A bottle of Bragg apple cider vinegar is proven in 2017.
Jeremy Drey/MediaNews Group/Studying Eagle by way of Getty Photographs
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Jeremy Drey/MediaNews Group/Studying Eagle by way of Getty Photographs
The distinguished medical writer BMJ Group has retracted a examine that discovered apple cider vinegar might assist individuals obtain dramatic weight reduction.
A press launch from the group cited “considerations raised concerning the high quality of the work,” because the overarching cause for yanking the March 2024 examine, printed within the journal BMJ Vitamin, Prevention & Well being.
The retraction was anticipated by many diet consultants, who’ve lengthy questioned claims that this sort of vinegar might treatment ills together with weight problems, diabetes, and even most cancers.
“The massive shock is why the BMJ accepted the examine within the first place,” says Marion Nestle, professor emerita of diet and meals research at New York College.
“An apple a day could preserve the physician away,” Nestle says, “however apple cider vinegar as a superfood? If solely.”
The examine concerned 120 obese or overweight individuals in Lebanon. Those that took each day doses of vinegar for 12 weeks reportedly misplaced about 9% of their physique mass.
When the examine got here out, BMJ group issued a press launch, which helped entice international media consideration.
The outcomes gave credibility to an outdated thought: that apple cider vinegar might enhance well being.
However some scientists had doubts.
“Upon first look, the magnitude of impact for weight reduction appeared implausible,” says Eric Trexler of Duke College, who was one of many scientists who identified flaws within the examine simply weeks after it was printed.
The burden loss rivaled what’s seen in individuals taking the most recent pricey prescription merchandise, like Ozempic and Wegovy.
Trexler says he needs the examine had been retracted sooner.
Scientists notified BMJ of their concern in June 2024, he says, however greater than a yr elapsed earlier than the journal took motion.
That delay, which is frequent for medical journals, reveals “a urgent want for reform throughout the tutorial publishing trade,” Trexler says.
Dangerous information for vinegar?
The retraction is simply the most recent blow for a product that has been a darling of celebrities and influencers.
Proponents have included celebrities like Katy Perry, Kim Kardashian, and Dr. Mehmet Oz, earlier than he took over the federal company liable for Medicare and Medicaid.
Perry and actor Orlando Bloom additionally turned half house owners of Bragg Reside Meals Merchandise, which advertises the well being advantages of its apple cider vinegar.
However the celeb endorsements have been countered lately by pushback from scientists. The product has additionally been buffeted by an influencer scandal that led to the 2025 Netflix sequence Apple Cider Vinegar.
The sequence is loosely primarily based on Belle Gibson, an Australian influencer who falsely claimed to have mind most cancers. Gibson credited pure cures and a particular weight loss program with curing her most cancers.
She later admitted mendacity about her most cancers.
Over the previous decade, a number of educational medical facilities have publicly questioned the purported advantages of apple cider vinegar.
The College of Chicago, for instance, printed an evidence of why it would not management hypertension or remedy most cancers.
Harvard Medical College challenged claims about weight reduction. So did the Mayo Clinic.
A future past salad dressing
Regardless of the scientific fallout, apple cider vinegar could properly preserve its recognition within the wellness world.
“I get the sense that it has elevated over the past decade or so,” Trexler says.
And no less than one forecasting group expects the worldwide market to proceed rising via 2032, thanks partially as a result of it is believed to supply “numerous well being advantages.”
Bragg Reside Meals Merchandise issued a assertion downplaying the retraction, saying the corporate “by no means relied on this examine to assist our acetic acid claims.”
