Can women drink apple cider vinegar (ACV) during pregnancy?
While this powerfully acidic product of the apple fermentation process combats acne, regulates heartburn and acid reflux, improves blood flow, and helps with weight loss in a general sense, it should not be consumed raw during pregnancy. Even unfiltered ACV mixed with water might put you in danger.
When you consume unfiltered apple cider vinegar, you may be opening the door to harmful bacteria along with the beneficial bacteria it’s famous for. If you want to consume apple cider vinegar during pregnancy without the risk, it’s best to do so in moderation, and really important to go with a pure, filtered, and pasteurized alternative.
What is Apple Cider Vinegar?
Apple cider vinegar is produced by fermenting apples with yeast for at least thirty days. As the organic apple matter decomposes, microorganisms process this product further, modifying its character, producing acetic acid, and turning it into the tangy condiment we all know and love.
Apple cider vinegar can take many commercial forms—you might be familiar with the yellow Bragg’s label, which expounds upon the nature of apple cider vinegar with the “mother”. The mother is less like a SCOBY (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast) and more like the remainder of the bacteria responsible for the transformation. Bragg’s and other brands like it are known for being purveyors of unfiltered, unheated, unpasteurized apple cider vinegar.
Unpasteurized ACV often contains “a matrix” of prebiotics, proteins, enzymes, minerals, polyphenols, vitamins, and other compounds, all hallmarks of the health benefits that pure, organic, all-natural, and minimally-processed apple cider vinegar has to offer.
Pasteurized ACV is simply the same thing, only with these inclusions filtered out and the resulting solution boiled in order to eliminate any remaining live cultures or harmful bacteria.
Is drinking ACV while pregnant safe? The difference between pasteurized apple cider vinegar and raw apple cider vinegar is often the axis by which this determination is made. Many believe that processing and purifying it renders apple cider vinegar safe for pregnant women, but that’s not all that’s on the table.
Is It Safe to Drink Apple Cider Vinegar While Pregnant?
It’s a well-known fact that pregnant women should avoid consuming unpasteurized dairy products, meat, eggs[1], and even things like almonds. Many experts recommend always choosing ciders and fruit juices that have been commercially pasteurized[2], or, alternatively, brought to a roiling boil at least once at home.
Ensuring that you do this helps you avoid candida infections and other forms of foodborne illness associated with consuming unpasteurized foods. If even this feels like too much of a risk, organic ACV powder, ACV supplements, and even apple cider vinegar gummies can all help you enjoy the benefits of apple cider vinegar worry-free, and with a little acetic acid present.
Benefits of Apple Cider Vinegar for Pregnant Women
When you drink ACV mixed in the water while pregnant, you stand to gain in many of the same ways that you would ordinarily. What can pasteurized apple cider vinegar do for your evolving body and growing child, though?
- Apple cider vinegar might be able to improve pregnancy nausea and morning sickness
- It might also be able to soothe the digestive system, relieving you of heartburn, acid reflux, and other tummy troubles
- ACV lowers post-meal glucose levels and might be able to help you prevent gestational diabetes[3] alongside foods high in vitamin C[4]
- You might also be able to reduce the likelihood of leg cramps while pregnant
- Using diluted ACV topically as a facial toner can improve the appearance of hormonal skin breaking out
Apple cider vinegar also streamlines blood circulation, improves your immune system, and improves your blood pressure, but much of the evidence pointing to these health benefits were performed using unpasteurized ACV with the mother included.
After delivering your child, you’ll be free to enjoy ACV in any way you like without worrying. Until then, however, it’s best to focus on the present. There are tons of ways to achieve all of the above safely, without exposing yourself to the risks of raw apple cider vinegar.
How to Take Apple Cider Vinegar During Pregnancy
Many of the best practices for pregnant women when it comes to their grocery carts will be more than obvious—buying well within each item’s “best by” date, for example, and adhering to the standard food safety protocol[5] when it comes to cooking and storage.
