You’ve seen the videos. The morning shot. The grimace. The influencer is promising flatter stomachs, clearer skin, and blood sugar miracles all from a bottle sitting in their kitchen cabinet. Apple cider vinegar has become the thing, the wellness world’s favorite potion that supposedly does no wrong.
But here’s the thing about trends. They rarely tell the whole story.
If you’ve been debating whether to invite ACV into your daily routine, this one’s for you. Not to scare you off, it’s completely. Not to sell you on it either. Just to lay out the full picture so you can decide with your eyes open. The good. The bad. And the ugly.
The Good
Here’s what works.
Apple cider vinegar moves things. All that undigested food hanging out in your gut folds for days on end? ACV comes through like a cleanup crew, speeding up downward motility and waking up your peristalsis. Things start flowing again.
It also scrapes out excess mucus that’s been camping in your system and puts a real dent in those blood sugar spikes. We’re talking 20 to 30 percent reduction after meals. For anyone watching their weight or their glucose, that number means something.
So yes. It does its job.
The Bad
But here’s where it gets complicated.
Apple cider vinegar is sour. Fermented. Raw. Refrigerated for days. In Ayurvedic terms, that makes it tamasic, which is a gentle way of saying it’s carrying dead energy. And when something lifeless enters a living system, it can block the flow. Prana stops moving the way it should.
Then there’s the heat. ACV runs hot by nature. If you’re already walking around with fire in your belly, literally, this stuff adds kindling. Pitta types feel it immediately. Burning. Acidity. Reflux that creeps up hours later. Vata types don’t escape either. The sourness aggravates them in other ways. Even kapha, who usually handles fermentation better, can end up bloated and gassy.
The Ugly
This is the part they leave out of the glossy Instagram posts.
Apple cider vinegar, taken daily in amounts over 15 milliliters, starts destroying tissue. Not dramatically. Slowly. Quietly. It erodes the mucosal lining in your gut walls. That protective layer you didn’t know you needed? Gone over time. Dry gut sets in. Then leaky gut. Then a whole cascade of issues you never connected to that morning shot.
Skin shows up eventually. Eczema. Psoriasis. Urticaria. The gut screams through the skin when no one’s listening internally.
Some people should never touch it. Those with existing skin conditions. Pregnant women. Anyone whose teeth are already compromised. Pitta types especially, because lemon or lime does the same job without the fermentation and the heat.
If you absolutely must, vata can balance it with warm water, salt and ginger. Kapha can use honey, never heated. But honestly? Switch to lemon. You get the vitamin C. You get the cleanse. You get everything good without the tissue erosion and the prana block.
The oldest tools are sometimes the sharpest for a reason.