After Mr. Jiang insisted on eating Lycium barbarum for one year, he found that his mental outlook was much better than before and his body was not abnormal. He thought it was the reason for eating Lycium barbarum, so he told his family and friends around him to keep in good health as soon as possible and not to get sick easily after middle age.
Mr. Jiang said that Lycium barbarum has a health-preserving effect. Science?
Everyone is familiar with Lycium barbarum, because most people say it has high nutritional value. So, where is it?
I think it is necessary for everyone to know some ingredients contained in Lycium barbarum. Next, let's take a look at the contents of various nutrients contained in each 100g of Lycium barbarum. Note: This data comes from Data Sheet of Basic Components of Functional Food Raw Materials in China.
As can be seen from the table, Lycium barbarum is rich in beta carotene, hydroxylutein and Lycium barbarum polysaccharide, among which beta carotene is the precursor of vitamin A, and its color is red, which is also the reason why Lycium barbarum is red. Moreover, this substance can prevent the deficiency of vitamin A, which is very suitable for "night owls".
But recently, a kind of black and purple wolfberry appeared on the market, which is black wolfberry. What is the explanation? In fact, it is not only black wolfberry, but also common fruits and vegetables such as grapes, purple cabbage, red amaranth, purple potato and blueberry. This is mainly because they are rich in an ingredient called anthocyanin. As the name implies, anthocyanin is a pigment that can change color with the pH of cell fluid. Generally speaking, cell sap is red when it is acidic and blue when it is alkaline. That's why there is a distinction between black wolfberry and red wolfberry.
However, it is also worth noting that anthocyanins belong to the flavonoid family. You may not be familiar with this name. It seems that you have heard of isoflavones (phytoestrogens), which generally exist in soy products. In fact, the functional activity of flavonoids is also very important. Because it is a phenolic compound, it is a subset of plant nutrients found in a large number of different plant foods.
Prior to this, a study in the international academic journal Nature showed that eating foods rich in flavonoids can effectively reduce the incidence of cancer and heart disease, especially for smokers and alcoholics.
Studies have shown that Lycium barbarum can also prevent macular aging and lesions, which are mostly related to lutein. Therefore, doctors suggest that patients should be properly supplemented with lutein, which may alleviate and prevent macular degeneration.
Because of this, many researchers call Lycium barbarum a food with the same origin of medicine and food. In addition, the role of Lycium barbarum in treating diseases is not limited to this, and there are some things you may not know.
If you are interested, please read patiently.
Nowadays, with the steady improvement of the quality of life, there are more and more people suffering from "three highs" (hypertension, hyperglycemia and hyperlipidemia). Therefore, everyone should always be vigilant. Before eating food, it may be necessary to evaluate whether the food is beneficial to the body.
Taking Lycium barbarum as an example, there is a lot of controversy. Some people think that "Lycium barbarum is too sweet to raise blood sugar." Others think that "Lycium barbarum is a health food, so everyone should eat more."
So, what is the truth about lowering blood sugar or raising blood sugar?
Accurately speaking, according to many research reports, Lycium barbarum has hypoglycemic and antidiabetic effects, and can even reduce radiation damage. This is mainly because Lycium barbarum contains polysaccharide. Polysaccharide is composed of different monosaccharides, so polysaccharide is not a single chemical substance, but a mixture with different polymerization degrees.
Why is polysaccharide good? Take the well-known sea cucumber as an example. The reason why sea cucumber is called tonic is mainly because it is rich in collagen and sea cucumber polysaccharide. Collagen is not high quality protein. If the body contains enough vitamin C and some amino acids, it can be synthesized by itself.
Polysaccharide in sea cucumber is really valuable, which has therapeutic effects such as lowering blood sugar, lowering blood pressure and enhancing immunity.
Even if you know exactly that Lycium barbarum has the function of lowering blood sugar, you should not blindly overeat it. Because the content of polysaccharide active substances in Lycium barbarum is not as much as you think, and the amount of Lycium barbarum eaten in one day is limited, it is a bit whimsical to eat Lycium barbarum to lower blood sugar.
Moreover, many doctors have proved that Lycium barbarum can only play an auxiliary role in treating diabetes. In order to really lower blood sugar, it is necessary to control the intake of fat and high-sugar foods through a balanced diet.
