How Not to Age: The Scientific Approach to Getting Healthier as You Get Older

by Michael Greger

Don’t like the taste of vinegar? Instead of delivering acetic acid through your mouth, you can also supply it to your bloodstream from the opposite direction. You know how vegetables and grains turn sour when they’re fermented? Think sauerkraut or sourdough. That’s because there are good bacteria like Lactobacillus that produce organic acids like lactic acid. Acetic acid is a type of short-chain fatty acid made by the friendly flora in our gut from the fiber and resistant starch we eat. These prebiotics are concentrated in legumes (beans, split peas, chickpeas, and lentils) and whole grains, but fiber can be found throughout the plant kingdom. When we eat whole plant foods, our gut flora can make acetic acid from scratch inside our colons by fermenting fiber. Then, that acetic acid can get reabsorbed back into our bloodstreams. So, we can use the top-down approach to activate AMPK by consuming vinegar or the bottom-up approach by eating fiber.