredients you may like. It’s simple—there’s not much to it!

Other Ways of Consuming ACV

If you struggle to get over the taste of ACV, you can enhance your cleanse and detox efforts by choosing any one of the following alternate consumption methods:

  • In the form of a vinaigrette salad
  • With meat and vegetable meals
  • As ACV pills or chewable ACV gummies

Safety Tips for ACV

Before you pick up any detox drink recipe, remember that it is important to use it wisely.

  • Always choose a raw, unfiltered ACV that contains “the mother.” This will unlock its full healing potential.
  • Do not consume ACV directly. To truly bypass its many side effects, always dilute it with water.
  • Be mindful of how much apple cider vinegar to take and use the recommended dosage of no more than a tablespoon or two per day, in the morning or at night before bed.
  • Have the detox drink with a straw and no more than a glass a day. Extra doses may damage your tooth enamel or throat.

ACV for Detox: Final Thoughts

ACV’s many rumored advantages regarding cleansing your system are often anecdotal. But, several studies show excellent health benefits that are great no matter how you look at them.

Choose an apple cider vinegar detox if you can manage it with the necessary precautions. Otherwise, no detoxification diet can surpass the effectiveness of healthy lifestyle choices.

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