Benefits of Dragon Fruit For Diabetics Patient

Fruits form an essential part of every person’s diet as they are a great source of antioxidants, nutrients, minerals, vitamins as well as dietary fiber. These can be excluded from the diet by anyone regardless of diabetic or non-diabetic diseases. Patients with diabetes should take special care when treating fruits. They are constantly worried about the glycemic content of the fruits they eat. Pulpy fruit usually has a high glycemic index and is contraindicated in diabetes. This, however, has turned out to be the opposite of the dragon fruit. This article will give you a brief idea about the benefits of dragon fruit for diabetes.

Dragon Fruit Benefits For Diabetics

1. The World Health Organization reports that the incidence of diabetes in the global adult population continued to increase from 4.7% in 1980 to 8.5% in 2014.
2. General recommendations for controlling blood sugar in diabetic individuals include regular physical exercise, dietary changes, and body weight control, but most people have difficulty controlling their diet, which may require medicated intervention.
3. Some medicinal herbs and plants have proven their effectiveness in regulating or maintaining blood glucose levels, dragon fruit is a fruit that has amazing benefits for diabetes. Some dragon fruit benefits may be listed for diabetes;
4. A study of animal models claimed that the benefits of dragon fruit for diabetes are that it can regenerate beta cells in the pancreas (the cells responsible for making insulin in the body).
5. The high flavonoids and antioxidant ingredients in dragon fruit prevent pancreatic stress and damage to the pancreas and consequently the preservation of pancreatic beta cells as well as their effectiveness.
6. The juice of the white dragon fruit and betacyanins present in its peel has been shown to improve insulin resistance.
7. Some studies have further suggested that regular consumption of dragon fruit by pre-diabetic individuals may reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus.
8. People with diabetes are often at higher risk for high blood pressure and other cardiac diseases. As already seen above, dragon fruit contains flavonoids that have cardio-protective effects, regular dragon fruit is beneficial for diabetes and prevents the development of high blood pressure and cardiac disease.
9. Another study was conducted on rats, where rats were given a high-fat diet as well as dragon fruit extract. This study found that rats fed drugs fruit extract did not show significant weight gain and also showed significant reductions in liver fat, inflammatory changes in the body, and insulin resistance.

The antioxidant activity of red dragon fruit is higher than that of white, which means that the hypoglycemic effect of red peel may be greater than that of white peel; However, it lacks strong supportive research on reducing the effects of sugar-dragon fruit on human blood.

Although dragon fruit is a relatively safe fruit for diabetics, it may face some difficulties in the Indian subcontinent;

1. Some people may unknowingly be allergic to the fruit. So these need to be eaten with extreme care especially for diabetic people who are pregnant or elderly.
2. This fruit is quite expensive in India as compared to other fruits. This may be due to the low use of this fruit as it is beyond the reach of low-income diabetics.

Read More: Glucose is the Main Source of Energy in the Human Body

100g Dragon Fruit Nutrition Fact

In addition to being eaten in its most probable state, some parts of dragon fruit such as leaves and dried flowers are eaten as berries and juices in several eastern regions such as Japan and Taiwan. The edible white and red pulp of dragon fruit contains a lot of nutrients in the form of water, protein, fat, carbohydrates, crude fiber, glucose, vitamin C, vitamin A, niacin, calcium, magnesium, potassium, and zinc.

• Calories: 60
• Protein: 1.2 grams
• Fat: 0 grams
• Carbs: 13 grams
• Fiber: 3 grams
• Vitamin C: 3% of the RDI
• Iron: 4% of the RDI
• Magnesium: 10% of the RDI

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