Author Topic: mango has so much sugar, how is it possible that it keep diabetes under control?  (Read 6226 times)

knlim000

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mango has so much sugar, how is it possible that it keep diabetes under control?

https://www.organicfacts.net/health-benefits/fruit/mango.html

starch

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mango has so much sugar, how is it possible that it keep diabetes under control?

https://www.organicfacts.net/health-benefits/fruit/mango.html

I am no dietician, but I would think because it has enough fiber to balance the sugar. This is the case with most whole fruits and why it is much healthier to eat a whole piece of fruit (fiber in pulp) rather than drinking the juice (fiber separated and left behind, not in juice).

I recall a thread on here sometime last year where a guy did not eat anything for hours, then took a blood reading to get a baseline blood sugar level, then ate a bunch of mangoes, then took another blood sugar reading just after eating, then again like an hour after eating. And he found his blood sugar did not spike.

This was not a definitive test, but I think it is a good proxy for what is actually happening in the body.

Please someone correct me if I am way off base.
- Mark

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reading the article, it seems they were talking about the leaves.

but, fruit has lots of fiber compared to sugar level
add to that antioxidants, potassium,  Vit-C , and other positive attributes
and i would not really be surprised if the fruit itself was anti-diabetic.

Fruits are the great detoxers of the body.

Stan

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Its natural sugar. Same for Avocado's are good fats.

 If you have severe diabetes like my cousin,he tries to avoid them unless he feel's a drop in blood sugar level. So then he might have an Orange.

simon_grow

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When you read those type of articles, you have to take the information with a grain of salt. Yes, mangos can be good for you and they have vitamins and fiber and minerals to slow down the absorption of the sugars into your bloodstream but diabetics should still carefully monitor their blood sugar levels and minimize the amount of sugars they ingest, this includes natural plant sugars.

I'm sure the people that published that article did not have access to Lemon Zest, Sweet Tart, Coconut Cream and other ultra high Brix varieties. I love love love super sweet mangos and thought there could never be a mango that was too sweet for me but boy was I wrong. Ignorance was bliss until I actually felt sick from mango sugar overload. I felt like I swallowed a couple tablespoons of pure sugar and my stomach wasn't feeling good. I drank some water and immediately felt better. Beware of eating ultra sweet mangos on an empty stomach.

Some of the sweeter mangos average close to 26% Brix and several Lemon Zest nubbins I had, confirmed by Leo Manuel had a Brix above 32%!

Simon

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palmcity

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My opinion.....Propaganda trying to have more mangos eaten.

People can control their diabetes by doing things like eating small amounts and monitoring calories, especially carbohydrates. People control diabetes by also taking medication or injecting products like insulin. People control diabetes by exercising, etc. etc. etc.

Food does not control the disease called diabetes. People may control their disease by many avenues.

Cookie Monster

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HAHA! That was me. I made a smoothie consisting of the sweetest fruits I could find: mango, canistel, banana, etc and very little water. Downed over a quart of the stuff in a few minutes and checked blood sugar levels with a glucose monitor every 30 minutes. Blood sugar stayed within a couple of points +/- of baseline (110 if I remember correctly).

That said, I do normally put on 5 or so pounds during mango season :-). The sucrose content of mangoes is quite high. It's just that the fiber moderates the rate of absorption (I think it also reduces the amount of sugar / minerals that the body is able to absorb). Take away the fiber, and it would be no different from downing a quart of coca cola.

Technically, my daily consumption of mango has the equivalent amount of sugar as would be found in a gallon of soda, but I don't get tooth decay nor a sugar rush :-).

mango has so much sugar, how is it possible that it keep diabetes under control?

https://www.organicfacts.net/health-benefits/fruit/mango.html

I am no dietician, but I would think because it has enough fiber to balance the sugar. This is the case with most whole fruits and why it is much healthier to eat a whole piece of fruit (fiber in pulp) rather than drinking the juice (fiber separated and left behind, not in juice).

I recall a thread on here sometime last year where a guy did not eat anything for hours, then took a blood reading to get a baseline blood sugar level, then ate a bunch of mangoes, then took another blood sugar reading just after eating, then again like an hour after eating. And he found his blood sugar did not spike.

This was not a definitive test, but I think it is a good proxy for what is actually happening in the body.

Please someone correct me if I am way off base.
Jeff  :-)

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Have you ever heard of the glycemic index? It's a measure of how rapidly a particular food raises blood sugar and is of concern to diabetics. Mangoes have a relatively low glycemic index.

My opinion.....Propaganda trying to have more mangos eaten.

People can control their diabetes by doing things like eating small amounts and monitoring calories, especially carbohydrates. People control diabetes by also taking medication or injecting products like insulin. People control diabetes by exercising, etc. etc. etc.

Food does not control the disease called diabetes. People may control their disease by many avenues.
Jeff  :-)

dwfl

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"Sugars" in fruit are natural "sugars". Eat as much natural  whole fruit as you want. They are balanced..

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"Sugars" in fruit are natural "sugars". Eat as much natural  whole fruit as you want. They are balanced..

True but to a degree.  Jeff is correct with his comments above.  Same goes for eating oranges. I am not a diabetic but my wife is so I have to deal with it first hand.  With her its worse than the average type 2 as she deals with an autoimmune affected type 2 diabetes.  I have a very good publication on mangoes and diabetes.   I will post it if I can find it.
- Rob

starch

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HAHA! That was me. I made a smoothie consisting of the sweetest fruits I could find: mango, canistel, banana, etc and very little water. Downed over a quart of the stuff in a few minutes and checked blood sugar levels with a glucose monitor every 30 minutes. Blood sugar stayed within a couple of points +/- of baseline (110 if I remember correctly).

That said, I do normally put on 5 or so pounds during mango season :-). The sucrose content of mangoes is quite high. It's just that the fiber moderates the rate of absorption (I think it also reduces the amount of sugar / minerals that the body is able to absorb). Take away the fiber, and it would be no different from downing a quart of coca cola.

Technically, my daily consumption of mango has the equivalent amount of sugar as would be found in a gallon of soda, but I don't get tooth decay nor a sugar rush :-).

mango has so much sugar, how is it possible that it keep diabetes under control?

https://www.organicfacts.net/health-benefits/fruit/mango.html

I am no dietician, but I would think because it has enough fiber to balance the sugar. This is the case with most whole fruits and why it is much healthier to eat a whole piece of fruit (fiber in pulp) rather than drinking the juice (fiber separated and left behind, not in juice).

I recall a thread on here sometime last year where a guy did not eat anything for hours, then took a blood reading to get a baseline blood sugar level, then ate a bunch of mangoes, then took another blood sugar reading just after eating, then again like an hour after eating. And he found his blood sugar did not spike.

This was not a definitive test, but I think it is a good proxy for what is actually happening in the body.

Please someone correct me if I am way off base.

I thought it was you Jeff! But I couldn't find the thread, and I didn't want to say it was you and be incorrect.  :)
- Mark

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Quite as it is kept, the fructose in fruits is very slow to get into the blood stream because it has to be processed by the liver first.  This has the benefit of keeping the sugar spikes fairly low but can be deceptive.  Too much fructose does cause a condition called fatty liver.  There are lots of tricks to keeping blood sugar stable for foods that truly do cause blood sugar / insulin spikes.  Taken at the beginning of a meal, lemon juice, vinegar, oils, parsley, turmeric and prickly pear cactus are among the best at lowering glycemic index.

The GI of mango is 55.  With a combination of 2-3 of the above, it probably would get down to 35-40.

Watch the volume though.  Even low GI foods cause spikes if overeating is indulged.  And for those looking to cut fat, indications are that fructose in significant quantities constrains fat loss, even though blood sugar levels remain low.


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yah, in terms of contribution to weight gain, mango is probably one of the worst offenders in the fruit family :-). Without fail, I put on between 5 to 8 pounds during mango season each year. It pretty quickly drops off again in the fall though (for me anyhow). You do have to be cognizant of this fact if you're trying to lose weight.

Many of the other fruits are nearly guilt-free though, and I consume them with near impunity as a replacement for less healthy / more calorically dense snacks.
Jeff  :-)

Stan

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My opinion.....Propaganda trying to have more mangos eaten.

People can control their diabetes by doing things like eating small amounts and monitoring calories, especially carbohydrates. People control diabetes by also taking medication or injecting products like insulin. People control diabetes by exercising, etc. etc. etc.

Food does not control the disease called diabetes. People may control their disease by many avenues.

That's it. Carbs. My cousin (twice a day insulin) always tells me he counts carbs. Leaves room for a beer or two. Or come to think of it when he and his wife go to their condo in Baja..he told me he loves the tropical Guavas.
But- he's strict on his food,his sweets overall.

