Altered video of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. promotes unproven use of apple cider vinegar as diabetes cure

Key takeaway

Diabetes is a serious condition that occurs when the body can no longer regulate blood sugar properly. Poor diet and lack of physical activity are major risk factors for type 2 diabetes. While medications like metformin effectively help lower blood sugar, there is currently no cure for the disease. Apple cider vinegar may offer some minor benefits, such as modestly reducing blood sugar levels, but its effects are neither strong nor lasting enough to replace proven treatments or a healthy lifestyle.

Reviewed content

Verdict:

Unsupported

Claim:

Apple cider vinegar is a cure for diabetes; it’s an effective substitute to metformin therapy and dietary changes

Verdict detail

Inadequate support: There is currently no scientific evidence that apple cider vinegar can prevent or cure diabetes, nor that it can effectively replace physical activity and a healthy diet in diabetes management.
Overstates scientific confidence: Some research has found that apple cider vinegar can moderately lower blood sugar levels. However, the strength of this evidence is too low to draw definitive conclusions on the use of apple cider vinegar as a complement to blood sugar management therapies.

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Full Claim

Apple cider vinegar is a cure for diabetes; it’s an effective substitute to metformin therapy and dietary changes

A Facebook video that circulated in February 2025 featuring U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claimed that daily apple cider vinegar consumption could cure diabetes. It also asserted that diabetes had nothing to do with diet and that medications like metformin are ineffective for treating the disease.

While Kennedy has a record of spreading health misinformation, this video in particular appears to have been altered to make it look like Kennedy made these claims, perhaps to lend credibility to the message. This isn’t the first time that viral social media posts have misattributed false health claims to Kennedy, as Science Feedback reported in an earlier review.

Visual clues in the video, such as the background and Kennedy’s shirt, indicate that it was taken from the 27 June 2024 episode of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. However, we scanned the YouTube transcript of that episode and found that it contained none of the statements in the Facebook video, confirming that the Facebook video was most likely the product of manipulation. PolitiFact also analyzed the video and reached the same conclusion.

Apart from the misattribution to Kennedy, the claims in the video are unsupported, as we’ll explain below.

Apple cider vinegar (ACV) is produced through double fermentation of apple cider by a yeast and a bacteria. ACV contains probiotics, vitamin B and plant-based antioxidants, which has given rise to the idea that it may have some health benefits.

Diabetes is a condition in which the body struggles to regulate blood sugar levels. About 90 to 95% of Americans with diabetes have type 2 diabetes, where the body’s cells become resistant to insulin, preventing them from properly absorbing glucose. This leads to elevated blood sugar, causing symptoms such as fatigue, blurred vision, dry skin, and slow wound healing. Thus, high blood sugar is both a cause and a consequence of type 2 diabetes. If left unmanaged, type 2 diabetes can lead to severe complications, including kidney and nerve damage, and even limb amputation.

Lowering blood sugar is a key treatment approach. This is why metformin, which reduces blood sugar by decreasing glucose production in the liver, is an effective and widely prescribed treatment—contrary to the video’s claim.

To assess the credibility of the claim that ACV can cure diabetes, we searched PubMed, a repository of published biomedical research hosted by the U.S. National Library of Medicine, for studies examining its effects on diabetes and blood sugar control^#.

Our search returned only a handful of studies, several of which were conducted on animals. While animal studies can provide useful insights, they are insufficient to draw conclusions about human health, as physiological differences between species limit their applicability.

One meta-analysis published in 2021 found that ACV consumption was associated with a reduction in fasting blood sugar compared to non-consumption. However, the analysis didn’t show that ACV could prevent or cure diabetes^[1].

A randomized clinical trial among adults with type 2 diabetes published in 2023 reported that ACV consumption for eight weeks led to lower fasting blood sugar and increased insulin levels. However, the study had several limitations that weakened its conclusions.

First, participants were required to follow a healthy diet and take blood sugar-lowering medications like metformin. Therefore, the study doesn’t support the claim that ACV alone can replace metformin or dietary management.

Second, the study wasn’t blinded, meaning participants knew whether they were receiving ACV. This raises the possibility of a placebo effect and behavioral changes, such as dietary improvements, that could have influenced the results. For instance, it’s possible that people receiving ACV, knowing that they were in the treatment group, spontaneously made other lifestyle improvements that contributed to lowering their blood sugar.

Third, participants in the ACV group had higher initial blood sugar levels than those in the control group, despite randomization. This makes it impossible to determine whether the control group would have shown a similar decrease in blood sugar had they started at the same level.

Another meta-analysis published in January 2025, which reviewed seven studies on ACV and blood sugar levels, also reported a reduction in blood sugar compared to control^[2]. However, the authors noted that five of the seven studies were of low quality due to design biases, including the lack of blinding.

Overall, the available research suggests that ACV may have a modest effect on blood sugar management when used alongside other treatments. However, the evidence isn’t strong enough to draw definitive conclusions, and no study has shown that ACV can prevent or cure diabetes or replace proven diabetes treatments like metformin.

Universities and medical institutions have reached the same conclusion. The University of Chicago Medicine acknowledged that some research suggests ACV can lower post-meal blood sugar spikes but emphasized:

“ACV won’t cure diabetes, but it may moderately lower blood glucose levels. It won’t take the place of any medications for diabetes, but it’s a safe enough addition to a diabetes treatment plan.”

Similarly, the Cleveland Clinic stated that while ACV may slightly reduce blood sugar, it isn’t sufficient on its own to manage diabetes.

In summary, current scientific evidence suggests that regular ACV consumption may modestly reduce blood sugar levels during fasting or after meals. However, the quality of this evidence is low, and larger, well-designed clinical trials are needed to draw firm conclusions. Importantly, no study to date has shown that ACV can prevent or cure diabetes.

ACV should be viewed as a potential complement to proven diabetes treatments, not as a replacement. Effective, evidence-based therapies like metformin remain essential for blood sugar management in people with type 2 diabetes.

NOTES:

# Pubmed search query: (“apple cider vinegar”[Title] OR ACV[Title] OR “apple vinegar”) AND (“blood sugar”[Title] OR insulin[Title] OR glycem*[Title] OR glucos*[Title] OR diabet*[Title] OR A1c[Title] OR metformin[Title] OR insulin[Title])

REFERENCES:

• 1 – Hadi et al. (2021) The effect of apple cider vinegar on lipid profiles and glycemic parameters: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials. BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies.
• 2 – Arjmandfard et al. (2025) Effects of apple cider vinegar on glycemic control and insulin sensitivity in patients with type 2 diabetes: A GRADE-assessed systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis of controlled clinical trials. Frontiers in Nutrition.