Can eating bitter melon really lower blood sugar?
Can eating bitter melon really lower blood sugar?
Bitter melon is the only vegetable called "bitter" and characteristic of fruits and vegetables, bitter taste and coolness, with heat detoxification, nourishing and strong effect, and refreshing and not greasy, after eating will feel cool and comfortable. In summer, people do not want to eat because of the heat, if the bitter melon dishes can be appetizing, summer. If the bitter melon bubble tea to drink, can also let people eliminate thirst in recent years, a lot of media publicity bitter melon not only contains a variety of vitamins, proteins, fats, carbohydrates, as well as calcium, phosphorus, iron, etc., but also reduce blood sugar. So many patients not only eat a lot of bitter melon, buy products containing bitter melon ingredients to take, but also stop the hypoglycemic drugs, the result is that the blood sugar does not fall, delayed treatment, resulting in aggravation of the condition.
So, can bitter melon lower blood sugar or not?
Modern medical research has found that there are two types of components in bitter melon that play a role in lowering blood sugar: one type is alkaloids (such as bitter melon glycosides, bitter melon saponins, etc.), and the other type is protein polypeptides. Among them, bitter melon saponin has a certain blood sugar control effect, it can promote the decomposition of sugar, so that excess sugar into calories, thus improving the body fat balance and blood sugar levels. Bitter melon protein polypeptides can inhibit the absorption of glucose by the small intestinal mucosa, accelerate glucose metabolism and utilization in the body by enhancing the activity of intramuscular enzymes, balance glucose metabolism, promote or improve insulin secretion, or play a direct role similar to insulin, affecting the process of glucose metabolism in the body.
Visible, bitter melon is indeed beneficial to diabetic patients, but this is not equal to say that the market of bitter melon products for diabetes can play a thorough therapeutic role, this is because: First, bitter melon products contain sugar-lowering ingredients are too low (leaving aside the dose of talking about the efficacy of the treatment are a little bit too unreliable); Second, the bitter melon protein peptide as the main ingredient of the product, because of the activity of the peptide can not be taken to protect the technology effectively, after oral intake of the biological activity is easy to be destroyed. Biological activity is easy to be destroyed after oral intake.
Therefore, some diabetes experts on the advice of diabetic patients is: first of all, we must use conventional diabetes drugs for treatment, in the basic control of the condition of the basis, and then the appropriate choice of some advanced production process of bitter melon health care products. But health care products are not drugs, some products on the market should be rumored "fast sugar", "alternative insulin", all can not be gullible.
In short, bitter melon does contain substances that can lower blood sugar, but this substance is only effective when consumed in large doses, and its hypoglycemic effect is almost negligible when relying solely on eating bitter melon. Therefore, bitter melon can only be used as an adjunctive therapy for diabetes, and should never be eaten in large quantities as a substitute for regular diabetes medication.
Don't think that just because bitter melon is bitter, it doesn't contain sugar
After removing nearly 94 grams of water from 100 grams of fresh bitter melon, the remaining carbohydrates account for about 3.4 grams, and the true hypoglycemic effect of bitter melon extract has to be calculated in milligrams, taking into account how it is absorbed by different individuals.
This explains why some people who hug bitter melon every day have their blood sugar rise instead of fall.
Hypoglycemic effect of bitter melon "plant insulin
Eating it will not bring out the hypoglycemic effect of bitter melon's "plant insulin".
"Plant insulin," "all natural," and "chemical-free" sounds beautiful, but unfortunately it's a long way from falling into place.
A few experiments have proved that it has a hypoglycemic effect of peptide extracts, but its use is similar to insulin, are through subcutaneous injections, intraperitoneal injections and other ways to play the role of hypoglycemia. It cannot be administered orally, otherwise it will be rapidly metabolized and broken down by digestive enzymes in the gastrointestinal tract, which is the same reason why insulin cannot be administered orally and needs to be administered by subcutaneous injection.