At this point, I also want to take this opportunity to extend a knowledge point to you or help you correct a misunderstanding. Diabetes is also classified as a chronic disease, so sugar friends should not have too many misunderstandings, especially in diet, because eating the wrong food may be life-threatening. So they directly reject some foods that are easy to raise blood sugar.
In fact, for diabetics, nothing is completely inedible, like some foods with high sugar content. Eating just a little will directly raise blood sugar? So, it's a matter of intake.
In addition, some foods are not sweet or even sour, and the sugar content is not necessarily low, such as hawthorn is a common example. Therefore, to really judge whether a food is suitable for diabetics, we should not only look at whether it tastes sweet or not, but also look at its GI and GL values.
GI value refers to the blood sugar index, which is equal to the ratio of the speed of blood sugar increase caused by food intake of carbohydrates (sugar) to the speed of blood sugar increase caused by intake of the same amount of glucose (generally calculated by 50g glucose). This ratio can be used to measure the speed of blood sugar change caused by food.
It can be said that the higher the GI value, the faster the blood sugar rises. If the GI value is between 55 and 70, it belongs to medium GI food; If it exceeds 70, it belongs to high GI food; If it is lower than 55, it belongs to low GI food. For diabetic patients, it is suggested to eat low GI food, and eat less or no high and medium GI food.
However, it is not rigorous to judge the influence of food on blood sugar changes only by GI value. Take watermelon as an example, its GI value is 75, which belongs to high GI food, but because it contains less carbohydrates, moderate consumption will not have a great impact on blood sugar.
In this case, we will introduce GL value. The calculation formula of GL is: GL = GIX carbohydrate content in food/100, which can be obtained from the formula. GL value represents GI value and carbohydrate content in food to comprehensively evaluate the effect of food on blood sugar. Therefore, foods with low G 1 and low GL value are more suitable for diabetic patients, because they have the least influence on the fluctuation of blood sugar level.
After we know the GI and GL values, you may be anxious to ask the GI and GL values of Lycium barbarum. The GI value of Lycium barbarum is lower than 55, which belongs to low GI food, and the GL value of Lycium barbarum is not high. Therefore, it is a friendly food for diabetics. Therefore, diabetics can use medlar to soak in water, so don't worry too much.
So, who is not suitable for eating medlar?
It is not recommended that people with overheated constitution eat more medlar.
According to records, Lycium barbarum is flat and warm, which is suitable for most people to eat. However, it is difficult for some people to avoid internal heat caused by cold air outside. To put it bluntly, they caught a cold. If this is the case, it is recommended that such people avoid eating Lycium barbarum, otherwise it is likely to lead to aggravated symptoms.
Not suitable for people with weak digestive function.
Generally speaking, people with weak spleen and stomach will also be accompanied by poor gastrointestinal absorption function. However, people with weak spleen and stomach have accumulated cold in their own bodies. If they continue to eat Lycium barbarum, it will easily lead to more severe stagnation of cold phlegm in the spleen and stomach, and then indigestion will occur.
People with yin deficiency constitution can't eat medlar either.
People with yin deficiency constitution often show emaciation, flushing on cheeks, fever in hands and feet, sweating, irritability, dry mouth, dry hair and skin, and so on. Lycium barbarum is hot Eating too much will make your body hotter and have adverse consequences.
In a word, Lycium barbarum is a relatively healthy food, which not only contains many nutrients, but also has antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anticancer activities. Moreover, many studies have found that eating Lycium barbarum may reduce the incidence of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity. However, when eating, you must remember the right amount.
References:
Long-term dietary flavonoid intake and subjective cognition decline in American men and women. Neurology Sep 202 1, 97 (10) e1041-e1056
Wang Zichao. The origin of Lycium ruthenicum and the hypoglycemic mechanism of anthocyanins [D]. Shaanxi Normal University, 2020.
, Chen,,, Gong,. Research progress on biological activity and mechanism of Lycium barbarum polysaccharide [J]. Food Science, 202 1, 42(05):349-359.
James Zhou, Ma Jianping, Tianhao, Guo Tao. Research progress on chemical constituents and biological activities of Lycium barbarum [J]. China Food Industry, 2019 (11): 74-77.