Acetic Acid: Your Favorite Tangy Taste Is Good For You

What it is, where it is, and what it might be doing for you.

Acetic acid is one of the many things in kombucha, but is responsible for a ton of the taste. And guess what? It also does some awesome things in your body too.

We have dissected kombucha left and right for you here, and we’re glad you swing by every now and then to brush up on your expertise. But did you really think we talked about everything yet? We’re just getting warmed up. 

Imagine this: You pop open your booch, wait a minute, and let the fizz settle. You smell the tang, the fruit flavors, and they blend so well, you’re not sure which is which. You bring the bottle to your lips, and the same dance happens on your tongue, only this time, you taste a really cool sweet-spicy-sour all the way through. Well, that taste, the one booch drinkers really seem to relish in, has a name - acetic acid.

Acetic acid is not only the tang in booch, but in vinegar, and is also responsible for all the cool things vinegar can do, like clean and keep germs (and bugs) away. 

There may be reason to believe it does the same in your body too. Bacteria, yeast, and inflammation caused by these might be helped by the ingestion of acetic acid. There may be some reason to think that it helps with keeping your body more toward the alkaline end, depending on your ingestion quantity, and this (in some circles) has some debate whether doing so may indeed keep your body running more efficiently.  It can also help reduce inflammation, lower your blood pressure and keep your blood sugar spikes at bay.

If you’re not too keen on the thought of chugging some vinegar for a mega-dose of it, we’re with you on this one, and thankfully, a little bit of it still goes a long way. Acetic acid is also found in the tang in dill pickles, and many other pickled options. However, if you home brew kombucha, the longer you leave it to ferment, the more acetic acid it will produce, and the closer to vinegar it will become. Which isn’t a bad thing, because kombucha vinegar is actually a really unique flavor addition to some traditional recipes calling for vinegar. 

You may have heard of lactic acid, a very prominent acid in your own muscles, and found in some effective skin care products, which is a very close relative to acetic acid. This is why you see some recipes for homemade vinegar skin toner, or hear weightlifting advice centered around acetic acid ingestion.

But here may be the coolest thing: Acetic acid has been shown to very effectively control blood sugar spikes. 

Researchers aren’t fully sure of the mechanism of it, but there have been several studies around participants ingesting high-GI (GI stands for glycemic index, a scoring system for how quickly, and high, a food raises your blood sugar) foods, and then taking acetic acid in some form, often vinegar. 

One study in particular had participants eat a high-GI breakfast, and then take a dose of vinegar - only about a tablespoon - to then measure their blood sugar after. Another group was given the same meal, but without the vinegar. The vinegar group’s blood sugar spike... was 50% lower. 

Acetic acid is still being studied, but it does have some promising results behind it. Our common knowledge of it also might lead us to believe it could have similar effects in the body, and we might not be wrong. How much acetic acid kombucha itself actually contains is based on a few factors, the most prominent one being how long the particular brew is fermented. The longer the ferment, the more you’ll find. 

However much is in it, it is certainly there, and no studies have ever shown harm in moderate amounts. So feel free to chug your booch, enjoy that tang that all the booch-heads do, and you never know what we might find out next about your favorite taste.  

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This article was originally published for Seek North Kombucha on Seek North.

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