Eating bitter melon focuses on dietary fiber
Bitter melon belongs to a kind of vegetables, vegetables are very suitable for people with diabetes food, is a small impact on blood glucose, high nutrient density of a class of food, diabetic friends can eat every day, including bitter melon, including vegetables about 1 kg, which dark leafy vegetables (green cabbage, cabbage, lettuce, purple kale, etc. 〉 accounted for about half of the vegetables, and often change the type and color of vegetables.
Drinking bitter melon water cannot lower blood sugar
Drinking bitter gourd infused water for diabetics can't lower blood sugar, but it doesn't fluctuate blood sugar.
Normal fasting blood glucose is 3.89-6.1 mmol/L, and 2-hour postprandial blood glucose is less than 7.8 mmol/L in normal people.
Sugar lovers can eat anything, master the amount and time
Low blood sugar, you can eat some usually want to eat dare not eat delicacies and fruits, but do not overdo it, everything in moderation.
Be more active with diabetes
Exercise appropriately, not too hard, take it easy and increase the exercise time. The most important point is to master the monitoring of blood glucose times, so as to do a good job.
Getting back to the point, lowering blood sugar just by eating bitter melon? Difficult, a bit stringy. Bitter melon certainly has less sugar than the drink.
Focused Reminder:
Due to the existence of individual differences, some foods are suitable for him but not necessarily for you. Therefore, in the process of lowering sugar, do not blindly follow, sugar lovers in the process of diet must pay attention to ensure that the total energy is consistent, a small amount of variety, more variety, more fancy, each type of less food.
Thanks for the invite.
Bitter melon is a good friend of high blood sugar or diabetic friends, sugar lovers due to their own sugar metabolism problems, very afraid to eat faster glycemic food, will cause disorders to the blood sugar, difficult to smooth blood sugar, so the choice of food low "glycemic index (GI)" food, glycemic index on behalf of the unit of time of food glycemic capacity of the index, generally higher than 55 belongs to the high glycemic index, while the glycemic index of bitter melon is only 24, basically will not affect blood sugar after consumption, sugar lovers daily choice to eat bitter melon is a good choice. Glycemic index (GI) represents the index of the ability of food to raise blood sugar per unit of time, generally higher than 55 belongs to the high glycemic index, while the glycemic index of bitter melon is only 24, basically will not affect the blood sugar after consumption, the sugar lovers choose to eat bitter melon is a good choice. Bitter melon is also rich in water and has a low glycemic load (GL), which represents the magnitude of the effect of the intake of a certain thing on blood glucose, which means that even if we eat a lot of bitter melon, the effect on blood glucose will not be too great in the end. Although bitter melon is great for sugar lovers, can bitter melon have a glycemic effect?
In fact, there is no research that can prove that bitter melon has the effect of lowering blood sugar directly. Eating bitter melon on a daily basis may not be able to play a role in the effect of glucose-lowering medication eaten by sugar addicts, nor can it be a substitute for the effect of insulin injections, so sugar addicts shouldn't give up glucose-lowering medication or insulin injections after eating bitter melon. Many scientific research experiments to study the composition of bitter melon, bitter melon does exist in some active substances, on the lowering of sugar, promote the release of insulin or accelerate the body's utilization of glucose has a positive effect and smooth blood sugar, such as phytosterols, triterpenoids and other substances, but these substances are purified by precision instruments, that is to say, our daily direct cooking after the bitter melon there is no way to extract these ingredients, we ate the effect of bitter melon The effect of eating bitter melon is weak. As for these studies, most of them are also based on animal studies, and clinical human experiments have to be supported by more experiments, so we can't directly judge that bitter melon has a hypoglycemic effect.
Some sugar lovers may say, I eat the bitter melon seems to have really low blood sugar phenomenon, this is why? We may have heard of "negative calorie food", like bitter melon, cucumber, such as low calorie vegetables is one of them, of course, the negative calorie food does not mean that these food calories are negative, the more you eat the less calories, because their own calories are very low, but also rich in dietary fiber, providing little calories, and we consume them also Need to pay more energy (digesting food is also energy-consuming), so the calculation, they really become we eat but also backward energy food, so if the sugar friend originally intake of calories is not enough, sugar lack, but also ate a lot of these very low-fat low-calorie food, there may be a hypoglycemic situation, so eat bitter melon is good, but still should ensure that they have enough energy, balanced a variety of nutrients.
