FIT WebQoof: Can Eating 1kg Mango, 1 Dozen Bananas Cure Diabetes?

Can diabetes be reversed? Can it be cured by eating only large amounts of fruits? Fact-check of a viral video.

The Claim

“If you’re a diabetes patient and you eat 1kg mango or 1 dozen banana or as many grapes as you want, in a few days, you’ll not remain a diabetes patient,” says a man claiming to be a doctor. In a viral video, Dr Biswaroop Roy Chowdhury can be seen addressing a large crowd in an auditorium offering a cure for diabetes and “calling out the scam of medical industry.”

He also does a live experiment to prove his claim of fruits reversing diabetes in just a short time. This is where he mixes fructose with blood and displays how blood sugar level drops.

But how much of this is true? Is it really this easy to cure a chronic disease like diabetes? Yes and no.

First of All, Can Diabetes Be Reversed?

In cases of pre diabetes and, in some early or mild cases of type 2 diabetes, there can be a reversal. Research is ongoing in this field. Not all cases of this chronic disease can be reversed. It can be managed, controlled and prevented, yes.

But there’s no magic formula to cure diabetes overnight. And no one thing can make it happen, it has to be an overall lifestyle change. Diet control and following a healthy lifestyle can prevent or reverse mild cases of not just diabetes, but also cholesterol and heart problems, says Dr Sujeet Jha, Director, Endocrinology, Diabetes & Obesity, Max Hospital.

There have been studies which say that radical low-calorie diet change can reverse type 2 diabetes.

However, if you’ve had diabetes for say 5 years, you can’t just eat fruits and reverse it.

Can Eating Fruits Cure Diabetes?

Having seen the viral video, Jha says:

First, these kind of generalised and sensationalist messages are criminally negligent. Yes, diabetes can be reversed by diet control, having fruits and vegetables etc. But it has to be closely monitored and has to be done for a long period. Just having 1kg mangoes or a lot of fruits, without paying attention to the rest of your diet and lifestyle will not help. It can, in fact, be harmful.

He adds that doing a live experiment like that to create a shock value for the audience doesn’t prove anything. Scientific research is a systematic process which is done over a long period of time to establish any cause and effect.

“Mixing two things and saying, look, this is how diabetes can be cured, is just a stage act.”

Jha

The self-proclaimed well-wisher of the public, Biswaroop says that “our gain from spreading this truth will be the loss of the companies who sell insulin products.”

He identifies himself as an author of several books and has done a lot of these seminars and YouTube videos, which are attended and watched by thousands of people.

Jha warns that spreading such sensationalist messages and promising cures without caveats can be harmful if followed by people without professional consultation.

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