Diabetes Diabetes Diet and Exercise

Vinegar with a Splash of Cherry Extract for Diabetes?

The next time you're choosing between the vinaigrette and the blue cheese dressing, go with the vinaigrette. Not only is the vinaigrette better for your waistline, it may help you stave off diabetes. New research shows that a daily helping of vinegar—and possibly an extract from cherries—may help lower blood sugar levels.

The vinegar study, which was published in Diabetes Care, involved 10 people with type 2 diabetes, 11 people with prediabetes—who are at high risk for diabetes—and eight healthy people. Before eating a breakfast of orange juice and a bagel with butter, which contained 87 grams of carbohydrates, the participants were assigned to consume 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar in a glass of water sweetened with saccharine, or a placebo. A week later, the placebo and vinegar groups switched, and then ate the same breakfast.

The researchers, led by Carol Johnston, PhD, RD, a professor of nutrition at Arizona State University, measured the participants' blood sugar before and after the breakfast. They found that vinegar consumption slowed the rise of blood sugar after the high-carbohydrate meal. In all three groups, the vinegar led to improvements in blood sugar levels after the meal, though it had the biggest impact on people with prediabetes, cutting their blood sugar levels after the meal by 34 percent. In people with diabetes, blood sugar levels dropped by about 20 percent with the vinegar.

Vinegar's Sweet Secret
So how does vinegar affect blood sugar levels? Dr. Johnston says that two studies, one done in the test tube and one in rats, suggest that vinegar blunts the blood sugar rise that normally occurs after a meal by interfering with the absorption of the high-carbohydrate foods.

"The acetic acid in vinegar may inhibit enzymes that digest starch," Dr. Johnston explains. "So the carbohydrate molecules aren't available for absorption and are eliminated as fecal matter." When choosing a bottle of vinegar, she says, make sure that it contains 5 percent acetic acid. Different types of vinegar, including balsamic, red wine, apple cider and white vinegar, may have this concentration.

According to Johnston, a diabetes medication called acarbose works the same way vinegar does.

"Vinegar appears to have effects similar to some of the most popular medications for diabetes," she says. "There are also studies suggesting that if people with prediabetes take these medications, they might reduce their chances of getting diabetes."

So while more studies need to be done to determine how much vinegar is required, and whether it has any adverse effects, Johnston says it looks like people with diabetes might be able to use vinegar to help manage their blood sugar levels, and that those with prediabetes may be able to use vinegar to slow the progression to diabetes.

Cherry-Picking Your Fruit
As you prepare your vinegar-flavored foods, you might also keep in mind another study that showed that an antioxidant in cherries may improve your blood sugar profile.

In this test-tube study, published recently in the American Chemical Society's Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry, red cherries, which contain anthocyanins, chemicals that are responsible for their rich red color, were found to increase insulin production by 50 percent. Insulin is a hormone that controls blood sugar, so better insulin production can help reign in uncontrolled blood sugar levels.

Study author Muraleedharan G. Nair, PhD, a professor of natural products chemistry at Michigan State University, says it is not yet understood how anthocyanins, which are also found in strawberries and elder berries, affect insulin levels. New studies being conducted in mice may help provide more answers.

In the meantime, Dr. Nair warns that people with diabetes and prediabetes should not necessary eat a bowlful of cherries for dessert to lower their blood sugar.

"It may not be advisable for a diabetic to consume a lot of cherries because they contain a lot of sugar," he says. "What we are talking about is one component of the cherry. Eventually, we will have this component separated out from the sugars and the cherries, so people with diabetes can consume an extract."

In the meantime, it might be a good idea to fix yourself a salad topped with oil-and-vinegar dressing.

Sources
Johnston C, Kim C, Buller A. Vinegar Improves Insulin Sensitivity to a High-Carbohydrate Meal in Subjects With Insulin Resistance or Diabetes. Diabetes Care. 2004;27:281-282.

Jayaprakasam B, Vareed S, Olson K, Nair M. Insulin Secretion in Bioactive Anthocyanins and Anthyocyanidins Present in Fruits. J Agriculture and Food Chem. 2005;53:28-31.