Ever since I was little, my grandma has cooked her famous dish of bitter melon for my family. She would bring out a plate containing thin slices of bitter melon and we would eat it with a side of white rice. Back then, I had never heard of bitter melon because we referred to it solely as “kǔ guā” (which means bitter melon in Chinese). Until I was in high school, I assumed kǔ guā was something only my grandma served as a dish, because I had never seen it offered in restaurants. I assumed it was because nobody really liked the bitterness that accompanies the taste of my grandma’s flavoring. Little did I know, bitter melon is not only a prominent dish in my household, but also all over the world.

Bitter melon is actually not a vegetable, it’s a fruit. It grows in the tropics of South America, Asia, the Caribbean, and Africa. Incorporated in supplements or as a tea, there are several ways to benefit from this unique fruit (including ways that do not include direct ingestion).

 

Although the taste of bitter melon deters some people from trying it, ingesting it is the most prominent way to potentially benefit blood sugar levels, a healthy metabolism, and weight management. Famous for its effects on obesity and diabetes (type II), studies show that bitter melon includes compounds that “increased fatty acid oxidation, which ultimately facilitates weight reduction.” Charantin, polypeptide-p, vicine, and a few other compounds related to the fruit’s bitter taste allows it also to support blood sugar levels in the body. Additionally, bitter melon has been found to significantly help with the improvement of insulin sensitivity, exhibiting the same mechanism as glibenclamide (an anti-diabetes drug).

Two more options to incorporate bitter melon into your routine is through tea or supplements. Bitter melon tea includes adding the entire fruit or just parts of it into a juicer and mixing it with other fruits and vegetables. Bitter melon supplements can be found on Amazon, at GNC, or even at your local drugstore. However, there are no established guidelines for a correct dosage of bitter melon pertaining to capsules, so make sure to read the warnings before consumption.

There are dozens of bitter melon recipes on the internet and many are incredibly appetizing once you get used to the taste. And with the abundance of essential components that this fruit contains, you can understand why people tend to overlook the bitter taste to receive its benefits (including me!).