If you want to eat bitter melon hypoglycemic treatment of diabetes, it can be said with certainty that it is impossible; if diabetics want to eat some bitter melon health care, to play an auxiliary role in regulating blood sugar, it is certainly possible, almost all the vegetables have a similar role, is not the only bitter melon has such a role.
In diabetic patients, often hear what to eat will rise blood sugar, eat what can lower blood sugar, calm down and think about it, will know that this is how unrealistic idea, if there is really such a food, diabetes is not a lifelong disease, but also so many hypoglycemic drugs dry?
As a matter of fact, there is no single food that can raise or lower blood glucose, and what is usually called diabetic dietary control does not mean what food can be eaten and what food cannot be eaten, but rather a reasonable combination of various foods, so that the body's calorie intake from the food eaten does not exceed the standard, and blood glucose is kept at a low and stable level as far as possible.
To achieve this goal, first of all, the food eaten every day should be limited to a certain amount, and the proportion of nutrients such as carbohydrates, fats, and proteins in various foods should be appropriate, with each pointing to 65%, 20%, and 15% of the total calories.
Second, to increase the amount of blood sugar consumption, such as about 30 minutes of aerobic exercise after each meal, to increase the consumption of blood sugar, which is conducive to maintaining blood sugar at a lower level.
Third, it is to increase the amount of insulin secreted by the pancreatic islet cells in order to fully ensure that blood sugar can be fully utilized.
Based on these three points, and looking at bitter melon, how much of a difference can it make in lowering blood sugar?
Bitter melon is very low in carbohydrates and does provide less blood sugar to the body when eaten, but this is true of eating all kinds of green leafy vegetables, and bitter melon does not behave in any particular way.It has been said that bitter melon contains insulin-like substances that can increase the utilization of blood sugar. Studies have shown that bitter melon does contain insulin-like substances, but the content is negligible, and the amount of insulin-like substances contained in the bit of bitter melon eaten at each meal is almost negligible, so how can it play a role in lowering blood sugar.
On the contrary, the bitter melon contains a lot of dietary fiber, eaten after slowing down the absorption of glucose, fat can play a role in regulating blood glucose, blood lipids will help, but eat other vegetables, especially green spit vegetables can achieve the same effect.
Therefore, it can only be said that the bitter melon for diabetics is one of the better choice of food, not specifically for blood sugar, diabetics must not be biased, the eating of glucose-lowering drugs do not eat, want to eat every day through the bitter melon to lower blood sugar. Even if again interested in the bitter flavor, meals eat bitter melon is not a good enjoyment, so that their meals more rich is what should be done.
It is important to know that diabetics control diet, in order to eat better, in order to improve the enjoyment of the quality of life, if it comes down to all day to eat and worry about, calculate what to eat to raise blood sugar or lower blood sugar to the point, it must be a failure of the treatment, blood glucose control must not be any better.
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Bitter melon is a very common vegetable, taste partial "bitter", with heat detoxification and other effects, rich in nutritional value, by many people are favorite. Now on the market rumors of eating bitter melon to lower blood sugar, but in fact, the bitter melon on the blood sugar to reduce the role of minimal, basically not much efficacy, so we have to correctly understand, active formal treatment is very important.
Although modern research has found that bitter melon contains ingredients that lower blood sugar, the dose of blood sugar lowering is so low that it has a very limited effect on blood sugar control and is difficult to replace blood sugar lowering drugs. So it is almost impossible to get blood sugar under control just by eating bitter melon. The result is often fluctuating or even elevated blood sugar levels, which is not conducive to the control of our condition.
Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disease manifested by persistent hyperglycemia, and its occurrence is affected by multiple factors such as genetics and environment, so its treatment should be individualized. For patients with a clear diagnosis of diabetes, it is important to seek regular medical treatment, follow the doctor's instructions, fully assess their condition and choose a treatment plan that suits their needs, in order to stabilize blood glucose control and improve their quality of life.Diabetic patients need to pay attention to a reasonable diet in daily life, control the total daily calories, three meals at regular intervals, avoid overeating. Exercise regularly and pay attention to weight control. To regularly take hypoglycemic drugs, and adjust under the guidance of the doctor, if necessary, insulin replacement therapy. At the same time, you should pay attention to monitoring and regular review in your life.