With non-meat and non-dairy products, these provisions might not always be as straightforward. One or two tablespoons of ACV diluted in water can deliver the health benefits mentioned above, but taking too much at once or over the course of your day might have the opposite effect.
If you consume ACV too often during pregnancy, your pregnancy symptoms could worsen. While ACV helps with stomach pain, aids digestion, and can lower blood sugar levels in a general sense, the chemistry of pregnancy is much different than during any other time.
Potential Side Effects of ACV
Even if you’re not pregnant, there are actually a myriad of ways in which drinking apple cider vinegar or even just using it topically may cause an adverse reaction:
- Apple cider vinegar can take a negative toll[6] on your medicine, particularly the type that treats diabetes or that helps with blood pressure issues
- Many commercial brands dilute their ACV formula to approximately 5 percent acidity—even these diluted products will still boast a pH of around two to three, however, and might be able to cause chemical burns if applied directly to the skin
- In this vein, consuming apple cider vinegar in excess might also allow the acetic acids it contains to erode tooth enamel, causing tooth decay
- It can also cause a sore throat and related sore throat symptoms
- Many utilize apple cider vinegar to lose weight and alleviate tummy trouble, but doing so without a plan might cause your blood sugar to drop suddenly and significantly
- Apple cider vinegar can put you at risk for hypokalemia, also known as low potassium levels in the body
In a general sense, when used moderately and appropriately, non-pregnant women can safely use around two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar diluted in water without worrying about much.
If you’re diabetic or have any other relevant chronic issues to consider, however, we recommend that you avoid unpasteurized ACV, especially when not acting under professional medical advice from your physician.
The Bottom Line
Using apple cider vinegar as a tonic or substituting it for other, higher-calorie ingredients are great ways to promote weight loss as part of a normal, healthy diet. Apple cider vinegar cleanses your system, all while adding a tangy little kick to each meal, snack, or beverage that you add it to.
Apple cider vinegar helps with weight loss and a million other things. Give it a shot in your next salad or cup of tea and see where it takes you.
+ 6 Sources
- Taylor, M. and Galanis, E. (2010). Food safety during pregnancy. Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien, [online] 56(8), pp.750–1. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2920771/.
- Safe Food Handling for pregnant women. (n.d.). [online] Available at: https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/canada/health-canada/migration/healthy-canadians/alt/pdf/eating-nutrition/healthy-eating-saine-alimentation/safety-salubrite/vulnerable-populations/pregnant-enceintes-eng.pdf.
- Leahy, J. (Jack) L., Aleppo, G., Fonseca, V.A., Garg, S.K., Hirsch, I.B., McCall, A.L., McGill, J.B. and Polonsky, W.H. (2019). Optimizing Postprandial Glucose Management in Adults With Insulin-Requiring Diabetes: Report and Recommendations. Journal of the Endocrine Society, [online] 3(10), pp.1942–1957. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6781941/.
- Liu, C., Zhong, C., Chen, R., Zhou, X., Wu, J., Han, J., Li, X., Zhang, Y., Gao, Q., Xiao, M., Hu, X., Xiong, G., Han, W., Yang, X., Hao, L. and Yang, N. (2020). Higher dietary vitamin C intake is associated with a lower risk of gestational diabetes mellitus: A longitudinal cohort study. Clinical Nutrition, [online] 39(1), pp.198–203. Available at: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30773371/#:~:text=Above%20200%20mg%2Fday%20of,women%20from%20developing%20gestational%20diabetes.
- Usda.gov. (2012). Safe Minimum Internal Temperature Chart | Food Safety and Inspection Service. [online] Available at: https://www.fsis.usda.gov/food-safety/safe-food-handling-and-preparation/food-safety-basics/safe-temperature-chart.
- Hlebowicz, J., Darwiche, G., Björgell, O. and Almér, L.-O. (2007). Effect of apple cider vinegar on delayed gastric emptying in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus: a pilot study. BMC Gastroenterology, [online] 7(1). Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2245945/.