Consuming bitter gourd or karela is found with amazing health benefits. Its taste is bitter. Its bitterness helps in recovering from inflammatory conditions and strengthens the immune system. It’s been growing for the last thousand years in the Indian continent. Apart from India, other countries like China, Japan, Malaya, Thailand, East Africa, Panama, the Middle East and South America are where Karela is also grown. You will be uploaded with nutrients like iron, potassium, folate and Vitamin C with regular consumption.
Ayurvedic Profile of Karela or Bitter Melon (Bitter Gourd)
The Ayurvedic profile maintains information about Karela as per the taste, post-digestive conditions and energetic conditions (guna, virya and dosha).
Taste: Though bitter, it acts as an excellent blood cleanser. It helps in stimulating natural insulin.
Vipaka (post-digestion effect)
It does taste bitter even after the process of digestion occurs. It does make the body cool.
Guna: It is light and dry and does help in normalizing kapha dosha and reducing the moisture from the body.
Virya: It is anti-inflammatory and helps in cooling irritating conditions.
Potency: It does help in balancing the pitta and kapha doshas. It helps in cooling the body.
Let’s find out how far Karela is successful in providing different health benefits.
Antidiabetic effect of Karela
It would have different antioxidant and anti-sugar properties effect on the body of any person with its natural insulin. It would help in balancing the rising sugar levels in the body with its fruit pulp and seed. It would help in the release of insulin which will enable better blood sugar management. The presence of bioactive chemicals in the karela fruit like glycoside, charantin and polypeptide-P increases sugar uptake and appropriate utilization of glycogen, liver, fat and muscle cells.
Detoxifying effects of Karela
The compounds present in karela enrich the body with antioxidants and boost the body’s defense mechanism. It is the effect of phenolic compounds in the karela that helps in managing cholesterol, blood pressure and related cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Further research will help in understanding how far karela can act in the process of detoxification.
May Help Fight Cancer
Studies have shown that Karela or Bitter Melon may help stop the growth and spread of cancerous cells in the breast cancer patients. The presence of active proteins and steroids in the fruits, leaves, stems and seeds of karela stimulates anti-cancer activity. It becomes easy for the doctor to attend to the patient. It aids in keeping away the worms in the stomach, releasing them from pain, and managing hemorrhoids and rashes.
Excels in Weight Management
It has been that the rise in the weight of the body is the result of excess fats and carbohydrates. High in fiber and less carbohydrates and fats in karela would stimulate active weight loss and weight management plans. It will make your body capable enough to manage with fewer calories.
Immune System Support
As there is an abundance of Vitamin C, Vitamin A, Calcium, Iron, Riboflavin, Niacin and Folate in Karela, your health will be nourished with such nutrients and help you gain stamina to ward off diseases and infections. You will naturally bos a strong immune system.
Revitalizes Skin
By consuming karela juice or adding it to any curry recipe or having it in the form of fry, you will be able to gain skin free from pimples, acne and any form of rash. You can also apply karela with other ingredients like tulsi and neem with milk and allow it to retain for 15 to 20 minutes. It acts as an active cleanser for the blood and thus frees the skin from any marks and helps to add glow to the skin.
Has Anti-aging Properties
It is high in zinc and boosts the regularity of reproductive hormones in men and women. It balances irregularities in periods by reducing stress and anxiety. It will thus impact by delaying the aging process. Drinking bitter gourd juice will control premature aging and fine lines. Sleeplessness is another reason for premature aging. But consuming karela would stimulate the sleep cycle and thus help in improving your quality of sleep.
Heals Wounds
It helps recover from any kind of wound by stopping the flow of blood and managing clotting. It would stop the spreading of any disease, stop the formation of bones and aid in the healing of wounds.
Cleanses Liver
With antioxidant properties in the karela fruit, one finds it easy to cleanse the liver . it nourishes the liver with nutrients to support the wellness of the person. It removes the toxins from the body and thus makes the liver active.
Great for Eyes
It is the richness in Vitamin A, Beta carotene and daily consumption of karela juice that would lead to control of any eye-related issues like cataracts and macular degeneration, etc. Children who undergo the problem of near-blindness at a tender age must consume karela to stop further damage to the eye vision.
Overall Therapeutic uses of Karela:
- A blood purifier
- Natural insulin producer.
- Improve the diarrhea conditions.
- Attends to skin infections and respiratory problems.
3 Most Popular and Healthy Karela (Bitter Gourd) Recipes
Karela Juice
It is easy to prepare Karela juice by using ginger, kala namak, lemon juice and salt. Make sure that you have removed the seeds from the karela vegetable and then you have chopped the vegetable into pieces.
You can drink it on an empty stomach in the morning regularly to balance your blood sugar levels.
Karela Sabzi
After cleaning the karela vegetable, you can cut it off into a few pieces and heat oil in the kadhai and it along with onions, salt, turmeric, garam masala, coriander powder, red chili powder and blend them properly. To experience better taste, you can also use amchur powder. It is another recipe with all forms of goodness and which helps in balancing high blood sugar levels. It will help in maintaining healthy cholesterol and improving heart health.
Steamed Karela
Preparing this particular Karela dish is easy and useful for your health. It will serve as an antidiabetic snack, it will help in maintaining healthy weight loss and improving heart function. To prepare this dish, you require a few bitter gourds and you need to slice these vegetables in between, and remove the seeds from such vegetables. Use salt and turmeric powder to rub all the bitter gourds or karela. You can slit all the bitter gourds and Add cumin, coriander and other dry-roasted ground spices including black pepper into oil along with peeled-off skins and seeds of 7 to 8 bitter gourds and fry them.
In the next step, you will be putting a whole mixture of spices, seeds and peeled-off skins into the bitter gourds and steaming them for 15 to 20 minutes.
In the next step, you can have them in your meal.
Karela in Ayurvedic medicine
You can use Ayush 82 Sugar Tablets Aadved daily which are made from karela seed extracts. There are other ingredients used in the tablets which are mango seeds, jamun seed, gudmar and Sudh Shilajit. Ayush 82 tablets are available in pack of 3 boxes containing 540 tablets for full course of 3 months. It comes with a price tag of ₹2700. At ₹5/tablet, Ayush 82 is one of the most affordable medicines for sugar control in India.
You will get different benefits with such tablets and these benefits are:
- High blood sugar under control.
- The rise in natural production of insulin.
- Increase in uptake of sugar by the cells.
- Healthy gut.
- Improvement in bowel movement.
- Effective weight loss.
You can have two tablets two times a day before or after the meal.
Conclusion
Karela, a bitter gourd, offers numerous health benefits including antidiabetic effects, detoxification, cancer management, weight management, and immune system support. Its natural insulin helps balance blood sugar levels, antioxidants boost defense against cholesterol, blood pressure, and cardiovascular diseases, and inhibits breast cancer growth. Karela’s high fiber content stimulates weight loss and supports the immune system.