Why is white vinegar so great at killing/corroding/cleaning things, yet it’s safe for a human to consume?
In: 8
Vinegar is a relatively mild acid, and it’s usually sold quite diluted. Because it’s a bit reactive it helps with cleaning things by reacting a little with some of them. We can handle consuming a bit of it because the acid in our stomachs is quite a bit stronger, but drinking too much will be bad for our teeth over a longer term, and may upset our stomachs if we drink too much.
White vinegar is a weak acid. Acid’s are great at killing things, corroding things, and dissolving things…things that *aren’t* vulnerable to acids.
Human stomachs are *very* acid resistant…they’re full of stomach acid anyway. Vinegar really doesn’t bother them at all. And we naturally have ways of neutralizing stomach acid before it heads to other parts of our bodies, and those methods work just as well on other acids, like vinegar.
If you stick vinegar in part of a human that *isn’t* acid resistant, bad things happen.
Latest Answers