Are mangoes making you fat?

Busting myths about the king of fruits

Today I want to talk about mangoes. This happens with me every year right about this time of the year. My mailbox is flooded with questions like “Should I eat mangoes as I have diabetes, will mangoes raise my blood sugar levels?”

“Oh, it has so much of sugar, am I going to put on weight; am I going to get fat with mangoes?” But let's get one thing straight before we get right into understanding how a mango is actually good for your health.

You shouldn't be scared of a fruit. You shouldn't be scared of anything that grows naturally. But you should be scared of everything that comes packaged everything that's processed and you should be scared of the poor lifestyle choices that you make.

A mango is a rich source of vitamin C, vitamin A, vitamin E, vitamin K and most of the B vitamins except vitamin b12. It also has traces of omega-3 and omega-6 and it's loaded with minerals and fibre. One ripe mango will have approximately 29 to 32 grams of sugar fruit sugar and a glycemic load is just 10, so you don't have to be scared of a mango but you got to be scared of overeating mangoes.

If you over eat any fruit, in fact, if you over eat anything that's good for you, it is going to make your blood sugar levels rise too fast so if you have diabetes, which is not a disease but a condition, you can have a bowl of mango you can have one mango, you can have half a mango, if your blood sugar levels are really out of control because mangoes are also rich in fibre and it's the fibre that doesn't allow your blood sugar levels to rise too high and like I always recommend for people who are trying to keep their blood sugars at level if you're having fruits try to have some seeds and nuts with it or post your fruit so that the fibre and the protein in your nuts and seeds do not allow your sugar levels to rise too fast.

Now those are all the common vitamins that you find in a mango but there's something else that mangoes contain, mangoes contain a substance called “Mangiferin”. Now, mangiferin has an antiviral and an anti-inflammatory impact on the body and they affect certain enzymes in your body, which actually helps to control your blood sugar levels.

Mango is a detoxifying fruit and brings the heat out of the body and the second thing is mangoes grow at this time because it's so rich in vitamin C which is an immunity booster. It grows just before the monsoon because when the monsoon sets in our immunity tends to drop and we tend to get sick, so by eating mangoes you start building up vitamin C and immunity in your body and it helps you in the transition into the next season.

Now there are people who eat five to six mangoes a day. Well, you don't have to have that much; eat one a day eat maybe two a day. Eating five per day is overdoing it, so you know eat one a day if you're highly diabetic maybe you want to have half a mango in the morning and maybe enjoy the other half of the evening; couple it with nuts and seeds if you feel your sugar levels are rising too fast and it has nothing to do with weight gain because mangoes have negligible fat in them and it's very rich in vitamin C and we should all know that human bodies are not capable of making and manufacturing vitamin C we have to get it from sources of fruits and vegetables and we all know that a thousand mg of vitamin C that we can get and through our fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds.

Our green leafy vegetables actually has an A+ impact on your weight, yes vitamin C flushes out fatty acids from your blood, from your system and it has a positive impact on your sugar levels. One last great fact about the mangoes is that mangiferin substance that I spoke about has the ability to loosen and remove fatty deposits from your liver.

Mangoes are loaded with so much goodness that I shouldn't have to be explaining so much about nature, we should blindly trust the goodness of nature and everything that grows of course not the poisonous stuff but things like fruits and vegetables it can only be good for your health.

By: Luke Coutinho
The writer is Alternative Medicine and Holistic Nutritionist.