Monkfruit and diabetes
Key Takeaways
Monkfruit is a melon that’s native to southern China. A dried, powdered form of monkfruit can be used as a sweetener.
Monkfruit is hundreds of times sweeter than sugar, but is sugar-free and contains no calories.
For people with diabetes, using monkfruit instead of sugar may help with blood sugar control, by avoiding the blood sugar spike associated with consuming sugar. However, we need more research to be sure about the effects of monkfruit on blood sugar control overall.
Monkfruit could help with weight loss, because it’s non-caloric. However, it’s common to consume extra food later to make up for the loss of sugary calories. Tracking food intake may help to prevent this from happening.
While using monkfruit instead of sugar may be beneficial, it’s not enough on its own to cause weight loss or control blood sugar. This should be viewed as just one part of a healthy lifestyle.
What is monkfruit?
Monkfruit (sometimes spelled monk fruit, and also known as luo han guo) is a small melon that’s native to southern China. A dried, powdered form of this fruit can be used as a sweetener. This monkfruit powder is itself often referred to simply as “monkfruit.”
Monkfruit is far sweeter than sugar. In fact, it’s hundreds of times as sweet as sucrose (ordinary table sugar). At the same time, monkfruit is sugar-free and contains no calories. It’s also a natural product, which many people prefer over artificial sweeteners. This has made it a very popular alternative to sugar, particularly for people with diabetes and for those who are trying to lose weight.
Is monkfruit sugar-free and suitable for people with diabetes?
Although the fruit itself does contain some sugars, these are usually separated out during processing. Because of this, monkfruit powder is generally a sugar-free sweetener, which makes it very useful for people with diabetes. Because monkfruit doesn’t cause a spike in blood sugar, replacing sugar with monkfruit could help with overall blood sugar control.
In a study of a rat model of diabetes, the rats who ate food sweetened with monkfruit had significantly improved blood sugar control compared with those who ate food sweetened with sucrose (ordinary table sugar). They also showed improvements in their kidney and liver function.
Although results like these are encouraging, we will need more studies in humans to make sure that monkfruit has similar effects in humans. In fact, not all studies have found that artificial sweeteners are beneficial for people with diabetes. Some studies have shown that consuming high levels of other artificial sweeteners (such as aspartame and saccharin) can change the balance of microbes in the digestive tract, which in turn leads to impaired glucose tolerance. While consuming sugar can certainly lead to health problems in people with diabetes, we can’t assume that consuming artificial sweeteners will always be better.
All artificial sweeteners have different effects, and we currently have no reason to believe that monkfruit causes any issues with the bacteria in the digestive tract. Still, we will need more research to be sure about the effects of this sweetener for people with diabetes. Although replacing some sugar with monkfruit is likely to be beneficial for blood sugar control, using very large amounts of monkfruit may not be advisable, until we have more research on its effects.
Monkfruit for weight loss
Although it’s sweet, monkfruit doesn’t contain any calories. This can make it a useful part of a weight loss plan.
When trying to lose weight, many people struggle against their desire for sweet foods and beverages. Sugar has a lot of calories, and consuming high levels of sugar can make it very difficult to lose weight. Research has consistently shown that those who consume the most sugar are significantly more likely to be overweight or obese than those who consume less.
One approach is to stop consuming sweet foods and beverages altogether. The brain will adapt over time, and the cravings for these sweets will lessen. However, this process takes a lot of willpower. A person who has started avoiding sweets will often find that they have a lot of “food noise” related to sweets, meaning that their brain is preoccupied with thoughts of the sweets that they can’t have.
Instead of giving up the sweets that they love, people can start using monkfruit to sweeten them instead. Because monkfruit doesn’t have any calories, this should lead to a decrease in overall calorie consumption, which in turn leads to weight loss.
Unfortunately, while some studies have shown that using artificial sweeteners instead of sugar leads to a decrease in calorie consumption, this effect has not been consistent in the research. In fact, some studies have found that consuming more artificial sweeteners is associated with an increased – not decreased – risk for obesity.
This is believed to be because when people consume less calories in the form of sugar, they often end up eating more to compensate, so that their overall calorie intake actually doesn’t decrease. It’s likely that careful lifestyle management, including tracking food intake, would help to prevent this from occurring.
What is erythritol?
Erythritol is a type of chemical known as a polyol. It’s a sweetener that contains no sugar and very few calories. Although it can be produced artificially, it’s also found naturally in many different foods.
Monkfruit naturally contains erythritol. In fact, many foods and beverages contain this substance, including fruits like grapes, watermelons, peaches, and pears, along with fermented foods like soy sauce, beer, sake, and cheese. Your body also makes its own erythritol – it’s produced through a certain metabolic pathway.
While monkfruit sweeteners will generally contain some natural erythritol, some manufacturers also add additional erythritol to their products. This is intended to give the overall product a sweetness level that’s more similar to that of sugar. Monkfruit is far sweeter than sugar, so it can’t be directly substituted for regular sugar. However, erythritol is actually a bit less sweet than sugar. By combining erythritol with monkfruit, a product can be created that has about the same sweetness as sugar, but is non-caloric and won’t raise blood sugar.
This allows for direct substitution of the monkfruit/erythritol combination product for sugar. For example, if you’d normally want one tablespoon of sugar in your coffee, you could put in one tablespoon of a product like this, and it would have about the same level of sweetness. By contrast, if you wanted to get a similar sweetness level from pure monkfruit, you’d have to put in a lot less than one tablespoon.
Some people prefer to use pure monkfruit, while others are willing to use a product that also contains added erythritol. If you prefer pure monkfruit, then you’ll need to check the label to ensure that the product you’re purchasing doesn’t have added erythritol.
Is monkfruit safe to consume?
There have been some potential safety concerns raised about erythritol. Recently, a study found that higher levels of erythritol in the blood were associated with a higher risk for heart attacks and strokes. Some experts believe that this means that consuming erythritol is unsafe. Because monkfruit contains erythritol, this could also mean that monkfruit is not safe.
However, other researchers believe that some people have higher levels of erythritol in their blood not because of consuming more of it, but rather because their bodies are making more of it. Higher levels of erythritol in the blood could simply be a marker of changes in the body’s metabolism that also raise the risks of heart attacks and strokes.
Right now, it’s not clear whether there’s a risk to health from consuming erythritol, although regulatory authorities in various countries (including the Singapore Food Authority) still generally recognize it as safe. In addition, consuming sugar as a sweetener has also been strongly associated with a number of serious health risks, so it’s important to put the potential risk of erythritol into perspective. Although there could be some health risks associated with erythritol and monkfruit, consuming sugar also appears to be unsafe.
Incorporating monkfruit into a healthy lifestyle plan
Overall, it’s important to remember that healthy weight loss and blood sugar control cannot be achieved simply by replacing sugar with monkfruit (or with any other artificial sweetener). It’s important to consider your lifestyle holistically. You’ll need to ensure that you’re eating a healthy diet overall, with appropriate caloric intake, enough nutrients, and minimal added salt and sugar. In addition, physical activity, stress management and sleep are both important.
Monkfruit can be a part of a healthy lifestyle, but is certainly not a replacement for an overall lifestyle plan. Support from health coaches can be helpful in developing a plan that will support good blood sugar control, a balanced diet, a healthy body weight, and your general quality of life.