The Incredible Health & Weight Loss Benefits of Apple Cider Vinegar with JJ Virgin

Hey, it's J.J. here.

You know, I've been talking about environmental toxins forever, and laundry detergent is a sneaky one. A lot of them contain harsh chemicals like dyes, preservatives, and even UV brighteners. Those brighteners don't actually clean anything. They just coat fabric so your eyes think things look whiter or brighter. That's more chemicals I don't want on my family's sheets or skin. And if you've got sensitive skin or allergies around the house, this can be a big problem. That's what got my attention about Earth Breeze.

It looks like a dryer sheet, but.

It'S actually laundry detergent. You toss one in the washer and that's it. No pouring, no mess, and no heavy plastic jug. Their packaging is lightweight cardboard, which helps reduce plastic waste. And if you choose the fragrance free option, it's gentle, hypoallergenic, non irritating, and non sensitizing. I really like how simple it is and how fresh and clean everything comes out without those unnecessary chemicals. Right now you can try Earth Breeze for up to 40% off with free gifts@earthbreeze.com virgin that's earthbreeze.com virgin for up to 40% off plus free gifts on your first order.

Hey, JJ here. Can you believe how fast the holidays are knocking at the door this year? One minute it's pumpkin spice season, the next you're getting your guest room ready and wondering where their wrapping paper went. And that's when I turned to Wayfair. From bedding and towels to holiday decor and last minute stocking stuffers, Wayfair has everything you need to get your home and holidays together fast. And for way less. With Wayfair, I know I can refresh my guest room in no time. Maybe I'll add a soft new comforter or a few holiday throw pillows. With Wayfair, it's so easy and everything arrives super fast. Plus, there's free shipping for any order over $35 easy and total peace of mind. So whether you're hosting, gifting, or just adding those final festive touches, Wayfair has your back. And when the holidays wind down, Wayfair has everything you need to tuck it all neatly away. Smart storage solutions for every room from the kitchen to the closet. Get organized, refreshed and ready for the holidays. For way less, head to Wayfair.com right now to shop all things home. Wayfair. Every style, every home that's W a y F A I R.com the holidays are Almost here.

But there's still time to score great gifts at Dick's Sporting Goods. Find everyone's must have gifts from Nike, FP movement, Adidas and more. Need your gifts fast? Stop by your local Dick's or shop Dick's.com for fast shipping, curbside pickup or same day delivery. Every holiday starts at Dick's.

Antibiotics. Oh my gosh. They scorched earth your gut. The damage that they do. Again, I think of it just like scorched earth. You go out into a field and you burn it all out.

Here's JJ Virgin Triple board certified nutrition and fitness expert and four time New York Times best selling author. It's time to reignite wellness.

Hey hey, it's JJ and today is a solo episode. I'm going to be talking to you today about apple cider vinegar. Yep, I'm doing a whole podcast on apple cider vinegar.

Why?

Because we get asked about it all the time. So I'm going to go through it. Talk about why you want to incorporate this into your diet. It has got amazing health benefits and it's easy, easy to add on in. So I'm going to be sharing all of that today. So if you've been wondering about it, if you have no idea what I'm talking about either, which way this podcast is for you because you're going to want to add this on into your diet. And one of the biggest things that I love to do in diet is adding we focus so much on what you can't have and what I really want to make sure that we're focusing on here is what you can have. Alrighty. Now before we dive in, I also want to do a shout out to a review and I gotta tell you, I love, love, love these reviews so much. So I just want to do a shout out to Katie Joy B. 5 stars. Heartfelt health JJ. Incredibly knowledgeable guests talk all things health related. But it's so much more than that. You get tons of actionable advice and tangible tips, but you'll also get heaps of inspiration from truly engaging individuals that genuine, genuinely want to help others. Thanks so much for putting out such a spectacular show jj. Keep up the great work. Well, I will tell you that it actually takes a village. I do the interview part, but we are always scouring social media to find what information you want to know more about. We have question for our Q and A Friday, so if you've got a question go to JJ Virgin on Instagram or JJ Virgin Official on Facebook. Leave it on over there. You can even DM me. And I'd love to get a review from you as well. And if there's something you'd like to know more about, let us know if you've got a comment, something that could help us do a better job. This is your show. All you need to do is go to subscribe to JJ. Yep, subscribe to JJ. It is that easy. Thank you team for that.com and we will hook you up. We'll also hook you up with some great stuff today in the show Notes. We've got some great recipes for you incorporating apple cider vinegar. So go to jjvirgin.comacv for that. Now hang with me for a minute. I'm going to share a top favorite with you and then I'm going to dive into all things acv.

