Can okra really help with weight loss and fight cancer? An analysis of the health benefits of this internet-famous vegetable

In recent years, okra has become an internet-famous vegetable popular on dinner tables,and rumors have long circulated online that it is a "miracle cure" for diabetes and has a range of health benefits including weight loss, cancer prevention and anti-aging. So, is this much-hyped okra really so miraculous?

Okra, also known as yellow okra and goat's horn bean, originated in Africa. It belongs to the mallow family, genus Abelmoschus, and is an annual herbaceous plant. Its young pods are harvested for eating. It is a plant used as a vegetable, medicine and ornamental flower, so its uses are fairly wide-ranging.

But in fact, its place of origin is Africa, and before 2008 there were basically no reports about okra in China.What made okra internet-famous was actually the 2008 Olympics, when people saw foreign athletes eating okra on television, assumed it must be highly nutritious, and began to promote it.

In addition, okra, with its emerald green color and star-shaped cross-section, has very high "looks" and is deeply loved by everyone,one could say it comes with an inherent "internet-famous" quality.。

So, as an internet-famous vegetable, is okra's nutritional value really that high? From the "China Food Composition Tables," we can learn that the nutrients okra contains are actually nothing outstanding, whether in terms of variety or content. In other words, the nutritional benefits okra can provide as a vegetableare simply the nutritional benefits that most ordinary, inexpensive vegetables in people's daily diets also provide.。

So there are rumors that it has the effect of treating "diabetes" - is this true?

In fact, the reason okra has a certain effect on controlling blood sugaris thanks to its relatively high content of dietary fiber. The pods of okra contain a sticky liquid, and this sticky mixture contains substances such as hemicellulose, cellulose, lignin, pectin and polysaccharides, so it can fully be regarded as an important marker of okra's quality. And it is precisely because of their presencethat eaters feel relatively full after eating okra, which not only helps promote gastrointestinal motility, prevent constipation and prevent obesity, but can also slow the rate at which blood sugar rises after a meal, thereby achieving the goal of controlling blood sugar rises to a certain extent.

But everyone needs to understand that this dietary effect of okra is merely a basic function of dietary fiber,a benefit possessed by any food with a high fiber content, and not unique to okra. At the same time, it only alleviates blood sugar rises to a certain extent, and cannot replace insulin in playing any role.

Therefore, forcibly pinning the label of "diabetes killer" on okra is really asking too much of it.

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