The common vegetable that can lower high blood sugar levels by half

One in 10 people over 40 in the UK are now living with type 2 diabetes, a condition that causes your blood sugar to be too high. However, there is one common vegetable which can lower blood sugar levels by up to 50 percent – and could see “potential use” in treating patients. Diabetes.

People with Type 2 diabetes Their pancreas can’t produce enough insulin to control their blood sugar, which means their blood sugar can reach dangerously high levels.

however, 2015 resultsPresented at the 97th Annual Meeting of The Endocrine Society in San Diego, it was found that onion bulb extract can “strongly reduce” high blood sugar and total cholesterol levels when given with the anti-diabetic drug metformin. .

Lead author of the study, Anthony Ojeh of Delta State University in Abraka, Nigeria, said at the time: “Onion is cheap and available and used as a dietary supplement. It has potential to be used in the treatment of diabetic patients.

The researchers tested the theory on mice. In total, three groups of rats with medically induced diabetes were given different doses of onion extract to see if it enhanced the effect of the drug.

Doses were 200mg, 400mg, and 600mg per kilogram of body weight. The researchers also gave the drug and onion to three groups of non-diabetic mice with normal blood sugar.

The study found that in diabetic rats, given 400mg and 600mg per kilogram of body weight, their blood sugar levels were reduced by 50% and 35%, respectively, compared to a baseline level. .

Onion extract also reduced total cholesterol levels in diabetic rats, with 400mg and 600mg having the greatest effects.

The study also found that onion extract increased weight in diabetic rats, but not in non-diabetic rats.

“Onions are not high in calories,” Ojea explained. “However, it appears to increase metabolic rate and, with it, increase appetite, which increases feeding.

“We need to investigate the mechanism by which onions lower blood glucose. We don’t have an explanation yet.”

This article was amended on 5 September 2022 to reflect that the study was published in 2015. It originally said the findings were to be presented at a meeting in 2022.