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Great video on the subject.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nU_RkeA88DY

Dr. Greger has lots of great videos. ive learned a lot from this guy as a  vegetarian.

there are a lot of people now who eat mostly fruit, with a small amount of veggies,
and mostly they say its very healthy and they feel great.

like this guy. ultra marathon runner and frutarian
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxERs2KHULg

i actually take Gymenema Sylvestre whenever i eat a lot of sweets.

Aloe Vera and turmeric help control blood sugar as well.
 both are very healthy in other ways, and i take them a couple of times per week anyway.



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I am with Jeff. 5-8 pound gain

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Yep. What's interesting is that most doctors still condemn fruit for their sugar content. That was the reason I did my "fruit smoothie experiment" -- to show my wife's doctor that fruit intake isn't bad.

And, yah, the only real adverse effect of high fruit consumption is excess exhaust gas and frequent and large bowel movements :-).

There are other studies that have looked at fruit consumption in relation to tooth decay. The findings showed that fruit consumption does not promote tooth decay.

Great video on the subject.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nU_RkeA88DY
Jeff  :-)

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When I'm eating mangos, maybe a couple pounds a day, my fasting blood sugar ranges between 145 and 160, too high.

I'm a Type 2 diabetic, and not active. I think most "normal" folks would not be adversely affected.

To get really healthy blood sugar levels, I have to eat low carb and take in a bit of resistant starch.

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I thrive on a low carb diet. Mangos are high in fructose which is one of the hardest sugars on the liver, and it also can cause inflammation. I think of mangos as candy or dessert more than "food." During mango season I usually eat no more than half a mango a day... A few times a week. If I do a lot of activity I sometimes will eat a whole small to medium one... or if it's just too amazingly good. ;)


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Yep. What's interesting is that most doctors still condemn fruit for their sugar content. That was the reason I did my "fruit smoothie experiment" -- to show my wife's doctor that fruit intake isn't bad.

And, yah, the only real adverse effect of high fruit consumption is excess exhaust gas and frequent and large bowel movements :-).

There are other studies that have looked at fruit consumption in relation to tooth decay. The findings showed that fruit consumption does not promote tooth decay.

Great video on the subject.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nU_RkeA88DY

When I was researching sugar cane juice I found the same information that it was healthy and did not induce tooth decay. There are probably way too many complex nutrients, enzymes, fibers and whatnot between fruits and even cultivars to be able to quantify exactly what happens to everything. I am by no means an expert but a lab rat for my own experiments. There is probably a large swing in reactions with many nutrients and foods just from the vastly different intestinal biome (probiotics) from person to person. I can tell you from experience that eating more HOMEMADE probiotic foods that I could change my bowel movements from less "tracer foods" to a more complete breakdown. I would think that would allow for more nutrient assimilation but I can't be sure. Sorry if this is TMI. :)
-Josh

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I thrive on a low carb diet. Mangos are high in fructose which is one of the hardest sugars on the liver, and it also can cause inflammation. I think of mangos as candy or dessert more than "food." During mango season I usually eat no more than half a mango a day... A few times a week. If I do a lot of activity I sometimes will eat a whole small to medium one... or if it's just too amazingly good. ;)

Wow, this is restricting oneself to extreme. Now I understand why you often write "I ate half of the mango and put the rest in fridge for tomorrow". I totally disagree with this philosophy as supported in contrarian studies and thousands of real world examples.


palmcity

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I thrive on a low carb diet. Mangos are high in fructose which is one of the hardest sugars on the liver, and it also can cause inflammation. I think of mangos as candy or dessert more than "food." During mango season I usually eat no more than half a mango a day... A few times a week. If I do a lot of activity I sometimes will eat a whole small to medium one... or if it's just too amazingly good. ;)

Wow, this is restricting oneself to extreme. Now I understand why you often write "I ate half of the mango and put the rest in fridge for tomorrow". I totally disagree with this philosophy as supported in contrarian studies and thousands of real world examples.


