The patients who suffer from diabetes always have to be aware of what they should eat and what they should avoid so that they are able to maintain a well-balanced diet. Diabetes is complicated and maintaining the recommended quantities of essential nutrients and vitamins is an important way to deal with the situation and manage to live a normal life. Apart from maintaining a healthy lifestyle, regularly monitoring your blood glucose levels, a well-regulated diet goes a long way in managing the chronic illness effectively and efficiently.
In this article, we shall analyze the effects of eating kiwifruit in a diabetic diet. So, come and join in for the article “Is Kiwifruit Good for Diabetic Patients?”
Table of Contents
Nutritional Facts About the Kiwifruit
Let us first understand some of the nutritional facts related to kiwi. To begin with, 100 grams of the fruit is known to contain around 1 gram of protein, 14.66 grams of carbohydrates, almost negligible amount of cholesterol, and around 0.52 grams of fat. Besides, the fruit is extremely rich in vitamins and minerals namely vitamin A, vitamin C, sodium, manganese, copper, zinc, magnesium, iron, potassium, and a host of other nutrients.
All these make kiwi one of the most sought-after fruits to be included in the diet of a person who has diabetes. It has strongly been recommended for the inclusion in the everyday diet of individuals to maintain a healthy living.
Benefits of Taking Kiwifruit for Diabetics
The following are some of the advantages which you get when you are a diabetic patient and are including kiwifruit in your everyday diet:
- As seen above, kiwifruit is both low in calories as well as low in fat with only around 2% of the total fruit comprising of fat. Sugar, as we know, should be avoided to the maximum possible extent by a diabetes patient. The reason being it causes people to gain weight, which further increases their chance of contracting diabetes, particularly type 2. Thus, fruits such as the kiwifruit make for a delicious snack and should be included in the diet for better diabetes management.
- Blood sugar monitoring is an important part of diabetes management and kiwifruit can help you in maintaining the same as it has the following benefits which reduce and stabilizes the elevated levels of blood sugar in your body.
- The glycemic index of the Zespri Green Kiwifruit is just 39 while that of Zespri Sun Gold Kiwifruit is 53. This is considered to be a low value of the glycemic The fruit is high in fiber and that helps in the slow absorption of glucose in the body and the subsequent release of glucose in the bloodstream is also slow.
- Also, as per a recent research conducted by many researchers, when you take kiwifruit as part of your breakfast, the process in which sugar is absorbed from your breakfast slows down to a great extent. The water-soluble fiber present in the food attracts the water from the food and swells up. The breakfast breaks up into smaller sugar and the rate of digestion is slow.
- Apart from that, kiwi is a great fruit which helps to smoothen the entire process of digestion. Disorders of the digestive tract is a complication in diabetes which many people have to face. Hence, by helping in the process of digestion, the kiwifruit helps to manage diabetes in an effective manner.
- Low in fat, kiwi helps to manage weight and shed all those extra calories. Weight management also forms an important part of diabetes management.
- Inositol is a compound present in the fruit which goes a long way in improving the sensitivity of insulin towards the body, thereby helping in better diabetes management.
- Also, kiwi is rich in vitamins A as well as C. These vitamins help in promoting good eyesight in the patients.
- By reducing the risks of blood clotting, the green colored fruit helps in preventing several heart-related conditions which are a common complication in diabetes management.
- It is a known fact that the fruit is a rich source of phytonutrients, the phytonutrients help in protecting the DNA of the body to a great extent. The various phytonutrients present in the fruit include carotenes such as carotene beta, lutein zeaxanthin, as well as crypto-xanthin-beta, amongst others.
- Potassium present in the fruit also helps to stabilize the levels of blood pressure, thereby helping in an efficient diabetes management. In fact, it has twice the amount of potassium as compared to a banana and is also rich in other minerals such as magnesium, manganese, and copper.
- Kiwifruit extracts help to regulate the overall functioning of the fat cells. The extract helps in the regulation of adipocytes which are essentially the fat cells and the main task of these cells is to ensure that the balance of energy is sufficiently maintained in your body. If the a dipocytes fail to work efficiently, the body starts becoming more and more resistant to insulin.
Thus, kiwifruit is one of the most sought-after natural food which diabetes should have. Having said that, there are a few guidelines that you should follow. The following paragraph explains the guidelines which you should remember while including the fruit in your daily diet.
Guidelines for Including Kiwifruit in Your Diet
Take a note of the following guidelines when you include kiwifruit in your regular diet:
- Although kiwifruit is highly beneficial for you and for diabetes management, you cannot go overboard and eat beyond the recommended quantity. You can safely include around two kiwifruits in a day’s diet.
- Since the taste of the kiwifruit is not enjoyed by everyone, there is a highly recommended supplement that comprises of all the essential fibers and vitamins, nutrients, etc. that the fruit is rich in. the name of the supplement is Kiwi Klenz and it is created by Xtend Life with utmost care to not take away the essential health benefits that the fruit has to offer.
- Finally, like in the case of other food items, it is important that when you are diabetic, you take an expert’s advice before including anything new in your diabetic diet plan.
Follow the above easy-to-follow steps and enjoy the numerous health benefits of the green colored fruit.
We hope that the above article has been helpful in improving your understanding of the relationship that exists between kiwifruit and diabetes. As can be seen from the various advantages that the kiwifruit has to offer to diabetes patients, it can safely be concluded that you can definitely include the fruit in your diet within the recommended quantity and your doctor has advised you to go ahead with the same!!