“Cucumber has an effect comparable to that of a drug for diabetes.”
In salads, in sticks for an aperitif, in tzatziki… We love it in summer, especially thanks to its richness in water and its freshness. Thirst-quenching and very low in calories (around sixty per piece), cucumber is the detox vegetable par excellence. This raw vegetable has more than one trick up its sleeve since it also has benefits on glycemia (i.e. blood sugar levels), suggest scientists from the Endocrine Research Unit of the Takshashila Campus in India.
In their study published in the journal Plant Foods for Human Nutritionthe researchers analyzed the evolution of blood sugar levels in several mice with diabetes, which were fed daily for 15 days with cucumber peels in particular. The blood sugar levels of the mice were measured at the beginning and end of the experiment. At the end of the experiment, the researchers showed that cucumber was able to significantly reduce the blood glucose level of the mice (up to -62%) without harmful consequences on their kidneys, an effect comparable to that of a reference antidiabetic drug, glibenclamide. This hypoglycemic effect would be due in particular to the fibers contained in cucumber which delay the intestinal absorption of carbohydrates and help avoid blood sugar spikes.Total polyphenol, flavonoid and ascorbic acid contents were also estimatedwhich appears to be associated with the observed antidiabetic and antioxidant potentials, suggesting their possible role in improving diabetes mellitus“, the researchers specify, indicating however that additional research is still necessary to know to what extent these results are applicable to humans.
In the experiment, the mice were given 250 mg of cucumber per day, which would be equivalent in humans (dose relative to their weight) to approximately 375 g of cucumber per day, or 2/3 of a cucumber. Per week, this would be equivalent to eating 4 cucumbers (with the skin, it is better to benefit from the fibers and phenols, so choose organic ones ideally). This may seem like a lot, but ultimately, over 7 days, it is not that much… Especially since we can put it in our sandwiches, wraps, raw vegetable salads, add it to our smoothies, gazpachos or eat it “à la crunch” throughout the day.