Diabetics should avoid fruits!
"How true is this? In our series "Nutrition Myths Busted" we bust common nutrition myths & replace it with evidence based nutrition!
The reasons why Diabetics are advised against fruits are:
📈 Fruits have high sugar content and are more rapidly absorbed leading to higher spikes in blood sugar
💉 Fruits have too much sugar which can contribute to weight gain, which may lead to higher blood sugar
Is this true? 🤔
🍇 While fruits do have natural sugars in them - Glucose and Fructose, they are also packed with vitamins, minerals, and most importantly, fibre. This is important because fibre not only slows absorption, keeping blood sugar levels stable, but also has most of the phytonutrients bound to it. So eating whole fruit has actually found to be beneficial for people with Diabetes.
🍍 Whole fruits and smoothies with the fibre intact are recommended. Fruit juices and extracts without the fibre are to be avoided, especially for people with Diabetes
What's more?
📑 A recent meta-analysis showed that eating 600 grams of fruits a day reduces risk of developing metabolic syndrome by a whopping 34%! Metabolic syndrome is characterised by abdominal obesity, dyslipidemia, high BP and insulin resistance. Reduction in risk of metabolic syndrome in turn reduces risk of diabetes and heart disease. Fruits and other whole plant foods can help both in prevention as well as treatment of diabetes.
🥭 Even Fruits like Mangoes are not only safe for Diabetics, but have also found to be helpful! Give diabetics some freeze dried mango every day for three months without any change in their diet or exercise, and their blood sugar drops by 4 points.
📈 A recent meta-analysis also showed that eating 600 grams of fruits a day reduces risk of developing metabolic syndrome by a whopping 34%! Metabolic syndrome is characterised by abdominal obesity, dyslipidemia, high BP and insulin resistance. Reduction in risk of metabolic syndrome in turn reduces risk of diabetes and heart disease.
One of the simplest positive Lifestyle change we can start with is to include more fruit in our diet everyday, especially if we are diabetic.
Here are FIVE tips to get started!
🍌Start your every meal with some fruit. It could be something as readily available as a banana
🍉Choose local and seasonal fruits. These are not only less expensive buy also healthier for us
🍊Eat fruits whole or make smoothies. Juices that typically strain out the fibre cause a blood sugar spike and are best avoided
🍎Source fruits that are grown without chemicals as far as possible
🍍It is recommended to eat at least 360gms of fruits every single day
Be Blessed by the Divine!
Dr. Achyuthan Eswar
Lifestyle Physician
