While baking soda and apple cider vinegar can benefit health, combining them likely doesn’t provide any additional benefit. They may also cause side effects, especially if you take too much.
Apple cider vinegar and baking soda offer health benefits when taken on their own. Yet, the latest trend involves mixing the two in hopes of achieving even more stellar health.
Once reserved for grade-school science experiments, this combination is touted to improve digestion, reduce joint pain, fight urinary tract infections, and even help you lose weight.
This article explores whether taking baking soda and apple cider vinegar together carries any risks or offers benefits beyond those associated with taking each separately.
Test-tube studies suggest that apple cider vinegar can help kill harmful microorganisms, such as E. coli, S. aureus, and C. albicans.
Apple cider vinegar may also help lower blood sugar levels and cholesterol and improve insulin sensitivity. Research also suggests that it may reduce feelings of hunger and help people .
That said, to confirm these potential effects, all of these findings need to be replicated in more human studies.
When it comes to baking soda, research suggests that using it as part of a mouth rinse may help prevent the loss of tooth enamel. In addition, baking soda may help improve exercise performance during short-duration, high intensity exercise.
Baking soda supplements may also help slow the progression of chronic kidney disease and the growth of cancerous cells. Here too, more research is also needed before strong conclusions can be drawn.
No research examines the benefits of ingesting a mixture of apple cider vinegar and baking soda, and there is no evidence of health benefits beyond those potentially associated with taking each separately.
The idea of combining baking soda with apple cider vinegar may have come from the idea that it helps alkalize your body, preventing diseases that thrive in acidic environments.
Yet, this belief ignores the fact that your body has tightly regulated processes to control its pH levels and that what you eat or drink has very little effect on how acidic or alkaline your body is.
Ingesting baking soda and apple cider vinegar, either together or separately, may have a few potential risks.
Ingesting large amounts of baking soda may cause a life threatening condition known as metabolic alkalosis.
This occurs when the body can no longer control the blood pH. It can result from excessively high intakes of alkali compounds like baking soda. It can result in spasms, muscle weakness, an altered mental status, and, if left untreated, an irregular heartbeat and even death.
Due to its high sodium content, high intakes of baking soda may also result in fluid accumulation and high blood pressure, especially in people with compromised kidney function.
Baking soda should not be given to children under five years old, as it may cause seizures and breathing difficulties. Pregnant people should also avoid its intake.
Due to its high acidity, apple cider vinegar may cause throat burns or erode tooth enamel. In addition, consuming a lot of it could potentially lead to low potassium.
There are also potential interactions with medications, such as those used for diabetes or diuretics, so speak to your doctor before adding it – alone or mixed with baking soda – to your diet.
Combining apple cider vinegar with an alkaline compound like baking soda may help neutralize some of its acidity. However, it’s unclear whether the common recipes shared on the internet completely neutralize apple cider vinegar’s acidity.
Combining the two also creates a chemical reaction that produces gas. Therefore, this mixture may cause gas and bloating if you ingest it before all the gas has escaped. However, no studies have researched this effect.
Little is known about the safety of long-term intakes of either of these compounds, let alone their combination. Therefore, until more is known, it’s likely safest to avoid taking this mixture altogether.
Baking soda and apple cider vinegar have some antibacterial qualities that can be beneficial for certain skin conditions, like acne or eczema. However, using them together can also lead to some side effects, and there’s no evidence of greater benefit.
Old research suggests that baking soda might be helpful with erectile dysfunction, but this needs to be verified in newer research. There’s no research that apple cider vinegar is helpful in this space.
Baking soda and apple cider vinegar may each offer various health benefits when taken on their own. However, no scientific evidence suggests that mixing the two offers additional benefits.
Ingesting either compound bears potential health risks, and little is known about the long-term safety of taking baking soda or apple cider vinegar alone, let alone mixed together.
Therefore, until more is known, it’s likely safest to avoid consuming this mixture.