Periodically, the internet picks out a particular food or supplement and hails it as a hero. Sure, acai berries or turmeric taste good and are smart foods to incorporate into one’s overall diet, but they’re not going to solve any of your health woes on their own.
For quite some time now, apple cider vinegar has become one of these status ingredients. There are even gummy versions of it! Yet, there’s not a ton of concrete evidence that ACV does anything in particular — especially when it comes to sexual health.
There are a surprising number of blog posts out there questioning whether ACV can help with erectile dysfunction. The main issue with this line of thinking is that it ignores the actual causes of ED. Though it seems like a problem only impacting your dick, ED is often the result of cardiovascular issues ultimately impacting the body at large. In some cases, it’s actually your mental health that’s responsible.
This is where there’s some good news, though. While there’s no link between ACV and ED, there are some potentially hopeful studies suggesting that ACV may be able to help improve some of the underlying conditions that are producing ED. Various studies in mice and rats have found that ACV helps reduce blood lipids and cholesterol, two causes of heart problems, as well as improve overall cardiovascular health.
@gpepper29
On TikTok, there are dozens of videos addressing ACV as a weight-loss aid, and there have been some mildly promising studies to that effect. A 2005 study of 12 Swedish women found that consuming 30 mL of vinegar with a meal helped increase feelings of fullness and therefore contributed to the women eating less, while a three-month study of 175 Japanese adults with obesity found that those who consumed 30 mL of ACV once per day lost 3.7 pounds, while those who consumed 12 mL lost 2.6 pounds.
None of this is super conclusive, though, and ACV will only help with weight loss if you actually burn more calories than you consume. Still, maybe ACV helps some people achieve that. Considering that obesity is linked to numerous other conditions that in themselves can cause ED, like heart issues and depression, ACV may be beneficial in treating ED to the extent that it vaguely helps in the weight-loss process.
Still, ACV isn’t going to perfect your cardiovascular health or magically bring you to your ideal body weight. Both of those goals require an entire lifestyle approach incorporating exercise, diet, sleep, mental wellbeing, and often, the medical support of an actual doctor. Apple cider vinegar is only a minor component of one of those aspects. There’s nothing wrong with consuming it every day if you want, though drinking it straight might erode tooth enamel over time. Diluting it in another beverage or using it, you know, as a vinegar are both perfectly fine. But if you’re actually experiencing erectile dysfunction, downing a shot of vinegar simply isn’t going to cut it.
Magdalene Taylor
Magdalene Taylor is a staff writer at MEL. She covers internet culture, sex and the online adult industry. She lives in Brooklyn but is from God's Country, Western Massachusetts.
