If you are on a diabetic diet, fruit can be an important carbohydrate source that makes up part of your daily meals and snacks. The nutrients and phytochemicals in watermelon make it a healthy choice when you are craving something sweet. Of course, like all fruits, you will have to balance your watermelon consumption with other foods and not overdo it.
Diabetes
If you have type 2 diabetes, the most common form, your body either can't use insulin properly or doesn't produce enough of this hormone. Type 1 diabetes occurs when the body stops producing insulin entirely. Insulin controls the use of blood glucose, which is formed when the digestive tract breaks down carbohydrates. If the insulin system doesn't work right, glucose builds up in the blood.
Diabetic Diet
If you have diabetes, you need to watch what you eat to avoid wild fluctuations in blood sugar levels. No single diabetes diet exists, and different individuals follow different diet plans. Some common methods involve using a carbohydrate system to eat only a specific amount of carbohydrates per meal. This is an exchange system that groups foods and allows the diabetic to swap any item on the list for others on the same list, based on the glycemic index, which indicates how high and fast a food raises blood sugar in relation to other foods. In the past, diabetes diets often did not allow certain foods, but this is no longer the case. Most diabetics now allow themselves occasional sweet treats.
Watermelon and Diabetes
Because no foods are forbidden to diabetics, watermelon can be eaten on a diabetic diet. In some diabetic diets, you can generally have 20 to 60 g of carbohydrates at a single meal, along with some protein and healthy fats. One cup of watermelon contains about 11.5 g of carbohydrates, of which 9 g are sugars. For those following a glycemic index-based diet, the situation is a bit more complicated. The glycemic index of watermelon is high, about 74 on a scale of 100, but because watermelon contains a lot of water, it would take nearly 5 cups of watermelon to get a significant blood sugar reaction. Eating watermelon in moderation generally does not cause problems for diabetics.
Watermelon Nutrition
In addition to watermelon being a safe addition to a diabetic diet, it also can be a nutritious one. Watermelon has only 46 calories per cup and less than 1 g of fat. Watermelon supplies the vitamins thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, folate and vitamins C, B6 and A. Minerals in watermelon include calcium, potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, manganese, copper, selenium and fluoride. Watermelon is also high in the phytochemicals beta-carotene, which boosts eye health, and lycopene, which may help protect against cancer.
