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.

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.

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.

Acetic acid helps liver cells burn fat and stop making too much fat, but only if a key switch in the cell called AMPKα is turned on. If that switch is blocked, acetic acid doesn’t work anymore.

In rat liver cells, a substance related to vinegar (sodium acetate) turns on a key energy sensor and lowers the activity of genes involved in sugar and fat production, which might explain how vinegar helps with metabolism.

Acetic acid turns on a key energy sensor in liver cells, which tells the body to start using stored energy.