Dragon fruit versus soybean: impact on blood glucose of diabetic patients

Introduction: Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is a serious problem with a sharp increase in incidence. DM can attack almost all groups of people around the world. The number of DM sufferers continues to increase from year to year because of today's human lifestyle which tends to rarely move and unhealthy eating patterns. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of giving soy milk and red dragon fruit on fasting blood glucose levels in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients. Methods: The type of research used was quasy experiment with pre-test-post-test design with two group comparison treatment. The research subjects were Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus sufferers in the working area of the Guguk Panjang Health Center in Bukittinggi City with a total sample of 54 people, divided into an intervention group of 18 who were given 200 grams of red dragon fruit for 7 days, 18 were given 50 grams of soy milk dissolved in 250 ml of water and 18 people in the control group. Results: The results showed that the P-value <0.05 (P=0.035) and the t-value (2.198) ≥ t-table (2.110), meaning that there is an effect of giving soy milk on blood glucose levels in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus sufferers. There is an effect of giving red dragon fruit on fasting blood sugar levels and blood pressure where the p value was obtained for fasting sugar levels P = 0.018 (p <0.05) and the t count (2.198) was greater than t table (2.11). The results of the ANOVA test showed that the effectiveness of giving red dragon fruit was more effective with an average decrease in blood sugar of 32.56, compared to the effectiveness of giving soy milk with an average decrease in blood sugar of 22.50. Conclusions: In conclusion, red dragon fruit is more effective in lowering blood sugar levels and blood pressure in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients with hypertension, because the content of red dragon fruit can repair damaged pancreatic cells.