Four seas network: Pumpkin with sweet and soft taste and high nutrition has been a lot of food praise, but it is puzzling that some people say it can reduce blood sugar, some people blame it will raise blood sugar. So is pumpkin raising blood sugar or lowering blood sugar? Let's follow Xiaobian to learn about it!
1、 Small scientific knowledge
Blood glucose, which refers to the glucose contained in blood, plays an important role in human health. Controlling blood glucose in normal people can prevent some diseases, and ensuring the stability of blood glucose in diabetic patients can control the disease. Blood glucose concentration is affected by diet, which involves two important parameters of food.
① Glycemic index GI. The higher the value is, the easier it is to raise blood sugar. It refers to the percentage ratio of the blood glucose response level of the food containing 50g carbohydrate and the same amount of glucose in the body after 2 hours.
② Blood glucose load GL. It reflects the effect of carbohydrate quantity in food on blood glucose, and refers to the product of carbohydrate quality (g) and GI of the food with known weight. GL ≤ 10 belongs to the hypoglycemic load level, and GL = 11-19 refers to the hypoglycemic load level, and GL ≥ 20 refers to the high level. The higher the level is, the easier it is to raise the blood sugar.
Pumpkin is a kind of nutritious vegetable that people often eat. In the past ten years, the saying "pumpkin can reduce blood sugar" has pushed this kind of melon to the peak.
2、 The source of "pumpkin reducing sugar"
Once upon a time, Japanese experts found that there was no case of diabetes in Xizhang village, Hokkaido, because of eating a kind of tender pumpkin - "naked kernel pumpkin". Chinese businesses take this as the 'scientific basis' for the deification of pumpkin is the God of hypoglycemic melon. And because pumpkin is a common delicious food on people's table, everyone is willing to accept this statement.
Unfortunately, pumpkin is a true rumor.
3、 Why is it a rumor?
（1） Pumpkins only raise blood sugar
Pumpkin's GI = 75 is a food with high GI, which means that when pumpkin enters the gastrointestinal tract, its carbohydrate will be quickly digested, most of it will be absorbed, which is easy to cause the increase of blood concentration. Therefore, the blood sugar will increase after eating pumpkin. However, 100g pumpkin contains 4.5g carbohydrate, corresponding to GL = 3.38, which belongs to low load level, which proves that eating 100g pumpkin has little effect on blood glucose. So on the whole, a small amount of pumpkins will not increase blood sugar excessively, but excessive pumpkins will increase blood sugar substantially.
（2） The rumor's basis for lowering blood sugar is not tenable
Rumor has it that pumpkin can reduce blood sugar because pumpkin contains active substances such as chromium, pumpkin polysaccharide and pumpkin inositol, which can increase satiety and inhibit the speed of rising blood sugar after meals. However, the GI of pumpkin is as high as 75, and the base of raising blood sugar is very large. Even if the active substances reduce some speed, the blood sugar will rise finally.
In recent years, many researches have been devoted to the hypoglycemic effect of pumpkin active extract. Now it has only been proved that these extracts can improve the glucose metabolism of mice and have certain hypoglycemic effect on mice. However, the active ingredients in the pumpkin on the dining table are too low to control the blood glucose, and the content of active substances in different varieties of pumpkin is also different. At present, there is no epidemiological data to prove that pumpkin can control blood sugar in human body
In a word: pumpkin is to raise blood sugar, will not lower blood sugar.
Four, summary
Pumpkin's carbohydrate digestion and absorption ability is strong, generally will raise blood sugar, but contains not much carbohydrate. A small amount of pumpkin will not increase blood sugar, as long as the appropriate reduction of other staple foods.