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Review
. 2023 Nov 30;24(23):16977.
doi: 10.3390/ijms242316977.

Natural Functional Beverages as an Approach to Manage Diabetes

Filomena Carvalho  1 , Radhia Aitfella Lahlou  1 , Paula Pires  1 , Manuel Salgado  1 , Luís R Silva  1   2   3
Affiliations
Review

Natural Functional Beverages as an Approach to Manage Diabetes

Filomena Carvalho et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

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.

Keywords: anti-diabetic activity; diabetes mellitus; fruits; functional beverages; phenolic compounds; vegetables.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(A) Worldwide market of some selected popular beverages in 2019 [48]; (B) global beverage consumption forecast (2021) [49].
Figure 2
Figure 2
In vitro and in vivo diabetic effects of natural functional beverages. (Created in BioRender.com).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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