Diabetes is a chronic disease. Those who are suffering from diabetes, have to keep themselves in check with certain foods and control their cravings. They have to keep their blood sugar levels in control, in order to remain healthy. According to reports, you can take the help of onions to control your blood sugar levels. Let us take a look at how this works. Studies show that red onion can be helpful in regulating blood sugar levels. Red onion consists of a substance called chromium, which helps in controlling blood sugar levels. It also helps with lowering the absorption rate of carbohydrates in the bloodstream. Onions also have compounds containing sulphur, which helps with reducing inflammation and improves insulin sensitivity. Onions also help with reducing cholesterol levels in the blood, lowering the risk of heart ailments.
Onions have a lot of fibre. As fibre takes time to be digested, it shows that the sugar is being released slowly in the bloodstream. It also helps with constipation, a common condition found in people with diabetes. The glycaemic index of onions is low. The glycaemic index is a value given to foods, which denotes how fast they affect the blood sugar level. A raw onion has a glycaemic index of 10.
According to a study published in the journal Environmental Health Insights, eating fresh onions helps in blood sugar level reduction in type-1 and type-2 diabetes patients. A 2010 study showed that eating 100 g of raw red onion helped in reducing the fasting sugar levels after 4 hours. It was conducted on 84 people who had type-1 and type-2 diabetes.
Last year in August, a study was presented at The Endocrine Society’s 97th annual meeting in San Diego, according to which an onion bulb extract and the anti-diabetic drug metformin could help in lowering high blood sugar. Consuming these two together could help in controlling blood sugar.
One should make sure to not eat onions in excess, because consuming too much onion may increase blood sugar and it can be very harmful.
