As Americans we are always searching for the next magic bullet. We look for weight loss in a pill so we can sit on the couch at night and watch TV. And, we buy into fad diets hoping that they are the ticket to the weight loss lotto.
Are there really foods that help you lose weight? Of course there are, and I’ll cover some of these tomorrow. But today my focus is on vinegar – the stuff I combine with Italian salad dressing mix and oil for a great summertime salad dressing.
In a recently published study, scientists fed mice a high-fat diet then administered water with 0.3% or 1.5% vinegar intragastrically (feeding tube that goes directly into the stomach) for 6 weeks. Vinegar inhibited the accumulation of body fat and fat accumulation in the liver. By measuring gene expression, enzyme activity and fatty acid oxidation, the researchers discovered how vinegar works to fight fat (science geeks – check out the reference below).
What does this mean for consumers? If you can down water + vinegar solutions you have a stomach of steel (and no, I don’t recommend doing this). It is far from practical to start downing vinegar on a daily basis. However, if you have the opportunity to chose balsamic vinegrette dressings or oil/vinegar based salad dressings as opposed to the creamy kind, do so. In addition, you can try some of the new flavored vinegars for cooking (the companies that make these should have information on how to use them). Will you accumulate less fat by cooking with vinegar? Possibly. But, more importantly, vinegar is calorie free and oil & vinegar dressings are healthier than creamy dressings. Just don’t use any full fat dressing by the bucketload.
Reference: Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. May 26, 2009.