Effect of date palm sugar on metabolic disorders in experimental diabetic rats

Diabetes is a metabolic disease with multifactorial causes. There are two types of diabetes in humans: type-1 diabetes, which occurs when the immune system attacks and eliminates insulin secreting cells, and type-2 diabetes, which can be triggered by a variety of factors, the most important being lifestyle, but can also be caused by various genotypes. Date palm sugar (DPS) is nutritive with good potential in treating diabetes due to the presence of polyphenols that have strong antioxidant properties. We assess various parameters in normal rats, sugar-treated rats and diabetes-induced rats, including body weight, food intake, water intake, blood glucose level, insulin level, insulin resistance, lipid profile, atherogenic index, adiponectin, resistin and TNF-alpha. The study results reveal that DPS contributes to significant improvement in diabetic rats. Thus, DPS is a beneficial substitute compared to other sugars in treating diabetes.