Last Updated on July 11, 2021 by Dr Sharon Baisil MD
For a diabetes patient, one way to choose safe and appropriate fruits is to test out the glycemic index (GI). Pomegranate(Anar) Glycemic Index – Is it safe for Diabetes?
The Glycemic index of pomegranate is just 18, and that of pomegranate juice is 53. It is recommended to take measured quantities of pomegranate fruits/juice to help manage the symptoms of diabetes. It has wonderful advantages for lowering blood sugar and treating type 2 diabetes.
Pomegranates can help to deal with lots of conditions that are known to be connected with diabetes. Experts have declared that pomegranate seeds may help to progress insulin sensitivity. Read this helpful article to know everything.
What is the Nutritional Value of Pomegranate?
A Pomegranate serving weighs 100 grams provide the 85 calories with a certain quantity of nutritional fiber. It is a rich resource of Sodium, Iron, Potassium, Magnesium, Carbohydrate, Sugar, Vitamin C, and Protein.
The next table shows the nutrition % of pomegranate:
| Daily consumption per serve (%) | Average amount per serving | |
| Fat | 1% | 1.5g |
| Sodium | 2% | 4mg |
| Potassium | 7% | 237mg |
| Carbohydrate | 7% | 20g |
| Dietary Fiber | 17% | 5g |
| Protein | 4% | 1.9g |
Pomegranate is a nutritious fruit that is obtainable all over the world. Even though it contains sugars, it similarly has large amounts of phenolic compounds. These help in weight reduction and fibers, which regulate appetite and craving.
Pomegranates are loaded with antioxidants. These antioxidants help in battling harm brought about by free radicals and chronic illnesses like diabetes. It’s a very healthy and helpful fruit for you to include in your diet.
Chronic inflammation is a core contributing variable in several diseases, including type 2 diabetes mellitus. The punicalagin class of flavonoid antioxidants in pomegranates provides immense inflammation-reducing qualities. Thus, lessening the distressing symptoms of high blood sugar, for example, muscle pain and weakness.
Furthermore, consuming a glass of pomegranate juice daily has been verified in several scientific studies. It helps to considerably decrease the bad LDL cholesterol levels in patients with diabetes.
This dramatically prevents heart complications from high blood glucose levels that are traits of type 2 diabetes mellitus.
What is the Glycemic Index of Pomegranate?
Diabetes mostly comes in two types, type 1 and type 2. Alongside present-day drug and steady diabetes level checks, there are some natural ways to control and maintain your diabetes. The best of it is pomegranate.
The glycemic index (GI) is applied to show how specific food influences blood sugar levels. Foods are consigned with a number that can be matched up to pure glucose, which has the maximum possible GI number of 100. Pomegranate is measured as a low glycemic index fruit (GI less than 55).
The upper the GI value, the more rapidly the carbohydrates are broken down in our bodies to be utilized or stored away.
The lesser the GI value, the more slowly the rise in blood sugar can help the body better handle post-meal alterations. Pomegranate, as a low glycemic index food, gets absorbed and digested slowly.
Glycemic Load (GL) is helped to gauge how much food changes over into glucose. The Glycemic load measures when the amount of the food you have eaten and how it affects your blood sugar and insulin response.
What is the Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load of Pomegranate Juice?
| Name | Glycemic Index | Serving Size (g) | Carb per Serve (g) | Glycemic Load |
| POM Pomegranate Juice | 53 | 236 | 39 | 21 |
What is the Nutrition of Pomegranate Juice?
A tasty cup of pure POM juice has 34g of pure sugar, 150 calories, 37g of carbs, 589 mg of potassium, and 0g fiber, states the USDA. One raw pomegranate has 21.1g of pure sugar, 128 calories, 28.8 g of carbs, 363 mg potassium, and 6.16 g fiber, as per the similar USDA figures.
The primary contrast between drinking the juice and eating the whole fruit is that the whole fruit is a rich fiber source. Harvard Health Publishing supports eating fruit over-drinking fruit juice. The fiber stops a spike in blood sugar that can develop from consuming the natural sugars all of a sudden.
