By Rosie Schwartz

Can drinking vinegar help you lose weight? If you follow the diet advice of celebrities like Megan Fox or Fergie, you would be downing shots of apple cider vinegar before each meal as a weapon in the battle of the bulge. While many celeb diet secrets may be based on science fiction, there indeed is emerging science pointing to assorted health perks of vinegar. Vinegar's effects on weight management, blood sugar readings and various blood fats are a hotbed of research.

Vinegar has long been used, dating back to ancient cultures, as both a seasoning and preservative. Then a few decades ago, apple cider vinegar became popular as a remedy for all sorts of ailments. Even to this day, vinegar products are touted as providing relief for those with arthritis and symptoms like stiffness, removal of artery plaque, the appearance of a more youthful body and healthy skin. Even reducing dandruff and baldness are on the list. And of course, only certain products - usually more expensive ones - were deemed to be of value.

You can't be blamed if the claims make you think of snake oil. Myths certainly abound. For the record, vinegar does not get rid of bloating - even if Megan Fox says it does. And it does not detox the body of harmful substances. A healthy liver is responsible for that.

But before turn your nose up at vinegar, it may yet come up smelling like roses. Research, although much of it on animals, is pointing to a range of benefits. And it's not just apple cider vinegar that's being investigated. It's the acetic acid in the vinegar which is found in assorted fermented products like wine, rice, balsamic, flavoured ones like raspberry and even plain old white vinegar.

It may indeed offer some advantages to those struggling with girth control issues, something Japanese researchers have been looking for due to the growing incidence of obesity in that country. In one study, researchers assessed the effect of vinegar on mice fed a high-fat diet. One group of mice were given vinegar while the other water. They found that the vinegar suppressed body fat accumulation at a very basic level - through the animals' genes. But that wasn't all. The vinegar also boosted metabolic rates or calories burning capacity.

Their next study focussed on obese humans. In the twelve-week investigation, the same researchers compared the consumption of three different plans. The groups were to maintain a similar food and exercise pattern and vary only the vinegar they consumed. One group consumed a beverage containing two tablespoons of vinegar, another with one tablespoon of vinegar and finally, a placebo where no vinegar was consumed. Both vinegar consuming groups had some very positive results. Those consuming the most vinegar lost the greatest amount of body fat - particularly around the waist, where excess fat can be most harmful to health - and had lower levels of triglycerides in the blood when compared to the group who consumed less vinegar. The group with no vinegar showed no changes in any of these measures.

Vinegar, because of its effects on blood sugar readings, may also help to control appetite - a boon for waist watchers. In fact, the impact of acetic acid on blood sugar readings, while currently given little attention in medical circles, was something that was relied upon for those with diabetes before the use of blood sugar lowering medications. In fact, vinegar teas were often used to help those with diabetes manage their disease.

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Now science is showing that there may be benefits for both those with and without diabetes when certain foods are being consumed. Foods with a high glycemic index (GI) have been labelled as a culprit in promoting diseases like diabetes and heart disease. High GI foods are those which contain carbohydrates which are quickly digested as sugar. And when blood sugars rise quickly following a meal on a regular basis, for both healthy people and those with diabetes, it may be costly to good health. Eating fewer processed foods, in general, leads to a lower GI diet.

A Greek study published this summer looked at the effect of vinegar on blood sugar readings following two different meal types in subjects with type 2 diabetes. One included a high-GI meal with mashed potatoes while the other had a low-GI whole grain bread as the source of carbohydrates. For the high-GI meals, the vinegar actually offset some of the blood sugar surge that would normally follow. Kind of makes you wonder about the British and now Canadian tradition of eating French fries, a high GI food, along with malt vinegar. (Not that I'm saying fries are great for you if you just eat them with vinegar!)

Another study, conducted at Arizona State University, found that the blood sugar effect only occurred with high GI starchy foods and not those containing simple sugars as you might find in soft drinks, high sugar cereals, baked goods and various sugar-laden processed foods.

In this study, only two teaspoons of vinegar were needed to achieve the beneficial effects. That's the amount you might consume in a two-tablespoon serving of a typical vinaigrette salad dressing.

There is a cautionary note, though, for anyone with type 1 diabetes. Suddenly adding significant amounts of vinegar to your diet may lead to unexpected low blood sugar levels so careful monitoring is suggested.

Finally, if all this isn't enough for you, in a study on both normal and diabetic rats, after four weeks, the vinegar-fed rats had significant lowering of their artery-clogging LDL cholesterol and triglycerides while levels of protective HDL-cholesterol went up. And though fasting blood sugar readings were not decreased, another measure of blood sugar called hemoglobin A1C was lower - something that those with diabetes aim for.

Before you run to your kitchen to down some vinegar - something I was tempted to do as I looked at the accumulating research - keep in mind that vinegar is an acid. Having a pre-meal shot could be irritating to your digestive tract. So instead consider using it in your meals - for example, on your salads and in soups and stews. It can certainly be a tasty condiment to liven up many nutrition-packed options.

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