Thanks for reading, this article was originally written by @General Practice Sweeper, welcome to like, comment, reprint, follow the author, get more health knowledge. Please correct any deficiencies. Images are from the internet and are for reference only.
[December 18, 2018 Text of this title: 352 Liu Shiahui] Let's just say that hope is plentiful and reality is bone dry.
Bitter melon is indeed a highly nutritious vegetable, with a high vitamin C content of 56 mg/100 g, surpassing most vegetables and fruits! The potassium content of 256 mg/100 g is also among the highest among vegetables and fruits.
On top of that, its unique bitter flavor comes from a compound called bittersweet, and researchers have compared the hypoglycemic effect of bittersweet with that of a common hypoglycemic drug, methylglycoside, in mice, and the results of the study showed that bittersweet's hypoglycemic effect even surpassed that of methylglycoside.Unfortunately, the tests applied to animals cannot be directly extrapolated to humans, and the same results have not been confirmed in humans.
In addition, there is a special substance in bitter melon called "bitter melon polypeptide", which also showed some hypoglycemic effect in animal experiments, but after that, scientists repeatedly conducted clinical tests on its efficacy.Unfortunately, it turns out that eating bitter melon does not lower blood sugar in humans.
Although lowering sugar is not very reliable, but still recommend that diabetics eat more bitter melon, because low energy and high nutritional vegetables itself is a diabetic choice, not to mention the bitter melon and so good vegetables, why not eat it?
Author: Liu Xiaohui (National Public Nutritionist II Registered Nutrition Technician Lecturer of Heng Cuisine College) Welcome to pay attention to, comment on, like, randomly "spray" something or not! We love nutrition, we are a reliable nutrition popularization team!
Summer dinner table eat more bitter, naturally there is no problem. But many sugar lovers simply count on eating bitter melon to lower sugar, this thing we have to say.
Bitter melon itself has a relatively small effect on blood sugar fluctuations, but bitter melon is ultimately a food and cannot lower blood sugar; only medications can do so.
Bitter melon is a typical low G1 food. Simply put, it is because the bitter melon in more water, less carbohydrates, low glycemic index, but also contains the body's essential dietary fiber, a variety of vitamins and trace elements, so many people will think that the bitter melon can lower blood sugar, but the fact is not so simple.
It is true that some studies have shown that there is a substance called "bitter melon polypeptide" in bitter melon, which can play a role in lowering blood sugar by injection, but the object of this experimental research is mice rather than humans, so for humans, bitter melon polypeptide in the end to lower blood sugar or not can not be conclusive.
Meanwhile, when we consume bitter melon, we have to eat it, not inject it in through the outside of the body. Even though some of the so-called sugar-lowering ingredients in bitter melon will be digested by our intestines and stomachs, there is no chance for them to play a role in lowering blood sugar at all.
To summarize is that the bitter melon for sugar lovers, is indeed an ideal healthy vegetables, but if so that he has a sugar-lowering effect, it is a bit exaggerated. Really want to lower blood sugar, or through the drug more reliable.
Bitter melon can indeed be used to assist diabetic patients to regulate blood sugar, and the role is not small, but really play a role in lowering sugar is some of the extracts of bitter melon, and our daily cooking is very difficult to extract these substances, so the bitter melon on diabetic patients can have much effect on the lowering effect of sugar, it is not known!
