Here's a Thought: Do Not Take Apple Cider Vinegar to Lose Weight (*Unless You Want to Lose Weight)

Jenna McCarthy examines the irony of the BMJ retracting an ACV weight loss study—while leaving far more dangerous, pharma-backed research untouched.

Surely you’ve heard of the many miraculous benefits of apple cider vinegar. You can cook with it. Marinate in it. Spray it on your plants. Gargle with it for a sore throat. Use it to clean your toilet. Rinse your hair with it. Dab it on your skin. Make a tangy salad dressing out of it. Deodorize your gym shoes, descale your coffee maker, and remove lime buildup from your shower head with it. Taken internally, ACV can curb appetite, improve digestion, lower blood sugar and cholesterol, and even help you lose weight.

A 2024 study confirmed that last bit to modest fanfare (but don’t bother clicking the link).

Last year, a team of Lebanese researchers rounded up 120 chubby teenagers and young adults, split them into groups, and handed out daily shots of apple cider vinegar (ACV) diluted in water, while a control group got placebo lactic acid water. Twelve weeks later, the vinegar group had smaller waists, lower BMI, improved cholesterol, and better blood sugar, while the placebo group got the satisfaction of knowing they were duped into chugging knockoff kombucha for science.

The study was randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, and published in the British Medical Journal. Unfortunately, out of an abundance of probable Pharma pressure caution, the journal has retracted the study—more than a year after its release—citing “implausible statistical values, the reliability of the raw data, inadequate reporting of methods, and a lack of prospective trial registration” as their impetus for the backpedal.

A group of Karens critics even wrote their own letter, which was published in the same journal, basically pissing all over the study and calling it “incongruent” with past research.

Researchers: “We’ve done a new study that suggests maybe some previous studies were wrong.”
Critics: “Are you mad? Original studies are the best. They’re definitive. Period. Why were you even doing that stupid study when we already studied that?”
Researchers: “It’s called science.”
Critics: “Yeah, well, you’re doing it wrong.”

Thank goodness for these health vigilantes, right? I mean, imagine the chaos: humans everywhere, storming Costco for $3.99 gallon jugs of ACV, ignoring the sacred wisdom of doctors who went to med school for the sole purpose of prescribing $1,200/month injections.

“Tempting though it is to alert readers to an ostensibly simple and apparently helpful weight loss aid, at present the results of the study are unreliable, and journalists and others should no longer reference or use the results of this study in any future reporting,” said Helen Macdonald, MBBS, MSc, publication ethics and content integrity editor for the BMJ Group.

(You caught that publication ethics and content integrity editor, right?)

In an unrelated article bemoaning the lack of large, fancy studies to support some of ACV’s health claims, WebMD writes:

“One study showed that taking 1-2 tablespoons of ACV a day helped people following a reduced-calorie diet lose a few extra pounds. But the study was small and short-term, following 39 people for 12 weeks. It didn’t record what the study subjects ate on their diets or how much they exercised. Further, it wasn’t blinded, which means people in the group who got ACV knew they were getting it.”

At the risk of insulting the person who went to the trouble of typing out that entire paragraph, who freaking cares if the study was small or imprecise or biased or unblind? What’s the absolute, very worst thing that could happen if people tried it? Why aren’t folks going, “This looks super promising! Let’s file it neatly in the CAN’T HURT MIGHT HELP folder. Better yet—and this is going to sound bananas—why don’t a few of us just try it for a few weeks? What do we have to lose—besides some excess flesh, hopefully?”

No, instead it’s “Rats. Too bad nobody will fund a giant university study to rigorously test this dirt-cheap grocery store staple. Now we’ll never know if it might be the weight loss holy grail or not.”

Online magazines like The Conversation are pulling old articles they wrote reporting on the initial research. “We are committed to providing accurate and reliable information and to acknowledging errors in an open and transparent way when they occur,” editors said in their retraction.

Keep in mind, we’re talking about fermented apple juice here. Other than the fact that some people find the taste unpleasant and it can irritate the stomach lining and harm tooth enamel if consumed undiluted, you’d be hard-pressed to find a safer natural health supplement. It’s a salad dressing staple, for crying out loud—not a novel, likely contaminated gene editing injection that comes with a side of myocarditis, for example.

Interestingly, a recent meta-analysis of ten different randomized controlled trials found that “daily ACV intake significantly reduced body weight.” Not that I put much (any?) weight in published studies anymore. It’s been proven that they can design studies to fail when they want to, crank out fraudulently positive ones on command, bury anything that contradicts the going narrative, and call it all ‘science.’ But still. It’s out there.

“It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines,” former New England Journal of Medicine editor-in-chief Marcia Angell wrote sixteen years ago. Can you imagine how much worse it is now?

Call me crazy, but if you wanted to lose some weight and perhaps experience some other beneficial side effects, it seems like apple cider vinegar might be worth a try. Even without a prestigious journal study to “prove” it.

What do you think? Have you tried it? Would you? Let me know in the comments.

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About the Author

Jenna McCarthy is a bestselling author, columnist, and relentless truth-sifter with a sharp wit and sharper pen. At the Independent Medical Alliance, she writes the series Here’s a Thought, tackling health, freedom, and the absurdities of modern medicine with equal parts humor and clarity. Subscribe on Substack to join the always lively comments on Jenna’s post! Explore more of Jenna’s work here or read her full bio here. Your support makes Jenna’s voice—and independent journalism like this—possible. Donate today.