Vinegar manages to move more sugar into skeletal muscle, this increased uptake of sugar, means less sugar is circulating, stopping pesky sugar spikes.

A high carb meal, will cause a rise in sugar.

In the metabolically healthy, the rise is a momentary blip, in the metabolically challenged, the rise can be a protracted affair. Unfortunately, the longer the spike lasts, the more problematic. new one

There are several ways to circumvent, this post-prandial sugar spike.

• Go low carb, PERIOD.
• Include carbs, but select foods with a low glycemic index
• Pack the plate with carbs, but start with a tot of vinegar – assuming you can stomach it.

Vinegar has long been regarded as a folk remedy for diabetes. So does it work ?

Researchers from Greece, set about learning more about this Mediterranean condiment, which is frequently mixed with olive oil, to create a salad dressing which turns lettuce leaves, from rabbit food, to a tasty side dish.

Vinegar with breakfast

The team invited 11 newly diagnosed, drug free, diabetics to a BIG breakfast, on two separate occasions, a week apart. They served a veritable feast, which included bread, cheese, turkey ham, orange juice and a cereal bar.

The specific macronutrient breakdown of the breakfast, was as follows :

• 75 g carbohydrate
• 26 g protein
• 17 g fat

The carb count was high enough to see a significant sugar spike…..at the 60 minute mark.

The peak level, was above 14 mM, without vinegar.

When the breakfast started off, with a tot of vinegar (30 ml, diluted in 20 ml of water), the peak level, was around 1 mM lower.

This is still on the high side, but a 1 mM difference, means there was a lot less sugar, getting up to mischief, in the blood vessels.

In search of the “missing” sugar

Where was the sugar ?

The experimental design, allowed the researchers to not only measure, how much sugar was in the blood, but how much sugar was in their arm muscles.

Okay…………….. not directly.

They didn’t take a muscle biopsy, but they were measuring the blood flowing into the arm, via the radial artery and the blood coming, out via, the contralateral antecubital vein. By measuring the difference between the blood levels, they could calculate how much sugar, had been delivered to the muscle.

And……………you guessed it, the vinegar somehow delivered more sugar to the muscle.

Opening the gate

Since the actual blood flow into the arm, was pretty much the same, the team concluded, vinegar was not helping with sugar delivery.

Instead, vinegar is somehow, promoting glucose uptake.

Since skeletal muscle is a power user of sugar, this impacts overall sugar levels. The increase uptake by muscles, ends up minimizing the damaging sugar spike.

So, go ahead, pack the plate with carbs, but start with a tot of vinegar, but…

Beware of the bite

Vinegar is an acid !

This means, along with it’s sugar “fighting” powers, it has the capacity to burn tissues and teeth.   So take precautions……….

Make sure you dilute it, don’t attempt to drink it neat.

And avoid adding lots of sugar, to make it more palatable. What you gain on the swings, you’ll lose on the round about.

That said……………whenever you get an opportunity to go Mediterranean, do it. Including a plate full of salad greens, tossed in a balsamic vinegar and olive oil salad dressing, with your dinner, it will be most healthf

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