Is Vinegar An Acid or Base? and Does it Matter?

Overview

Vinegars are versatile liquids used for cooking, food preservation, and cleaning.

Some vinegars — especially apple cider vinegar — have gained popularity in the alternative health community and are said to have an alkalizing effect on the body.

However, it’s well known that vinegars are acidic, leaving many people to wonder whether vinegars are acidic or alkaline.

This article explains whether vinegar is an acid (acidic) or base (alkaline) and whether it matters for your health.

What is pH?

To understand if something is an acid (acidic) or base (alkaline), you need to understand what pH is.

The term pH is short for “potential of hydrogen.”

Simply put, pH is a scale that measures how acidic or alkaline something is.

The pH scale ranges from 0–14:

• 0.0–6.9 is acidic
• 7.0 is neutral
• 7.1–14.0 is alkaline (also known as basic)

The human body is slightly alkaline with a pH between 7.35 and 7.45.

If your body’s pH falls out of this range, it can have serious or even fatal consequences, as internal processes can malfunction or stop completely (1).

It’s important to note that your body’s pH only changes in certain disease states and is not affected by your diet.

pH is a measure of how acidic or alkaline something is. It’s measured on a scale of 0 to 14. Your body is slightly alkaline with a pH of 7.35–7.45.

Is vinegar acidic or alkaline?

Vinegar comes from the French phrase “vin aigre,” which means sour wine (2).

It can be made from nearly anything containing sugar, including fruit, vegetables, and grains. Yeasts first ferment sugar into alcohol, which is then turned into acetic acid by bacteria.

Acetic acid makes vinegar mildly acidic, with a typical pH of 2–3.

People following the alkaline diet often worry about how food affects their body’s pH. That’s why many proponents use urine pH test strips to test their pH levels.

Like most acidic foods, research shows that vinegar makes your urine more acidic (3).

Apple cider vinegar is produced similarly to other vinegars, using yeast and acetic acid bacteria. The difference is that it’s made from apples, while white vinegar is made from diluted alcohol, for example (4).

Although apple cider vinegar contains more alkaline nutrients, such as potassium, calcium, and magnesium, compared with white vinegar, it’s not enough to make it alkalizing (5, 6).

It’s more likely that its association with apples, which are alkalizing, explains why some people believe apple cider vinegar to be alkaline.

Vinegar is mildly acidic with a pH of 2–3. Apple cider vinegar is slightly more alkaline than pure vinegar because it contains more alkaline nutrients. However, it’s still acidic.

Does the pH of foods matter?

In recent years, the alkaline diet has become a health trend.

It’s based on the idea that different foods can alter your body’s pH.

Proponents believe that eating a diet rich in acidic foods can make your body more acidic and thus more vulnerable to disease and illness over time.

Conversely, eating more alkaline-rich foods is thought to treat many diseases, such as (1):

• Osteoporosis. Proponents of the alkaline diet believe that when your body’s pH is acidic, it uses minerals from your bones to neutralize the acidity. However, studies show that there is no link between the two (7, 8).
• Cancers. Acidic environments are known to promote cancer cell growth, so proponents believe acidic foods may promote cancer. However, evidence shows that there is no link between diet-induced acidosis and cancer (9).
• Muscle loss. Certain conditions like metabolic acidosis have been shown to promote muscle loss. However, some proponents believe acidic foods may have a similar effect on muscle loss (10).
• Digestive disorders. Eating less acidic foods may relieve digestive discomfort. While this is true, it does not treat more complicated gut disorders (11).

However, no evidence shows that food adversely affects blood pH levels in healthy people.

If your body’s pH falls outside of the healthy range, it could have fatal consequences. That’s why your body has many mechanisms in place to closely regulate its pH balance.

Though certain foods have been shown to affect your urine pH value, this only happens because your body removes excess acids in your urine to maintain your pH balance (12).

Additionally, your urine pH can be influenced by other factors besides your diet. This makes it a poor indicator of your body’s health and overall pH.

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No evidence confirms that the pH of foods affects your body’s internal pH. Moreover, changes in urine pH are a poor indicator of health, as many factors outside of your diet can affect your urine pH level.

Other benefits of vinegar

While vinegars won’t affect your pH, regular consumption may have other benefits.

Here are some benefits of vinegar:

• May kill harmful bacteria. The acidic properties of vinegar make it a great cleaning and disinfecting agent. It’s also used as a natural food preservative to prevent bacteria like E.coli from spoiling food (2).
• May lower heart disease risk factors. Several animal studies have shown that vinegar can lower blood pressure, cholesterol, triglycerides, and other heart disease risk factors (13, 14).
• May raise insulin sensitivity. Vinegars have been shown to raise insulin sensitivity and lower blood sugar levels in people with type 2 diabetes (15, 16).
• May promote weight loss. Studies have shown that vinegars, including apple cider vinegar, may aid weight loss by curbing hunger and reducing calorie intake (17, 18).

Regular consumption or use of vinegar may benefit your heart, blood sugar levels, and weight, as well as potentially protect against cancer.

The bottom line

Due to alkaline nutrients, apple cider vinegar may make your urine pH slightly alkaline. Still, all vinegars have an acidic pH, making them acidic.

However, the pH of foods does not affect your body’s pH, as internal mechanisms keep your body’s levels in tight control to ensure proper function.

The only time the pH of your body falls out of this range is during certain diseased states.

However, vinegars have many other benefits that make them a great addition to your diet.