“The blood sugar stabilizing side is the great strength of this plant.”
For centuries, the sweet taste has been associated with moments of pleasure: snacks, birthday cakes, our grandmothers’ jams… We have an emotional and physiological attachment to the sweet taste. We are programmed to love it and it is difficult to break away from it. Today, sugar has become an addiction with an average consumption in France of more than 100 grams per day per person, while we should not exceed 50 grams according to the WHO.
To get rid of the sweet cravings that dictate our days, plants are our allies. One of them, from Indian Ayurvedic medicine, can help us wean ourselves thanks to different mechanisms. “Its name in Hindi means “which destroys sugar”: it is capable of inhibiting our taste buds sensitive to sweet flavors for 1 to 2 hours after consumption thanks to its active ingredient: gymnemic acid. However, the other flavors remain intact“, explains Carmen Tanguy, naturopath, reflexologist, author and trainer. Concretely, this plant makes our brain incapable of detecting the taste of sugar, and like “sugar calls for sugar“, this helps us break the “reward circuit of the packet of cake or the chocolate bar” and thus avoid sweet cravings at the end of a meal or sweet cravings throughout the day.
Also, it improves the secretion of insulin by the pancreas (the hormone which allows sugar to enter our cells to be used as a source of energy and not to be stored), reduces the absorption of sugar in the body. small intestine and helps maintain normal blood glucose levels (glycemia) in the body, which helps to better control your weight. “The blood sugar stabilizing aspect is the great strength of this plant.“, summarizes our interlocutor. This “magical” plant is none other than Gymnema Sylvestre. “Traditionally, we “chewed” its leaves directly.“, specifies the naturopath. Today, we can consume it in different ways:
→ Either you chew it directly into powder (these are in fact the leaves reduced to powder) before a meal (ideal for instantly releasing the active ingredients)
→ Either it is found in the form of a liquid extract (mother tincture) which is ingested before a meal
→ Either take it in capsule form with a large glass of water before a meal
Gymnema in powder, liquid or capsule form is sold in pharmacies, drugstores and herbalists. “It is best to take it in the form of a capsule treatment. (up to 700 mg/day for people with a sweet tooth) for a month for example, from the morning to have a preventive action on the three meals of the day”, recommends the naturopath. “But sometimes, it can also be the easy solution when you know you are going to have a big meal: you can take it in powder form 1 to 2 hours before this big meal to avoid the blood sugar peak afterwards.”
This plant is not recommended in case of pregnancy and breastfeeding, in children. You should seek your doctor’s approval if you are taking medication for diabetes or for cholesterol or triglycerides.