03 Jun 2016
What Is Okra And 6 Benefits Of Adding The Medicinal Vegetable To Your Diet
The beginning of September signals that fall is on its way, along with leaves, and... okra? The exotic medicinal and culinary vegetable (available year-round), is best to get in early fall when crops in Southern states reach their peak. Typically, okra is used as a thickening agent in soups like gumbo because of its ooey-gooey texture, but it can double as a nutritional powerhouse filled with vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients that provide an array of health benefits from treating diabetes to preventing kidney disease.
The exotic medicinal and culinary vegetable (available year-round), is best to get in early fall when crops in Southern states reach their peak. Typically, okra is used as a thickening agent in soups like gumbo because of its ooey-gooey texture, but it can double as a nutritional powerhouse filled with vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients that provide an array of health benefits from treating diabetes to preventing kidney disease.
A single cup of raw okra has a little over 30 calories, about 3 grams of dietary fiber, 2 grams of protein, 7.6 grams carbohydrates, 0.1 grams of fat, 21 milligrams of vitamin C, around 88 micrograms of folate, and 57 milligrams of magnesium. This makes okra a nutrition hero and a very available food when it comes to our health.
LOWERS CHOLESTEROL
Okra not only promotes good digestive health, but also good cholesterol levels due to its high fiber content. Soluble fiber can be dissolved in water, which means that it breaks down in the digestive tract. There, it also binds to cholesterol in other foods so that it can be excreted along with other wastes. In turn, total cholesterol levels plummet, according to the Harvard Health Publications. Okra also helps to lower cholesterol by replacing all the foods you eat with high fat and cholesterol levels — okra contains no cholesterol and very little fat. Most fruits and vegetables are low in saturated fat which will help to keep your cholesterol level under control.
According to a study published in 2005 in the Jilin Medical Journal, okra showed positive effects on nephropathy, or kidney disease. A study published in the Journal of Pharmacy & Bioallied Sciences found that okra extracts could protect against diabetes. When rats with diabetes were given okra, they saw a decrease in their blood sugar levels and a normalization of their lipid profile levels. Multiple in vitro and in vivo studies have found okra to be a major blood glucose-lowering food — it contains large amounts of soluble dietary fibre — which is why it has been used traditionally as an alternative treatment for diabetes.
Source from Medical Daily
