Vinegar Can Help Tame Sugar Spike from Big Meals

Thanksgiving marks the start of a season that poses particular hazards for people with diabetes and others who are sensitive to the blood-sugar spikes that can follow big meals.

But several studies have revealed a possible way to reduce the impact of a carb-laden dish: Add a little vinegar. Doing so seems to help slow the absorption of sugar from a meal into the bloodstream, apparently because vinegar helps block digestive enzymes that convert carbohydrates into sugar.

One study by Italian researchers showed, for example, that when healthy subjects consumed about 4 teaspoons of white vinegar as a salad dressing with a meal that included white bread with a little less than 2 ounces of carbohydrates, there was a 30 percent reduction in their glycemic response, or rise in blood sugar, compared with subjects who had salad with a dressing made from neutralized vinegar.

In 2004, a study published in Diabetes Care, a journal of the American Diabetes Association, found similar effects in people with diabetes or insulin resistance who consumed a vinegar solution or placebo before a carb-heavy meal.

Thank you for posting this as I have type 2 diabetes and sometimes have had spikes in my blood sugar. Again thank you.

I'm happy if it helps you. You could dilute four teaspoons vinegar in half a glass of water and sip it before, or with, your meal too if you didn't want salad and there was quite a bit of carbohydrates in the meal. I was borderline diabetic for a while but my last two tests were good. I should test myself more often at home though. Good luck to you.

I usually like apple cider vinegar but the article said white. I wonder what they meant by neutralized vinegar...? Sweetened? PH changed with soda?