Diabetes and spicy bananas!

With 300 million people projected to have diabetes by 2025, and one third of diabetics going on to suffer diabetic nephropathy (kidney damage), there is a huge interest in research communities to examine the protective effect of diet and herbal medicine.

Half a million people suggest that consuming fruit may indeed be advantageous for diabetics. A large cohort was assessed across a seven-year observational study, participants who ate fruit daily carried a significantly lower risk of developing diabetes when compared to non-consumers.

In pre-existing diabetes, those with regular fruit intake (three or more times per week) enjoyed a 17% lower relative risk of dying from any cause and a 13% to 28% reduction in the risk of diabetic complications such as stroke, kidney disease or diabetic neuropathy (nerve damage), in contrast to those who ate a meagre one serve of fruit weekly. Diabetics who eliminate fruit due to its sugar content, may also be eliminating the benefits of moderate, regular fruit consumption.

Furthermore, curcumin has shown to have protective potential to prevent diabetic nephropathy. Over 16 weeks, diabetic and non-diabetic mice administered curcumin exhibited decreases in overall renal hypertrophy, urinary protein levels and fibrosiscausing compounds with glomeruli (small capillaries around the end of the kidney tubule) compared to controls.

Further, curcumin treatment dramatically inhibited levels of inflammatory cytokines (substances, secreted by certain cells of the immune system) produced in response to cellular damage or distress.

So spicing up the kidneys with curcumin and throwing in a few pieces of fruit, could be the key to protect diabetics from the damaging effects of this disease.