Hey jj, Virgin here.

Okay, real talk.

So often the holidays sneak up on me.

Travel, gifts, hosting, you know, all the things and suddenly it's like, wait, who.

Spent what and where?

And I know I'm not the only one who's looked at a bill in January and thought, wow, that escalated quickly. If you want to keep your finances under control this holiday season, you need to be using Monarch. It's rated the Wall Street Journal's best budgeting app of 2025. Monarch is the all in one personal finance tool that brings your entire financial life together in one clean interface on your laptop or on your phone. Monarch lets you link everything and gives you real time visibility so you're not shocked later. Right now I've been checking the holiday spending category so I don't accidentally start the new year with that dreaded debt hangover. And honestly, just seeing everything laid out is already helping me stay more aware. This season. Monarch does the heavy lifting. It links your accounts in minutes, gives you smart categorization and super clear visuals. Yes, that end of year reset could be a real goal this time. Don't let financial opportunities slip through the cracks. Use the code virginonarch.com in your browser for half off your first year. That's 50% off your first year. @monarch.com with the code Virgin, the holidays.

Are all about family. But at the Chrysler Wrap of the Year sales event, it's all about you. Enjoy every mile in the most awarded minivan in America, the Chrysler Pacifica. With the most standard safety features in its class, available Stow n go seating and the available stow and back built in vacuum. Make the most of the holidays with a great deal at the Chrysler Pacifica. Wrap up the year sales event based on Ward's small van segment. Based upon the latest available competitor information, Chrysler is a registered trademark of FCA US llc.

Alrighty, here we go. Here we go. Why you want to add apple cider vinegar, also known as acv, into your diet? If you've heard about it, it's like the health food that's been around for the ages. So let's start first with what the heck is it? Apple cider vinegar. Well, it's kind of exactly what it sounds like. What they do is they crush apples. They being whoever is making the apple cider vinegar, crush those apples and then they ferment them. Now, when they're being fermented, you, of course, you know this from fermentation. It creates bacter bacteria. That this bacteria is acts as healthy probiotics and enzymes for the gut. And it's really the secret to its health properties is this fermentation process. So here are the things that ACV does for your health. Number one, it supports and encourages a healthy gut microbiome. Okay, so gut microbiome, that is the biggest bacteria in your gut, and we are more bacteria than cells. This is super duper important. What we've discovered over the years is that these bacteria are everything to your health. They can dictate your mood, your immune system, whether you burn fat or store it, your cravings, your satiety, your appetite, how well you handle sugar. Super duper important. So the probiotics from apple cider vinegar add more healthy gut flora. And then there's prebiotics in health acv. So prebiotics act as fertilizer for good bacteria in the gut. They are the food for the good bacteria. And again, remember, 70, 80% of the immune system is based in the gut. So this is really important to keep your gut bacteria healthy. Also, there's enzymes in apple cider vinegar, and they can help break down your food, which means that you will not have undigested food messing up your gut microbiome. And because that, my friends, can lead to leaky gut, which is what I wrote the virgin diet about. So there's the first one helps you have a better gut. Second one is apple cider vinegar can promote fat burning. How, you ask? Well, there is something called acetic acid in apple cider vinegar, and this can rev up your metabolism. Acetic acid also helps activate enzymes in the liver that boost fat burning. Also, apple cider vinegar blocks conversion of sugar into fat by the liver and activates genes that prevent fat from forming. All right, if that wasn't enough, number three is appetite Suppression. So acetic acid in apple cider vinegar crosses the blood brain barrier through the colon, and it then satiates or stimulates or triggers the area of the brain that controls hunger. Apple cider vinegar also slows down digestion and keeps food in the stomach longer, so you feel fuller between meals. Remember, if you're slowing down digestion, you're keeping food in the stomach longer. You keep ghrelin suppressed, and when ghrelin elevates, you're hungry. So there's how that works. Next is blood sugar. It helps. Number four is that apple cider vinegar balances blood sugar and insulin levels. It is proven to lower blood sugar levels and insulin levels. In fact, by the way, this is not just apple cider vinegar. All vinegars do this. And I think it's one of these things we don't think about, is that vinegar is an amazing health food because it almost acts like metformin, the drug that helps lower your insulin response to a meal. How crazy is that? So one study showed that having apple cider vinegar before a meal resulted in lower insulin triglyceride levels compared to those who did not have apple cider vinegar. Plus, it's long lasting and a strong staying power. If you take apple cider vinegar the evening before, it can help with better blood sugar levels the next morning. Okay. And finally, if I haven't convinced you enough, apple cider vinegar is a natural antibiotic, is natural antibacterial. It's proven to help combat common fungi and bacteria such as candida and E. Coli. And by the way, remember, antibiotics, oh my gosh, they scorched earth your gut. So, I mean, of course there are certain times when antibiotics are necessary, but most of the time they are not. And the damage that they do, again, I think of it just like scorched earth. You go out into a field and you. You burn it all out. So then you have to rebuild all of that, and if you're using it frequently, can contribute to leaky gut and could create antibiotic resistance. So this is a great alternative in those situations where you really don't need to be using the antibiotics. All right, now I am going to jump off real quick. I'll be right back because I want to give you your top takeaways for. For what to do with apple cider vinegar. Hang tight.

