TotalHealth Magazine

Wild Bitter Melon Extract (Glycostat®) A full spectrum extract that is stable with a light color and mild aroma. Most bitter melon extracts darken with age and develop harsh aromas. (Image courtesy of Glykon Technologies Group, LLC.)

Bitter melon grows in the tropical and subtropical areas of the East Africa, Asia, India, South America and the Caribbean. It is used traditionally as both food and medicine in all of these areas. Momordica charantia goes by many names and is known as bitter melon, bitter gourd, balsam pear, karela, and pare. Most Westerners will identify bitter melon as looking like a pale green or green cucumber with warts. Indian varieties may be whitish to gray-green, as well. Commercial cultivars can range up to a foot or more in length, whereas wild bitter melon varieties may measure only an inch or so, more than making up for their small size with greater bitterness and intense flavor. The gourd becomes more bitter as it ripens. As a food, unripe bitter melon is used fresh in salads, cooked into soups and curries, employed as a flavoring for eggs, meat and so forth.

Obesity has gone prime time. We Find evidence of its presence where ever we look: in every neighborhood, every mall, every school and every workplace. Hardly a day goes by without the news reporting on some aspect of the looming obesity crisis. However, the epidemic is not confined to just the wealthy developed world. Even desperately poor countries such as Nigeria and Uganda are wrestling with the dilemma of obesity. China, which was once one of the world’s leanest countries, is not immune. In fact, it has one of the fastest-growing obesity rates in the world and one quarter of its urban youth is presently overweight. It is projected that by 2015, 200 million Chinese will be not just obese, but morbidly obese. The looming obesity epidemic is sending chills through the global community. Worldwide, more than 1.3 billion people are overweight, whereas only 800 million are underweight—and these statistics are diverging rapidly.