Can Vinegar Increase Resting Energy Expenditure? In Mice it can!

Apple cider vinegar is sometimes recommended to improve digestion, all claims that it also helps with losing body weight have yet hitherto remained unsustainable. Now, the results of a recent study by Japanese scientists (Hattori. 2010) suggests, that acetic acid, a main component of all types of vinegar increases resting energy expenditure in acetic acid treated mice:

In this study, we investigated to determine whether a single oral administration of AcOH would increase EE in C57BL/6J mice treated with 1.5% AcOH. The AcOH treatment group had significantly higher oxygen consumption (VO₂), EE, and fat oxidation (FAT) than the water treatment group.

Interestingly, this is only a follow-up study to previous investigations, in the course of which the same group of scientists found that acetic acid positively affects hyperglycemia, hyperlipidemia and hypertension, and that AcOH administration suppresses body fat mass and up-regulates the genes involved in fatty acid oxidation. So, after all, it may not be the salad which makes you lose weight but the vinegar and oil dressing you hopefully use instead of one of these carb-loaden "low fat yogurt" dressings.