Saving on your education should be a right, not a competition. At University of Phoenix, you'll get the best scholarship or savings you qualify for. Simple as that. Explore scholarship options at University of Phoenix.

All right, I'm back. So this is where we do the top takeaways. So now that you know how amazing apple cider vinegar is and why we get so many questions about it, we've actually written a whole blog about it, which I will link to here. Just a reminder, it can help with weight loss, it can help with fat burning, it can help with maintaining healthy blood sugar, good gut flora satiety. It's antibacterial. Like it's just an amazing thing. I keep thinking if that was a drug, like it would be prescribed all the time. So we definitely want to add it in. How much you ask? Somewhere between one to two tablespoons a day. Do not go crazy with this stuff. It doesn't take much. And that's the good news. One to two tablespoons a day. And the only caveat, the only people that shouldn't be using this would be someone who has got a gastric ulcer. So if that's the case. No. And ideally, this isn't something, don't use it as mouthwash. It's not good for your teeth enamel. So here's a couple different ways that you can do it. I mean the easiest one, and we put this into our detox cleanses is we do apple cider vinegar salad dressing. So little apple cider, cider vinegar and olive oil, boom. That's an easy one to do. So easy to use as a salad dressing. You can put a little bit into your smoothies, you won't even notice it in your smoothies. And I did a great ice green tea the other day with a little bit too. So you can add it to your drinks.

Little bit.

If you're doing that, use again, use a straw because it's not great for your teeth. So look at the different places that you can just add in a little bit because again, it doesn't take much. One to two tablespoons a day, is it? You can probably do a tablespoon just as part of your salad dressing every day and then incorporate a little bit more, put a little more into your smoothie or a little bit more into rice free tea and you are done. Also, we're going to gift you my little simple apple cider vinegar detox tea recipe and we will put that into the show notes again at jjvirgin.com forward/acv for apple cider vinegar. There you go. Simple, easy peasy. One request. Pretty please. If you have not subscribed yet, if you probably noticed, we have moved into season two. It took us a while but we have moved into season two. Here's what season two is has changed into. We now have a an episode with a guest every week. And you know I get the most amazing guests because I have some incredible friends in the health world. So we have great guests. Plus I do a solo each week on something that that's been popping up a bunch. So we knew we wrote an apple cider vinegar blog because we got so many questions about it and I thought, all right, time to do a podcast on it. And then we're doing Friday Q and A. Q and A Friday. And that is questions that pop up on social. Um, so if you got one again, jump on over to my Instagram or Facebook, leave it DM me or just leave it on the wall and we will get to it. So that is what we're doing now. You don't want to miss out. So make sure you go to subscribe to JJ.com so you never miss an episode. Hey, while you're there, if you've not left a review yet, love to have a review from you and I will shout you out. I super appreciate it and I will see you next time. By.

Hello listeners, this is Anne Bogle, author, blogger, and creator of the podcast what Should I Read next? Since 2016, I've been helping readers bring more joy and delight into their reading lives. Every week I tag all things books and reading with a guest and guide them in discovering their next read. They share three books they love, one book they don't, and what they've been reading lately, and I recommend three titles they may enjoy reading Next. Guests have said our conversations are like therapy, troubleshooting issues that have plagued their reading lives for years and possibly the rest of their lives as well. And of course, recommending books that meet the moment, whether they are looking for deep introspection to spur or encourage a life change, or a frothy page turner to help them escape the stresses of work, school, everything. You'll learn something about yourself as a reader and you'll definitely walk away confident to choose your next read, with a whole list of new books and authors to try. So join us each Tuesday for what Should I Read Next? Subscribe now wherever you're listening to this podcast and visit our website what Should I read next podcast.com to find out more.