Foods of this color reduce glucose levels (and prevent diabetes)

Vegetables are generally recommended to maintain blood glucose levels in the proper range so as not to promote inflammation, overweight and diabetes. But if vegetables, fruits and other plant foods are purple, the regulating effect on the blood sugar rate is even greater.

Purple fruits and vegetables, such as blueberries or red cabbage, contain pigments called anthocyanins that can help prevent diabetes, according to researchers at the University of Turku in Finland. The study authors note that purple root vegetables (such as potatoes and sweet potatoes) are particularly good for health. Some red foods, like strawberries, also contain anthocyanins.

Why purple foods reduce the rate of glucose in the blood?

These pigments they can reduce the risk of diabetes by acting on energy metabolism, intestinal microbiota and inflammation. This is a welcome finding, especially considering the prevalence of diabetes around the world. In Spain, almost 400,000 new cases are diagnosed each year.

In this research, the observed effect was even greater among foods containing acylated anthocyanins, that is, anthocyanins with an acyl chemical group added.

What are the most effective purple foods to control sugar?

The acylated varieties abound in foods such as purple potatoes, radishes, purple carrots, and red and purple cabbages.

The genotype of the plant defines what type of anthocyanins they produce. In general, purple vegetables contain many acylated anthocyanins. Purple potatoes are especially abundant in acylated anthocyanins, explains postdoctoral researcher Kang Chen, from the Food Sciences Unit at the University of Turku.

Other purple foods like blueberries and blackberries contain mostly non-acylated anthocyanins. Although acylation makes it difficult for them to be absorbed during digestion, this is not a particularly bad thing, since They have other functions that make them beneficial to health.

acylated anthocyanins have prebiotic properties that allow them to improve and maintain the health of the intestinal lining. They can also reduce inflammation in the body and regulate glucose and lipid metabolic pathways.

“Studies have shown that, in addition to changing physical and chemical properties, acylation affects how anthocyanins are absorbed and metabolized,” Chen says.

Acylated pigments move through the body, starting in the upper gastrointestinal tract and traveling to the colon. Once they reach the colon, they are broken down and metabolized by intestinal bacteria.

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They also reduce the risk of cancer.

Another investigation indicates that purple potatoes, in addition, They can help prevent colon cancer. A team of researchers from Pennsylvania State University has found that a diet rich in purple fruits and vegetables may help prevent inflammatory bowel disease and cancer in pigs.

The researchers fed a group of pigs a high-calorie diet of purple potatoes and compared colonic mucosal interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels. IL-6 is a crucial protein for inflammation to occur in the gut, and its high levels are associated with excessive levels of proteins linked to the growth and spread of colon cancer cells.

IL-6 levels were six times lower in pigs receiving the diet rich in purple potatoes. than in a group that received a standard diet and another that received a high-calorie diet without vegetables. Although the study focused on purple potatoes, the authors say other brightly colored vegetables could be just as protective. The full study was published in the journal Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry.