Greetings to all readers! And although the summer time will not come soon, you need to prepare for it, as in the famous proverb, that is, now it is winter.

Watermelon and diabetes: can it be eaten by patients with type 2 diabetes, the benefits and harms of gestational diabetes, how to eat watermelon with type 1 diabetes is the topic of this article.

The information provided is intended for any patient with any kind of sweet disease, so read to the end or use the content.

watermelon for diabetes

When I am preparing to write any article, I always look at the first page of the search results, that is, the first pages that Google or Yandex gives me for the desired query. And this article is no exception. Although I foresaw that I would not find anything worthwhile, I nevertheless decided to see what other sites offer.

After studying these pages, I realized that my article should be and be in the first place, because people need to know the truth about the use of sweet berries for sweet illness. So, before handing out ready-made answers, let's figure out what a watermelon is and what it consists of. And the answer to the question "Is it possible to eat watermelon with this type of diabetes?" will float by itself.

Probably even losers know that watermelon is not a fruit, but a berry. And to be more precise, the watermelon is ordinary ( Citrullus lanatus) comes from the genus Watermelon ( citrullus) gourd family ( Cucurbitaceae).The fruit is correctly called not a berry, but a pumpkin, which is similar in structure to a berry.

The chemical composition of watermelon

Most of the pulp of a watermelon is water. Depending on the degree of maturity and variety of the product, the content of mono- and disaccharides ranges from 5.5 to 13%. Let me remind you that mono- and disaccharides are easily digestible carbohydrates, which are represented in watermelon: glucose, fructose and sucrose (glucose + fructose). Moreover, fructose in watermelon is more than other carbohydrates.

The rest of the mass is:

• pectins 0.68%
• proteins 0.7%
• minerals (calcium, magnesium, iron, sodium, potassium, phosphorus)
• vitamins (B1, B2, folic acid, carotenoids, vitamin C)

The total calorie content also depends on the sugar content in the berry.

Is it possible to eat watermelon with type 2 diabetes

In this article, I will not describe the beneficial properties of watermelon, since everything is relative. Any edible product will be at least somewhat useful, but if you compare it with another product, then against its background the first product fades and seems not so useful. As I showed above, watermelon is almost water (90%) and sugar. Just imagine how useful water and sugar can be.

And another question arises: “Is it possible to eat watermelon with type 2 diabetes?” and “Won’t this product do more harm than good?”

To do this, let's remember what will happen if a healthy person eats a few pieces of sweet, juicy watermelon. And the following will happen.

All carbohydrates freely and almost instantly penetrate into the blood. Due to glucose and sucrose, the level of sugar in the blood and tissues rises, in response to this, a massive release of insulin by the pancreas occurs in order to quickly drive glucose into the cells.

Fructose rushes to the liver, where it immediately lingers (some will turn into glucose, and some into fatty acids). For a healthy person in the short term, this does not threaten anything.

For a person with type 2 diabetes, you should expect an increase in blood sugar levels for a long time, and all because he has a slow response of the gland to a carbohydrate load and insensitivity of cells to insulin. It can be argued that they say there are no watermelons all year round and you can afford it during the season.

Yes, you are right, watermelon is a seasonal product, but all fruits and berries are seasonal, it's just that every season replaces another. After the watermelon, grapes and persimmons will go, and before the watermelon there were cherries and strawberries. Thinking about it this way, normal blood sugar can only be expected in the winter months and early spring, before anything is ripe. And time does not wait, your body does not get younger, the destructive effect of hyperglycemia continues.

What then to do? Really absolutely in any way without a delicacy? The answer will be harsh. Until you fully compensate for your diabetes, until you have good numbers on the glucometer on an empty stomach, and after eating, until you get a normal result for glycated hemoglobin - forget about watermelon, and if the craving is very strong, then no more than 100 g pulp at a time, which already contains an average of 10 g of carbohydrates (read pure sugar).

Those who have achieved excellent results, reduced weight and doses of drugs, or even canceled altogether, can afford some of the product, but under glycemic control. If the sugar level exceeds 7.8 mmol / l 1.5-2 hours after eating watermelon, a review of the volume of food is required.

For those on a low carb diet, I recommend counting carbs so you don't go overboard with your carb intake.

Watermelon for type 1 diabetes: is it possible or not

With the first type, everything is much easier. Those who do not adhere to a low-carb diet can freely eat watermelon in an adequate amount. At the same time, the use of watermelon requires a mandatory injection of insulin. It must be remembered that for 100 g of the edible part, there are from 5.5 to 13 g of carbohydrates.

I usually take the average value - there are only 8 g of carbohydrates per 100 g. And note that we do not take into account the peel from the watermelon. How do I give watermelon to my son? Usually we cut off some piece of watermelon, weigh it, calculate insulin by this weight and pin it up, after which the child eats it, and we weigh the peels again, subtract the weight of the peels from the total weight of the watermelon piece and give an additional amount of pulp to the resulting figure.

Note that watermelon requires a certain amount of exposure time because watermelon has a very high glycemic index and it takes time for insulin to release its action and keep the sugar from rising too high.

Nobody knows exactly how long to wait, because everything is individual, and also depends on the initial blood sugar, the higher it is, the longer it will take to wait.

Is it possible to watermelon with gestational diabetes

Gestational diabetes or diabetes in pregnancy requires a competent approach in nutrition and treatment methods, since we are talking about the life of both the mother and the child.

If a woman does not receive insulin therapy and controls blood sugar only by diet and exercise, then I would not recommend eating watermelon, since sugar after such a meal will be very high, as well as the temptation to repeat it too. I think that you can skip one season and enjoy the delicacy after giving birth.

If a woman receives insulin therapy, then in this case the restriction is only due to the correct calculations of carbohydrates and insulin doses. If a woman is confident in the calculations and she is good at compensating for sweet fruits and berries, then she will succeed with watermelon too. You also need to monitor your total carbohydrate intake so as not to cause rapid weight gain, which can also harm the course of pregnancy.

What else can be dangerous watermelon

By the end of summer, people begin to miss watermelon so much that they forget elementary things. The most common mistake is to buy a watermelon when the season has not yet begun (before August 15), but even at the beginning of the season, I would not recommend rushing into a purchase.

And the whole point is in the watermelons themselves, or rather, what dishonest sellers do with them. Watermelons accumulate nitrates very well and it is not realistic to distinguish good from bad. In order for a watermelon to have an attractive presentation, they just don’t pump it up. After such a vaccination, the berry becomes dangerous to human health, especially children.

Therefore, it is better to buy at the very end of August, when the precocity becomes much less and real watermelons appear on the market.

The second and third mistake is the poor washing of the watermelon before cutting and buying already cut pieces. In both cases, there is a high probability of seeding of pathogenic bacteria that can affect the gastrointestinal tract and cause its disorder. I recommend washing the watermelon with soap and hot water and then blanching it with boiling water and never buy sliced ​​watermelon.

That's all for me. Control your emotions and be friends with your head.

With warmth and care, endocrinologist Lebedeva Dilyara Ilgizovna