Study says mangoes could protect against diabetes

Tuesday November 28, 2006 in: Diet and Exercise Tag(s):

Technorati tags: diet, health

Incorporating mangoes into your diet might just be a good idea. The early results of a groundbreaking study presented in Australia last week indicated that some components of the mango can be effective against diabetes, as well as high cholesterol.

More on this from The Lab:

The study is analysing how individual components of the luscious summer favourite affect human cells.

And early results, presented at the Australian Health and Medical Research Congress in Melbourne this week, suggest that some mango components act on the same pathways that diabetes and cholesterol drugs target.

University of Queensland PhD student Ashley Wilkinson says the study, the first of its kind, aims to find unique ingredients in mangoes and other tropical fruit like paw paws.

Dr Sarah Roberts-Thomson of the university's school of pharmacy, who is supervising the work, says early results suggest some compounds in mangoes work by activating or inhibiting groups of receptors known as peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors, or PPARs.

"We don't know yet how the whole thing's going to play out but we know some of the individual components activate these receptors or even inhibit them," she says.

"That could end up with positive nutritional health benefits for diabetes and high cholesterol."

It would really be sweet if something sweet turns out to be effective against a disease sometimes brought on by consuming too much sweets. Not that sweets directly cause diabetes. Sweets cause weight gain, and excessive weight gain could lead to diabetes.

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