Natural Functional Beverages as an Approach to Manage Diabetes

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease, commonly associated with unhealthy habits and obesity, and it is becoming a serious health issue worldwide. As a result, new approaches to treat diabetes are required, and a movement towards more natural approaches is emerging. Consuming fruit and vegetables is advised to prevent diabetes since they contain several bioactive compounds. A simple and effective strategy to include them in the diets of diabetic and obese people is through beverages. This review aims to report the anti-diabetic potentials of different vegetable and fruit beverages. These functional beverages demonstrated in vitro potential to inhibit α-glucosidase and α-amylase enzymes and to improve glucose uptake. In vivo, beverage consumption showed a reduction of blood glucose, increase of insulin tolerance, improvement of lipid profile, control of obesity, and reduction of oxidative stress. This suggests the potential of vegetable- and fruit-based functional beverages to be used as a natural innovative therapy for the management of diabetes.

α-Pinene, a Main Component of Pinus Essential Oils, Enhances the Expression of Insulin-Sensitive Glucose Transporter Type 4 in Murine Skeletal Muscle Cells

“…It has been demonstrated that a range of medicinal plants and fruit-and vegetablebased foods can intervene at critical stages of glucose metabolism and could potentially be used to develop new anti-diabetic medications [9,10]. There are multiple mechanisms underlying their anti-diabetic effects, including intervening with the insulin receptor signaling pathways, the translocation of GLUT4 receptors, the activation of PPAR-γ, or the reduction of intestinal glucose absorption [11].…”