The composition of bitter melon has substances that can improve the function of the pancreas, which can repair the pancreatic islet B-cells and enhance the activity of these cells, improve the ability of diabetic patients to regulate their own blood glucose, accelerate the consumption of blood glucose in the body, and effectively reduce the level of blood glucose in patients;
Bitter melon components can alleviate the resistance of body tissues and organs to insulin, improve their sensitivity to insulin, promote the utilization of blood sugar in the body, improve the efficiency of blood sugar synthesis of hepatic glycogen, fat or protein, increase the body's consumption and utilization of blood sugar, and effectively reduce the level of sugar in the blood;
Bitter melon ingredients in the bitterness can promote the salivary glands to secrete a lot of fluid, can effectively alleviate the symptoms of diabetic thirst; bitter melon, cold, with heat detoxification, in addition to the effect of moistening dryness, for diabetic patients because of yin deficiency on the fire appeared tinnitus and redness of the eyes, sore throat, mouth and tongue ulcers, urination, stools and other symptoms of dryness has a miraculous effect;
Extracts of bitter melon can reduce the level of lipids in the blood, but also scavenge and inhibit oxygen free radicals, protect and maintain the normal function of tissue cells, these have a significant effect on reducing the chances of atherosclerotic lesions of blood vessels, and can effectively stop or alleviate the development of diabetic complications!
Bitter melon, cold, not very suitable for people with cold spleen and stomach; in addition, it can be used as cooking, but also can be sliced and dried and used to soak water to drink, simple and convenient!
Bitter melon lowers blood sugar is such an old, old misconception that it's okay to call it a rumor.
Bitter melon is so low in sugar that no sudden rise in blood sugar occurs when it is eaten, in fact the vast majority of vegetables have this characteristic. It should be said that when vegetables or bitter melon are eaten with staple foods, the average glycemic index of the whole food is lowered, and it lowers the glycemic index of the staple food. Not only vegetables, meat also has this effect.
As long as a vegetable can have this effect, it's not considered magical. Replace bitter melon with angular melon and leeks, and it's just as easy to say that the food won't raise your blood sugar as fast as it would if you just ate the staple food.
However, in the process of expression, ambiguity slowly occurs, becoming the miraculous effects of bitter melon, slowing down the rate of increase in blood glucose, into lowering blood glucose, as if bitter melon has a therapeutic effect.
Bitter melon neither alters a patient's glycemic control nor does it有Lower the glycemic index of foods better than other vegetables.
Eating bitter melon to lower blood sugar is a big rumor and a stolen concept.
Jiang Dan, Registered Dietitian, Signed Author of Today's Headlines
Bitter melon is also known as cool melon, a plant of the genus Bitter melon in the family Cucurbitaceae. In recent years, it has been widely recognized as a famous vegetable and has been mythologized in the field of sugar reduction. The market such as bitter melon hypoglycemic tablets, bitter melon tea and so on flooded ears.
It is true that bitter melon in the field of Chinese medicine in the medical books have the effect of clearing summer heat, bright eyes and detoxification. Modern medical research has also confirmed that the bitter melon extract bitter melon (bitter melon glycoside 5,25-bean zizidienol-3-glucoside) has insulin-like effects. Here we need to remind the sugar lovers to pay attention to is the need to "purify the bitter melon," and need a larger dose to have a hypoglycemic effect, without the purification of the bitter melon is not directly absorbed and utilized by the body. Another example is bitter melon is rich in vitamin C. Vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid, we all know that has an antioxidant effect on the cardiovascular system has a very good protective effect, and has to prevent the spread of inflammation, promote the efficacy of wound healing, etc., but the therapeutic role of vitamin C alone we eat bitter melon is not reached, just in our diet can be assisted to increase the amount of some of the intake only. Bitter melon sugar is the same reason, simply rely on us to eat is not to achieve any therapeutic effect.
Bitter melon as a refreshing vegetable some people love and some people abandoned, regardless of its taste you like, in the vegetables it is very low glycemic index: 24.17, compared to the pumpkin has been extolled glycemic index: 65.91 to be much lower, is very suitable for diabetic patients to eat. Bitter melon belongs to the cold vegetables, a large number of use also need to be based on the individual physique of each person. The motherland medicine Chinese medicine food with a lot of fruits and vegetables, no matter what kind of food we eat, to play a supplementary therapeutic role, we need to ensure that a certain amount of food at the same time adhere to the long-term consumption will play its role.
Zhang Jing Yun Unit: Beijing Fengtai Hospital Member of Pharmaceutical Affairs Network
September 9, 2018
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