What Does Research Have to Say about Diabetes and Pomegranate?
Luckily, pomegranate has been scientifically verified to have a substantial impact on diabetes. In the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, an article proved this in 2017. In this study, participants have consumed a diet, including one specific high-glycemic item, bread.
Some of the participants were also fed a dose of POM juice and pomegranate extract supplements to observe their effect on their blood glucose condition.
The study concluded that, despite the pomegranate extract supplement not having much in the way of a visible impact, the POM juice helped decrease glycemic responses (post-meal) by the body after eating bread.
Additionally, the study stated that pomegranate aided in controlling how the body metabolizes sugar for a considerable period after participants had eaten bread.
This could prove necessary in helping to maintain good blood sugar levels, with the study recognized the rich level of polyphenols in pomegranate juice, for aiding the body do so by using microbial metabolites.
In the research, stated in the journal Atherosclerosis, specialists examined the impacts of drinking a specially produced strong pomegranate juice.
It was equal to a standard-sized glass of fresh pomegranate juice daily for three months in ten fit adults and ten adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus.
Pomegranate juice drinks did not influence overall levels of cholesterol. But, experts found it decreased the uptake of oxidized “bad” LDL cholesterol by immune cells, a primary contributing variable to atherosclerosis.
Though pomegranate juice contains a similar sugar level as other fruit juices, experts observed that the sugars in pomegranate juice did not deteriorate blood glucose levels in the participants who have diabetes.
What are the Health Benefits of Pomegranate Juice?
Type-2 diabetes varies from Type 1, as a diabetic’s pancreas is still able to produce insulin. But, their body cells fail to appropriately identify it, causing blood sugar to get out of control. That proposes that a specific level of insulin resistance characterizes type 2 diabetes.
Research published in 2013 in the Journal of Ardabil University of Medical Sciences took fifty patients with Type 2 diabetes aged between 30 to 50 and compared and contrasted how pomegranate impacted their bodies.
One-half of the groups were given pomegranate juice in the unsweetened form at a rate of 240ml daily, while the other half were given only water. Scientists calculated the insulin resistance rates and the overall body mass of the participants after two months of this.
They recommended that pomegranate affected the individuals who consumed it, definitely in its unsweetened structure.
The diabetic patients who drank pomegranate juice were found to have an incredibly decreased insulin resistance, lower body weight, and reduced hip plus waist circumference.
In one of the most significant reliable studies on type 2 diabetes and pomegranate, researchers from the Jordan University of Science and Technology measured the direct outcome of fresh pomegranate juice on the fasting blood glucose levels as well as on insulin and melatonin in people with weak fasting glucose.
They discovered lower fasting blood sugar levels and lower insulin resistance after three hours of controlling pomegranate juice. In patients with weak fasting glucose, pomegranate juice caused a reduction in the serum melatonin level within an hour of drinking.
How To Use Pomegranate For Diabetes?
Tasty pomegranate fruit is comprised of all the anti-diabetic compounds, for example, ursolic acids and gallic acids and ellagic acids, and many more. It is safe for diabetic patients.
It isn’t just the seeds that help us but also the fruit in a complete form. Indeed, even the peels from this wonderful fruit will assist you in keeping up your glucose level. The peel has been confirmed to control the glucose levels in your body.
Bear in mind to regularly discuss with your doctor or nutritionist. It will help to gain some knowledge on how best to add this fruit to the diabetic diet. It may vary based on your blood sugar levels and the severity of the disease.
Every morning you may include pomegranate in your already planned protein shakes. You can juice out the seeds and consume a healthy glass of pomegranate juice.
You can include pomegranate on your on the road snack list with the busy mornings, possibly, while you rest after that thirty minutes run. Or, while on the way to your office when you have missed the morning meal.
References
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- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30677224/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18590349/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30661697/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30945297/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26742071/
