Quinoa is a highly nutritious whole grain food rich in proteins, vitamins, minerals and fiber. It is now widely used to control diabetes and weight reduction by those who know its usefulness.
Quinoa is native to South America and comes in more than 100 different varieties in brown, black and white colors. Taste of white grain quinoa is the easiest one to get used to if you have never consumed it before. You can add brown and black varieties in your cooking later as you develop taste for it.
Table of Contents
- Why Quinoa is Good for Diabetes?
- Can Quinoa Really Control Blood Sugar Levels?
- How to Use Quinoa for Diabetes?
- Other Tips and Precautions
Why Quinoa is Good for Diabetes?
Quinoa has a low glycemic index and is gluten free. These aspects of quinoa makes it one of the best grains for diabetes even for those people who have gluten intolerance.
It is also one of the grains with the highest protein levels. The amino acids and high fiber contents in quinoa helps in better metabolism and sugar control. The sugar produced by consumption of quinoa is slowly absorbed by the blood. So it does not get blood sugar spikes as some of the highly refined grains such as white wheat flour would give.
Quinoa also contains an antioxidant called quercetin which is highly beneficial in diabetes type 2.
Can Quinoa Really Control Blood Sugar Levels?
Although not much research has been done on quinoa for diabetes, current limited research indicates its usefulness in controlling blood sugar levels and diabetes.
- According to a study conducted on rats on a high Fructose diet indicated reduction of blood sugar levels by 10% after addition of quinoa in their diet. The total cholesterol level was down by 26% and triglycerides level by 11%.
- Another study published in the August 2009 issue of Journal of Medicinal Foods indicated use of quinoa, purple corn and some legumes are good for diabetes type 2.
- Quinoa helps to control appetite level by giving greater degree of satiation as compared to other grains. This helps in weight reduction which has direct impact on reduction of blood sugar levels.
How to Use Quinoa for Diabetes?
Since quinoa is a highly nutritious grain with low glycemic index, it certainly is a great source to control blood sugar levels particularly if it is consumed in the right manner.
Here are some ways in which quinoa can be very useful for your diabetic control.
- Add quinoa to salads.
- Cook in quinoa dishes similar to the rice dishes you are used to prepare. Just replace rice with quinoa. That is it. So now you have a large variety of your favourite dishes. Just remember that cooking time for quinoa and rice are different. You will learn it by experience.
- Always rinse quinoa multiple times before cooking. This will remove the coating of saponin which makes the dish bitter and soapy. You can soak quinoa for an hour and rinse for complete removal of saponin.
- One of the simplest ways to cook quinoa is to add one cup of quinoa to 2 cups of water and cook it for 20 minutes. You quinoa dishes is ready to eat with cooked vegetables or meat.
- You can cook quinoa in your rice cooker as you would have cooked rice.
Other Tips and Precautions
Cinema is generally a very safe grain and if you use it with certain precautions then you can get the desired results of blood sugar control and weight reduction.
- Remove external quoting by rinsing multiple times in water. Quinoa seeds has coating of a bitter chemical compound called saponin which must be removed before consuming it.
- Always buy the grains of kinnova cleaned up and free of saponin. Look at the labels to confirm it. Rinse it before use anyway.
- Do not eat too much of quinoa as it is still a carbohydrate and you perhaps already understand the importance of consuming low carbohydrate diet for diabetes control.
Occasionally replacing other food grains with quinoa will certainly help in many ways than just diabetes.If weight loss is your aim then also it will help.