Author : Dr. P. D. GUPTA
Former Director Grade Scientist, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, India
www.daylife.page
People who have diabetes are often under the impression that they should avoid fruits, as they contain sugar. However, just the opposite is true — enjoying these sweet, nutritious foods can help you lower your risk for many chronic diseases, without interfering with good control of your blood sugar. If you choose wisely and keep portion size in mind, you can include several servings of fruit in your daily meal plan.
The glycemic index (GI) is a scale that measures how quickly a food raises blood sugar levels. It ranks foods from 0 to 100, with higher numbers indicating a faster rise in blood sugar. Which is bad for sugar patients. After a great affords scientist have measured GI for almost all eatables and a guideline was made for diabetic patients. They recommended that eatables that have GI about 55 are tolerable in fact no harm to consume by the patients. For example, the GI of honey can range from 32 to 78, depending on the type of honey; the average GI of honey is around 50. Therefore, diabetic patients safely consume honey daily to enjoy its benefits daily in moderate quantities.
The best fruits for people with diabetes are those that are lower in sugar but higher in fiber. These include berries, citrus fruits, apples, and pears. Berries are especially good for diabetics because they contain anthocyanins, which have been shown to help improve insulin sensitivity.
The fiber in fresh fruit helps keep most of them low on the Glycaemic index GI scale (55 or under). Examples include:
Apples (GI of 39)
Bananas (GI of 55)
Pears (GI of 30)
Blueberries and raspberries (GI of 53)
Cherries (GI of 20)
Figs, pomegranates, and oranges (GI of 35)
Grapes (GI of 45)
Prunes (GI of 40)
Strawberries (GI of 25)
Honey vs. Sugar
Honey is different from white (or table) sugar as it contains vitamins and minerals, whereas sugar lacks these. Honey also has a lower glycemic index (GI) than table sugar. The GI measures how quickly a carbohydrate raises your blood sugar levels. Honey has a GI score of 50, while sugar has a GI value of 80. That means honey (like all carbohydrates) raises blood sugar quickly, but not quite as fast as white sugar.
There’s no likely benefit to swapping sugar for honey if you have diabetes since both affect your blood sugar in similar ways. If you do choose to eat honey, make sure you know how much you’re getting. Foods containing honey may have more honey and carbohydrates than you realize. That can negatively affect your blood sugar and your ability to take the right amount of insulin.
Honey and Diabetes
If you have type 2 diabetes or are at high risk for it, you may have heard that honey is better for you than other sweeteners. While honey may have some health benefits, it’s still a source of simple sugars and carbohydrates. And if you have diabetes, you need to count your carbohydrates throughout the day, especially if you’re using medications such as insulin.
Honey was used in folk medicine for a long time, but the health benefits were explained in the last decades, when the scientific world was concerned in testing and thus explaining the benefits of honey. Different studies demonstrate the hypoglycemic effect of honey, but the mechanism of this effect remains unclear. This review presents the experimental studies completed in the recent years, which support honey as a novel antidiabetic agent that might be of potential significance for the management of diabetes and its complications and also highlights the potential impacts and future perspectives on the use of honey as an antidiabetic agent. (The author has his own study and views)
