In a type of lab mouse, drinking water with a little vinegar-like acid for two months seems to turn down liver genes that make sugar and fat, possibly by flipping a metabolic switch called AMPK.

Eating acetic acid—like what's in vinegar—might help improve metabolism in mice by turning down certain genes in the liver that make sugar and fat.

Acetic acid might help lower blood sugar in diabetic mice by turning on a key energy-sensing protein in the liver, based on lab tests and gene activity clues.

Mice with a condition like type 2 diabetes had lower blood sugar after drinking water with a little vinegar (acetic acid) for two months. This suggests vinegar might help control blood sugar in diabetes.

Mice with type 2 diabetes that drank water with a little vinegar-like acid every day for 8 weeks had lower blood sugar levels than mice that didn’t — suggesting this acid might help manage blood sugar.

Acetate turns up fat-burning genes in liver cells, but only when a specific switch called AMPK is working — if we turn off that switch, the effect goes away.