According to the journal article published in the British Journal of Nutrition, researchers from both OK State U and NCSU suggested that the inclusion of freeze-dried (FD) mangoes in the diet of experimental mices were able to show improvements in terms of glucose tolerance and overall lipid profile.
Now duagu, if this really is the case, that would be wonderful, mainly based one reason. Mangoes are so abundant in the tropical region of the world like Malaysia, if mangoes are really diabetes busters, this would be a huge deal for mango farmers (although I don't think most Malaysians really care about the additional health benefits, because regardless of whether it is good or bad, we do love our kerabu mangga).
However I am presenting my skepticism based on a few reasons:
1. I can never reiterate any much more than this is an animal study, and most people have no idea about the vast amount of experimental biological studies that failed to transpose comparable results (if not the same) from mice models to human beings. So in order for us to fully conclude that mangoes indeed help counter diabetes in human, a similar study will have to be done with humans. With this mice study, we can only at most say that mangoes are potentially effective in regulating glucose levels.
2. Surprisingly with the high levels of naturally occurring sugars in mangoes, mice fed with a diet supplemented with FD mangoes were still able to show the improvement in glucose tolerance. I am saying that this is fabricated, it's just that it's a bit too good to be true, but then this paper is published in the BJN which is highly reputed. To me, it is just like trying to achieve a goal with something that is not conventional and indirect. It's like you are trying to follow a sugar-free diet and just because lard is sugar-free, all you eat is just lard. But then again, they are still unclear of how this actually is happening biochemically in the mice, so until more studies are done, I rest my case.