This seems like a wise move by many people as people with knowledge can control their diet to help prevent many ailments, diseases, conditions, from worsening.  This is perfectly fine for someone with any multitude of enzyme deficiencies, diseases / conditions such as severe type 1 diabetes, inability to properly digest sucrose, and fructose with resultant high levels of fructose and other sugars/ saccharides reaching the large intestine and then certain species of bacteria breaking the non absorbed sugars down with large production of gas and often causing much flatulence (I believe someone above mentioned this problem and perhaps is deficient of the Glut-2 Glut-5 transporter in the small intestine with resultant high sugar levels reaching the colon). Also high levels of sugars / saccharides will pull more water into the lower intestine by osmotic action with more bowel movements. Some people think they have irritable bowel syndrome as similar symptoms may appear with inability to properly absorb various sugars.
Another similar situation and common enzyme deficiency is lactose intolerance. The enzyme lactase is low in many people and often drops as people age. These people commonly have a problem properly digesting lactose in milk like products. This results in high levels of sugars in the intestine and colon with often an overgrowth of gas forming bacteria enjoying breaking down these sugars. The person usually has gas flatulence, with possible diarrhea, possible cramping, possible intestinal pain. etc. etc. 

I am thankful I have no excessive gas production and appear to have good digestive ability with rapid partial metabolism, absorption from the small intestine, and transport of the mango absorbed sugars rapidly into the blood. Everyone varies to their percent of absorption of food substances and this varies often with ones age.

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Interesting analysis. I had never heard of Glut-x transporters :-), but I think my issue has more to do with the amount of fiber I ingest on a daily basis. I tend to be pretty particular about consuming only high quality whole grains, and combined with the amount of veggies and fruits that I consume, my fiber intake has to be several times that of my peers :-). It's not uncommon for me to eat 7 - 10 pounds of fruit on a "bad day." Combine that with a giant salad, whole grain wild rice and whole grain cereal, and fiber intake is pushing the limit :-).

If I eat too much watermelon (defined as 5 - 10 pounds worth in a day), I get a sore stomach :-). Unfortunately, I tend to be a bit "binary" in my interests -- ON or OFF, but no in between. I really enjoy fruit (ON), so I have to put in an effort to restrain myself a little, lest I (and my wife) pay the price :-).

This seems like a wise move by many people as people with knowledge can control their diet to help prevent many ailments, diseases, conditions, from worsening.  This is perfectly fine for someone with any multitude of enzyme deficiencies, diseases / conditions such as severe type 1 diabetes, inability to properly digest sucrose, and fructose with resultant high levels of fructose and other sugars/ saccharides reaching the large intestine and then certain species of bacteria breaking the non absorbed sugars down with large production of gas and often causing much flatulence (I believe someone above mentioned this problem and perhaps is deficient of the Glut-2 Glut-5 transporter in the small intestine with resultant high sugar levels reaching the colon). Also high levels of sugars / saccharides will pull more water into the lower intestine by osmotic action with more bowel movements. Some people think they have irritable bowel syndrome as similar symptoms may appear with inability to properly absorb various sugars.
Another similar situation and common enzyme deficiency is lactose intolerance. The enzyme lactase is low in many people and often drops as people age. These people commonly have a problem properly digesting lactose in milk like products. This results in high levels of sugars in the intestine and colon with often an overgrowth of gas forming bacteria enjoying breaking down these sugars. The person usually has gas flatulence, with possible diarrhea, possible cramping, possible intestinal pain. etc. etc. 

I am thankful I have no excessive gas production and appear to have good digestive ability with rapid partial metabolism, absorption from the small intestine, and transport of the mango absorbed sugars rapidly into the blood. Everyone varies to their percent of absorption of food substances and this varies often with ones age.
Jeff  :-)

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The suggestion that fruit consumption leads to liver disease and / or heart disease (via inflammation) is a hard one to "swallow." Given that a large portion of the human race regarded fruit as a dietary staple (eg, Indians, Central and South American indigenous populations, etc), the concept that the human body is not well adapted to fruit consumption might not pass the intuition test.

There have been some studies which have shown a link between high consumption of HFCS / refined sugars and FLD and inflammation, but I don't think such a link has ever been found between fresh fruit and these ailments. The body reacts very differently to both. For example, if I down a soda laden with HFCS (or the new trend in sweeteners -- sugar), I get all the symptoms of a sugar rush, followed by a crash (the shakes, headache, hunger, etc). However, if I gobble down a 4 pound keitt mango, my body reacts to it in nearly the same way that it would to a regular meal -- which I've confirmed via a blood glucose monitor.

As palmcity pointed out, there are some individuals whose genetics cause them to react adversely to fresh fruit.( Some even have the curse of being allergic to mangoes!) But, I've yet to see any piece of scientific literature suggesting a link between high fruit consumption and disease in otherwise healthy individuals.
Jeff  :-)