Chlorella and apple cider vinegar

Chlorella and apple cider vinegar are both marketed heavily on a "detox" or gut-cleanse angle, and both turn up in the same greens-and-gut wellness stacks — but no controlled human trial has tested the two together, at any dose. Their separate research bases don't actually support the shared marketing claim either: neither ingredient has a controlled human trial showing it detoxes or cleanses anything.

What is chlorella and apple cider vinegar?

They're an algae and a fermented food acid, studied for different things. Chlorella is a single-celled freshwater algae with its own separate metabolic research, covered in chlorella benefits: what the research does and doesn't show. Apple cider vinegar is diluted acetic acid from fermented apples, studied at doses around 15-30 mL a day, with its own separate research covered in apple cider vinegar benefits: what the research does and doesn't show. Marketing that pairs the two for a "cleanse" is combining two ingredients' reputations, not two ingredients' trial results — and, as below, not even a claim their own separate research supports.

The closest research that exists

There's no combination trial to describe, so here's what "detox" specifically looks like in each ingredient's own separate research: nothing supportive. For chlorella, we found no controlled human trial testing the popular claim that it binds or removes heavy metals or toxins from the body — see chlorella benefits: what the research does and doesn't show for the trials that do exist, all on other outcomes. For apple cider vinegar, a 2015 critical review of the detox-diet category found "very little clinical evidence" behind commercial detox claims generally, and no randomized controlled trial testing a commercial detox diet's effectiveness in humans at all — vinegar wasn't singled out because the evidence gap wasn't specific to it. The one published clinical report connecting apple cider vinegar to the liver describes injury, not cleansing, in a man with a long history of heavy vinegar consumption, whose liver values improved only after he stopped. See does apple cider vinegar detox or cleanse the body? for that report in full.

Questions people ask

Can you take chlorella and apple cider vinegar together?

No trial has tested the combination. Each ingredient has its own separate research on other outcomes, covered in their individual benefits reviews, but the "detox" claim both are commonly sold on has no controlled human trial behind it for either one.

Do chlorella and apple cider vinegar detox the body?

No. Neither ingredient has a controlled human trial testing that specific claim — see chlorella benefits: what the research does and doesn't show and does apple cider vinegar detox or cleanse the body? for what was actually tested instead.

Related reading: chlorella side effects, apple cider vinegar benefits: what the research does and doesn't show, and how to choose a good chlorella.