Does bitter melon help lower blood sugar levels for pre-diabetic and diabetic people? No, that's not true: The evidence supporting this claim circulating on social media remains inconclusive. Most studies on bitter melon and its benefits in lowering blood sugar levels concluded that further research is needed.
The claim appeared in a video on TikTok posted on July 5, 2024 (archived here), with the caption (translated from Thai to English by Lead Stories staff):
A vegetable that helps lower blood sugar levels. Please share for the public benefit. Click here to contact the professor. Want to lose weight, type your weight and height in the comment and follow so I can respond.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Tue Jul 23 14:52:26 2024 UTC)
In the video, the narrator who called himself "Professor Suchart" talked about a type of vegetable that could lower blood sugar levels -- bitter melon. He recommended eating it every day, boiled and with chili paste. Another alternative was to boil it and make it a juice, according to the video.
He said "anyone who has a hot flash, is itching on the skin and has frequent urination at night," -- they are starting to be diabetic or are already diabetic -- are encouraged to try.
Previous research on the benefits of bitter melon confirmed its potential use as antidiabetics. For example, a 2018 study published in Pathophysiology (archived here) found the possible bioactive compounds responsible for its antidiabetic properties and said the use of this plant in folk medicine is justified.
Another study in 2023 (archived here) was conducted to test bitter melon's efficacy and safety in Korean prediabetes participants and found that bitter melon also exhibits glucose-lowering effects. However, there were some limitations with the study including how the participants were not diabetic and how their blood glucose wasn't high enough to observe the effect of 12 weeks of bitter melon extract administration. The study concluded:
In the future, a long-term cohort study should be performed to confirm the prophylactic effects of bitter melon in diabetes, especially prediabetes.
A 2014 study (archived here) also found that "bitter melon supplementation compared with no treatment did not show significant glycemic improvements on either A1c or FPG." This study found that the evidence regarding the use of the vegetable on glycemic control in patients is inconclusive and that additional evidence in a larger sample of patients over a longer time duration is needed.
