"Xiao Wang, do you know, I heard that chili peppers can make blood sugar spike, do you think I can still eat this diabetes?" Aunt Liu chatted with her neighbor Xiao Wang while chopping chili peppers in the community kitchen, and her tone revealed tangled and worried.
Xiao Wang is enthusiastic, but he is also confused: "I heard that this is the case, but I heard that chili peppers seem to be good for diabetes?"
This conversation has aroused heated discussions among the people around, after all, there are many people who love spicy food, and in the group of sugar friends, whether the chili pepper is a demon or an angel is quite curious.
1. Can capsaicin lower blood sugar?
Capsaicin, the secret weapon hidden in chili peppers, actually has both positive and negative effects on people with abnormal glucose metabolism.
On the one hand, a moderate amount of capsaicin can improve insulin sensitivity and help reduce blood sugar spikes, especially in the postprandial period, it acts as a fine-tuner in the body to help regulate blood sugar balance.
Capsaicin can also be a double-edged sword. It speeds up metabolism and helps with weight management, which is a good thing for sugar lovers, as weight control often directly affects blood sugar control.
The antioxidants in chili peppers can also play a certain anti-inflammatory role in combating chronic inflammation associated with abnormal glucose metabolism.
Second, although the chili pepper is good, these people still have to take it easy
The effects of capsaicin in chili peppers on the gastrointestinal tract cannot be ignored. If you are a sugar lover with a "weak stomach", then chili peppers may become your "stomach pain maker".
Spicy food will strongly irritate the gastric mucosa, resulting in excessive gastric acid secretion, which is undoubtedly worse for sugar friends who already have gastritis, gastric ulcers and other stomach diseases.
Therefore, the principle of sugar friends eating spicy is first and foremost to "timely and appropriate amount", as far as possible to choose the right amount of spicy peppers, less irritating to the stomach, and avoid excessive intake of irritating peppers at one time.
While capsaicin is beneficial for blood sugar control to some extent, we can't ignore the problem of blood sugar fluctuations that it can bring.
When sugar friends try to increase their intake of chili peppers, they must not be greedy for a momentary tongue and ignore the stability of blood sugar.
It is important to know that excessive or frequent consumption of spicy food may cause blood sugar to fluctuate, which is very unfavorable for sugar friends.
After listening to the advice of a professional nutritionist, Aunt Liu began a careful "spicy exploration journey". She started with small doses of bell peppers and mildly spicy ingredients, and gradually increased her daily intake of chili peppers.
At the same time, she also paid close attention to the changes in her blood sugar, and gradually found the amount of chili pepper that could not only meet the taste needs but also stabilize blood sugar.
In this way, Aunt Liu not only enjoyed the flavor brought by the chili pepper, but also did not affect blood sugar control, and successfully turned the chili pepper into a friendly partner at the table.
It seems that the saying that "chili pepper is a blood sugar amplifier" that circulates in life is not absolute. For sugar friends, chili peppers are not so much an enemy as a friend who needs to be wisely harnessed.
As a folk proverb goes, "There is no beauty or evil in things, but if you go too far, it will be a disaster", and the same is true for sugar friends when they eat chili peppers. Only the moderate and skillful use of chili pepper can make it play a positive role in the management of abnormal glucose metabolism, and truly achieve "spicy benefits, enjoy delicious food, and stabilize blood sugar", so that the life of sugar friends is healthy and colorful.
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