As I worked on the newsletter this week, I was excited to find some good news for Boom This! readers on how to lower their blood sugar levels and possibly lose some weight in the process. After doing more research, I learned that the article I was basing my information on, however, had some untruths in it, again reminding us to verify everything we read.

The article I read reported that eating or drinking two tablespoons of vinegar before going to bed could help reduce fasting blood glucose levels the following morning, most notably in people with Type 2 diabetes. It also said that any type of vinegar would produce the same results. All true. But then the article went on to say that the same amount of lemon or lime juice would have an identical effect. That part is not true.

I contacted Carol Johnston, a professor of nutrition at Arizona State University, who had conducted the study. She wrote back to say that it’s the acetic acid in vinegar which seems to produce the sought-after results (lower blood sugar levels). Other organic acids, such as the citric acid in lemons/limes, did NOT have this effect.

She did tell me that she has since learned that consuming one tablespoon of vinegar before bedtime has the same effect as two tablespoons. Her recommendation: Consume one tablespoon of vinegar twice daily with meals. “Folks doing this,” she adds, “need to eat lots of vegetables because these are basic foods and will counter the acidity of the vinegar.”

Carol and her team also found that those subjects who participated in the study lost weight, a happy coincidence, but she cautions that the study was not designed to study weight loss and cannot be used to draw solid conclusions.

Also, drinking or eating vinegar is just one more way to help keep diabetes -- the sixth leading cause of death in the United States -- under control. Vinegar should only be used in addition to a balanced diet and regular exercise -- not as a replacement for them.

To read more about Carol’s study, click here and here.