Can Ingesting Apple Cider Vinegar Improve Your Mood?

Though hard cider may be a thing for beverage enthusiasts, health enthusiasts have a completely different take on ciders (we’re talking apple cider vinegar)! Apple cider vinegar is commonly associated with benefits like weight loss and lowering glucose, but have you heard of its connection with fighting depression?

It’s hard to look your best when you don’t feel your best. Depression, one of the most common mental illnesses, can disrupt your entire life. The good news is that there is plenty of research on how to treat depression. Medication and talk therapy are both backed by scientific evidence. For those interested in finding a more natural remedy, however, researchers from Arizona State University (ASU) recently published a study suggesting that drinking apple cider vinegar daily can improve your mood.

What Was the Study All About?

The study divided its participants into two groups: one who was given two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar and the other who was given placebo apple cider vinegar tablets. The placebo tablets allowed for the researchers to compare the results of the two groups. After subjects had taken their apple cider vinegar or placebo tablet every day for four weeks, the participants were instructed to fill out two mood questionnaires.

Interestingly, the participants who drank apple cider vinegar had a 20-34% reduction in their depression scores; those who took the placebo tablets had a slight increase in their depression scores. This research suggests that drinking apple cider vinegar may help resolve depressive symptoms.

What Role Does Vinegar Play Here?

Scientists suggest that vinegar plays a role in mental health because it has acetic acid. Most all of us are familiar with the pungent smell of vinegar. We can thank the acetic acid in vinegar for that! When acetic acid is digested, it forms the compound acetate. In a study cited by the ASU researchers, acetate was shown to have a connection to improved cognitive performance in rats…

Following similar logic, drinking vinegar daily would give the body an additional source of acetic acid, potentially improving your mood. The study participants who showed an improved depression score were given the teaspoons of apple cider vinegar that contained 1.5g of acetic acid. To put that into perspective, the other study participants were given vinegar tablets that contained just 0.015g of acetic acid. 

The Main Takeaway

Treating depression is a personal journey that looks different for everyone and finding the right treatment that works best for each individual can take time. It is often a challenge of trial and error – what works well for one person may not work well for another. While drinking apple cider vinegar is no replacement for speaking to a mental health professional, the science is evolving and eventually, it may be another natural remedy in the arsenal to fight depression.

References:

1. Johnston et al. Daily Vinegar Ingestion Improves Depression Scores and Alters the Metabolome in Healthy Adults: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Nutrients 2021, 13(11), 4020 [Link]

2. Zheng et al. Depletion of acetate-producing bacteria from the gut microbiota facilitates cognitive impairment through the gut-brain neural mechanism in diabetic mice.
Microbiome 2021, 9, 145. [Link]

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