Pumpkin Fights Diabetes

Pumpkin is the main feature of Hallowe’en, one of the world’s oldest celebrations. There are plenty of dishes you can make with pumpkin. Its thick orange pulp gives a delicious, fresh and sweetish, taste and a marvelous color to any soup, sauce or dessert. But besides being a tasty and bright-looking vegetable, pumpkin is very salubrious.

According to the World Diabetes Foundation (WDF), almost 6% of the world’s adult population has diabetes, which makes about 230 million people. They all have to put up with daily insulin injections. Recently Chinese scientists conducted a number of experiments on diabetic rats. They discovered that feeding diabetic rats on pumpkin extract not only halts the destruction of the pancreas gland but also conduces to regeneration of destroyed cells.

Scientists say that pumpkin possesses great potential for diabetes prevention and is highly efficacious in treating diabetes patients. Tao Xia of the East China Normal University, lead researcher on diabetes issues, adds that although insulin injections will remain necessary for those patients, pumpkin extract can decrease their daily intake of insulin significantly.

Pumpkin’s protective qualities are attributed to unique compounds of natural antioxidants it contains as well as to D-chiro-inositol, a molecule that mediates insulin activity.