Does vinegar make a bone flexible?

Answer 1

Oh, dude, vinegar doesn't make bones flexible. It's actually the acid in vinegar that helps break down the calcium in bones, making them softer. So, if you ever need a bendy bone for a weird science experiment, vinegar might be your go-to. But like, don't go trying to bend your bones after a vinegar bath, that's just not how it works.

Answer 2

Vinegar affects bone density on a couple of fronts. First off is that it makes otherwise "insoluble" calcium soluble. That makes it able to be absorbed by the body. This can be witnessed in the old high school experiment where you dissolve eggshells in vinegar. The reaction is:

CaCO3 + 2CH3COO -> Ca(CH3COO)2 + H2O +CO2

Once paired with vinegar, the calcium takes on the form of calcium acetate, which is soluble, so the calcium is absorbed and able to be utilized by bone.

A second, lesser known reason, is that the main acid in vinegar, acetic acid, lowers the amount of phosphorus the body can absorb. Phosphorus is a strong acid from meats and beans and grains unlike the weak acid of vinegar. Normally a certain amount of calcium will cleave to a certain amount of phosphorus and they will cancel each other out. When vinegar gets involved, less calcium is needed to cancel out a greater proportion of phosphorus and therefore less phosphorus is absorbed. If too much phosphorus came through, calcium would have been taken from bone to neutralize it.

This is one of the reasons a children's bones grow so rapidly. Children have a high ratio of good bacteria in their colon that synthesize acetic, as well as lactic, and other acids from the fiber or lactose that is eaten. As we grow older we don't eat the right foods to support these guys. On a side note, that is one of the reasons Honey is good for bones as well. It specifically feeds these guys and keeps them cranking out acetic acid.

Finally, while an acid, vinegar is like fruit in that the end product is not an acid at all. Once all of these reactions take place, the end products as you can see above are water and CO2. We breath out the CO2 into the air and end up with a net positive of base.

Answer 3

Yes it does. Vinegar reduces the amount of calcium in the bone (the calcium makes the bone hard) but leaves the collagen, which makes the bone flexible and feel like rubber. If you would like to see for yourself, put an uncooked chicken bone (wishbones or wings work well but almost any chicken bone will do) in vinegar so that it is completely covered. Leave it for about a week (or longer if you like but that is the necessary amount of time) and feel it daily.

Answer 4

Soaking bones in vinegar for a prolonged period can remove the mineral content and make them more pliable, but it won't make them permanently flexible. This process is often used in science experiments or for educational purposes to demonstrate the effect of acids on bones.

Answer 5

The acetic acid in the vinegar attacks the calcium carbonate of the bones. Overtime the calcium in the bones depletes, thereby, weaken the bones.

Answer 6

beacause it can