Why silkworms eat mulberry leaves (and why you should too!)
Looking for a natural way to supplement your health?
Mulberry leaves can help.
Silkworms have a diet that is completely made up of mulberry leaves. Packed full of vitamins, minerals and amino acids, these leaves provide all the nutrients silkworms need.
There’s no need for silkworms to drink water because these fresh leaves contain enough hydration too.
Despite being known as silkworm fodder, mulberry leaves have several health benefits for you too.
Drunk as a tea or mixed into your food as a powdered extract, here are some of the benefits of mulberry leaves can give you.
Benefit #1 – Managing Diabetes
Containing a compound called maronoline that’s found nowhere else in nature, mulberry leaves lower your absorption of sugar.
They limit the conversion of complex carbohydrates and starches into sugars into the bloodstream. Mulberry leaves therefore provide a unique and completely natural solution.
According to the naturotherapy and nutrition experts at Expect Me, a natural approach will be more holistic in managing diabetes. “Natural remedies such as mulberry leaves have been used for thousands of years in Chinese medicine. Something like type two diabetes or being pre-diabetic would benefit from a natural and lifestyle approach because it’s a long-term solution as opposed to medicating which is only short-term.”
Regularly including mulberry leaves in your food or drink helps you regulate your blood sugar levels through your diet.
This reduction in sugar absorption by the bloodstream has also made mulberry leaves a natural aid to weight loss, too.
Benefit #2 – A Natural Supplement
As the sole food for silkworms, it’s not hard to believe that mulberry leaves are high in a variety of nutrients that help support a healthy diet.
Some of the ways mulberry leaves are a natural supplement include:
- Vitamin A for improved skin and eye health
- Vitamin B2 for increased blood health and circulation
- Vitamin C for immunity properties
- Amino acids to boost metabolism
- Calcium, iron and zinc for added bone health
These varieties of vitamins and minerals are naturally occurring in mulberry leaves. Making them a natural means of supplementing any gaps you may have with current nutritional intake.
For the cooking professionals at Pearl’s Creations, it’s important to get a good spread of your vitamins and minerals. “Not getting enough of a single mineral can have drastic effects on your overall health and even be the start of more serious conditions. Trying to incorporate foods that contain numerous vital nutrients when cooking or baking at home such as mulberry leaves will make it easier to cover your nutritional needs.”
Mulberry leaves as opposed to traditional tablet supplements will prove to be a more natural way to round out your nutritional needs.
Benefit #3 – Lowering Cholesterol
High in antioxidants, mulberry leaf consumption can reduce your risk of heart disease and stroke.
Mulberry leaves limit the building up of plaque and oxidation of bad cholesterol in arteries. Resulting in mulberry leaf extracts in fact lowering your cholesterol and blood pressure.
Naturally lowering your cholesterol through your diet is a simple, effective and reliable way to improve your overall heart health.
Mulberry leaves, among other cholesterol lowering foods will form a well-rounded method to lowering your cholesterol. As opposed to just focusing on one or two foods to do the job.
Benefit #4 – General Wellbeing
Naturally produced by the body in low amounts, mulberry leaves contain gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA) which have a variety of effects on your mood, sleep and overall health.
Supplementing the amount of GABA in your body through including mulberry leaves in your diet will prove useful. It can provide a variety different reasons in regards to your well being.
According to the experts at Psychology Today, having the right amounts of GABA can reduce anxiety levels, soothe insomnia and help relieve muscle tension or pain.
Mulberry leaves are naturally caffeine free and in tea form are a soothing and delicious way of prioritising your well being.