Can a mango a day keep diabetes away?

Can a mango a day keep diabetes away?

A 24-week clinical trial suggests that replacing a processed snack with a daily fresh mango may improve blood sugar control and body composition in adults at risk of diabetes, highlighting the effect of whole fruits over refined foods.

Study:Daily intake of mango improves blood sugar levels and body composition in adults with prediabetes: A randomized controlled trial. Photo credit: Abubakkar14/Shutterstock.com

Prediabetes is when the body is unable to maintain normal blood sugar levels. The result is increased blood sugar levels, but not diabetes levels. A significant proportion of people with prediabetes develop type 2 diabetes (T2D) and cardiovascular disease over time. A recent study inGroceriesexamined the potential benefits of consuming a fresh mango daily in this group.

introduction

Over 98 million American adults struggle with high blood sugar, both prediabetes and type 2 diabetes. By the end of this decade, prediabetes could affect 40% of Americans. Therefore, it is important to recognize and treat this stage to prevent the onset of T2D.

Dietary changes are key to such efforts, particularly consumption of fresh fruits, vegetables, and foods with high bioactive composition. These regulate blood sugar levels and improve metabolic health. Mangoes contain carotenoids, ascorbic acid, plant polyphenols, quercetin and fiber.

Freeze-dried mango supplementation in mice had beneficial effects by reducing body fat mass and lowering blood sugar and lipid levels. However, human studies have produced mixed results. The aim of the current long-term randomized controlled study was to directly compare the effects of consuming mango with those of a refined snack with the same calorie content in people with prediabetes.

23 participants took part in the study, 11 of whom were in the treatment group. These people consumed around 300 g of mango every day for 24 weeks, while the control group of 12 people consumed a muesli bar every day over the same period.

Study results

At baseline, the treatment group's mean fasting blood glucose level was 113 mg/dL, compared to 116.5 mg/dL in the control group. After the intervention, it increased in the control group while it decreased in the treatment group. At the end of the study, fasting glucose levels in the Mango group were approximately 18 mg/dL lower than in the control group (a difference between groups), with the Mango group showing a slight decrease of approximately 6 mg/dL from baseline.

Levels of glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) were comparable at baseline, a marker of long-term blood sugar levels. It increased slightly after the intervention in the control group, but not in the treatment group.

The mean HbA1c value increased in the control group, but body fat did not change. This was associated with increased fat-free mass in the treatment group, although total body water did not change. This suggests that fluid retention could not explain this increase.

The treatment group remained sensitive to insulin after the procedure, as shown by the Quantitative Insulin Sensitivity Check Index (QUICKI) test. Insulin resistance tended to decrease and body fat showed a borderline decrease in this group (p = 0.05).

At week 25, the mean body mass index (BMI) in the treatment group remained unchanged, while the waist-to-hip circumference ratio decreased significantly. In the control group, BMI increased slightly (28.6 to 29.0), but not significantly, while the waist-hip ratio increased significantly.

These results confirm the results of previous studies, although the 24-week duration of the present study provides evidence that mango consumption provides both early and long-term glycemic benefits. Together with preclinical studies indicating a lipid-lowering effect comparable to that of fenofibrate (which lowers blood triglyceride levels) and rosiglitazone (a blood sugar lowering agent that promotes insulin sensitivity), this highlights mango's potential as a functional food. However, these drug comparisons are based on mouse models and not human trials.

Eating whole fruits provides a fiber matrix that more than offsets the risk of sugar content. This suggests that replacing refined foods with whole fruits is beneficial for metabolic health.

In addition to lowering blood sugar levels, eating mango can improve body composition, thereby reducing the risk of diabetes. The maintenance of waist-to-hip ratio, in contrast to the increase observed in the control group, is a clinically relevant finding because high body fat, increased waist-to-hip ratio, and more visceral fat increase the risk of diabetes.

Conclusions

“Daily consumption of mango for 24 weeks improved glycemic control, insulin sensitivity, and body composition in adults with prediabetes, supporting the potential of mango as a practical dietary intervention for metabolic health.”

The authors also cautioned that their study was small, had baseline differences between groups, and focused only on fasting glucose levels, so the results should be interpreted as exploratory rather than definitive.

These findings may apply to many other fruit and plant foods and point to the importance of the physical and chemical structure of the food. In this case, the fruit matrix determines the food choice and not just the sugar content.

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