Monday, 06 September 2010
Bitter Melon.
Friday, 12 February 2010

A cucumber with bumpy skin. That's how some people describe a bitter melon.

Okay. The reason why I am going to tackle this (we call it "ampalaya" in Filipino) is simply because Carlos asked me one time if I know the benefits of having bitter melon on my diet. So now I am going to include it in my research (together with glucomannan). Plus, Kuya M, fresh from the Philippines, last night, have mentioned that his sugar level went up and he has to lessen his rice-intake now (and yes, I thought of bitter melon again!).

I used to hate eating "ampalaya" when I was a kid (uhh.. tell me some kids who like it, anyway). In fact, I hate eating vegetables when I was a kid. And bitter melon is, in fact, a member of the squash family (remember, gourd?). I do not know when the transition was, I do not know when I started to like eating vegetables but my guess was maybe it was during those times when I was planting camote (sweet potato) in school and in our backyard and having camote tops as our viand (sometimes with tomatoes and eggplants, like a salad, only the dressing would be fish sauce). I miss those days. Now, just imagining it, makes my mouth watery.

Anyways, going back to the ugly green bitter gourd... It is mostly used in Asian and Indian cooking and its been known for many years now that it has benefit to diabetes.

According to Zhion.com:

Components of bitter melon extract appear to have structural similarities to animal insulin. Bitter melon has been shown to have anti-viral and anti-neoplastic activities.

Boiled bitter melon extracts show anti-oxidant activities. Extracts from bitter melon (Momordica charantia, Cucurbitaceae) showed a significant difference in the free radical scavenging activity  between the extract obtained by using  cold maceration and that prepared by boiling the plant in the solvent under  reflux, suggesting the chemical composition of the plant changed during the  heating process, leading to an increase in the amount of antioxidant components.

The results of another study have clearly shown that that bitter melon, especially Koimidori variety, exhibited a potent liver triglyceride-lowering activity.
And according to Juicing-for-Health.com:

Bitter gourds are very low in calories but dense with precious nutrients.  It is an excellent source of vitamins B1, B2, and B3, C, magnesium, folic acid, zinc, phosphorus, manganese, and has high dietary fiber.  It is rich in iron, contains twice the beta-carotene of broccoli, twice the calcium of spinach, and twice the potassium of a banana.

Bitter melon contains a unique phyto-constituent that has been confirmed to have a hypoglycemic effect called charantin.  There is also another insulin-like compound known as polypeptide P which have been suggested as insulin replacement in some diabetic patients.

Not to mention, I used to squeeze some juice from the bitter melon tops and take it as my cough medicine. I'd do that again if only we have fresh tops here. But as we all know, we don't have any (only the frozen ones). Believe me, I am addicted to it. But of course, everything has to be taken moderately as it has side effects, too. Two ounces or two bitter melon a day should be enough.

'Nuff said!

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