{"id":12655,"date":"2026-10-19T06:15:37","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T06:15:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.medkart.in\/blog\/?p=12655"},"modified":"2026-10-19T06:16:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T06:16:17","slug":"karela-bitter-gourd-benefits-nutrition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.medkart.in\/blog\/karela-bitter-gourd-benefits-nutrition\/","title":{"rendered":"Karela (Bitter Gourd): Benefits, Nutrition, Blood Sugar and Side Effects"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>\n.entry-content a:not([href*=\"medkart.in\"]) > span {\n    vertical-align: super !important;\n    font-size: 85% !important;\n    line-height: 0 !important;\n}\n<\/style>\n<style>\n.entry-content h2,\n.entry-content h3,\n.entry-content h4 {\n    white-space: nowrap !important;\n}\n<\/style>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Karela is the Indian name for the fruit of Momordica charantia, a plant also called bitter gourd and bitter melon. The unripe fruit is cooked as a vegetable, crushed into juice, dried into powder, and sold in capsules.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Most of the interest in karela is about blood sugar. That interest is old, and the clinical evidence behind it is thinner than the reputation suggests. This article sets out what the retrieved reviews say, what 100 g of karela contains, and what side effects have been reported.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>What Are the Benefits and Uses of Karela?<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Karela is used both as a food and as a traditional preparation. A 2022 review in Frontiers in Pharmacology<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">[<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/articles\/PMC9152207\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">1<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> records that the unripe fruits are eaten as a vegetable, and that karela juice is made by crushing and straining them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The same review notes that capsules and tablets are sold containing powdered fruit or extracts, and that a decoction of the aerial parts is used in some places.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As a food, its measurable contributions are fibre and vitamin C. The claims made for it beyond that belong to the blood sugar section below.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>What Is the Nutritional Value of Karela?\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Karela is mostly water and very low in energy. The United States Department of Agriculture database<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">[<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/fdc.nal.usda.gov\/portal-data\/external\/168393\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> records these figures for raw bitter gourd pods.<\/span><\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Nutrient<\/b><\/td>\n<td><b>What 100 g of raw karela provides<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Energy<\/b><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Raw pods provide 17 kcal, or 71 kJ, per 100 g.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Water<\/b><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Water makes up 94 g of every 100 g.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Carbohydrate<\/b><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Carbohydrate by difference is 3.7 g per 100 g.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Fibre<\/b><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Total dietary fibre is 2.8 g per 100 g.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Protein<\/b><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Protein is 1 g per 100 g.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Fat<\/b><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Total fat is 0.17 g per 100 g.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Vitamin C<\/b><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Vitamin C is 84 mg per 100 g.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Folate<\/b><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Total folate is 72 micrograms per 100 g.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Potassium<\/b><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Potassium is 296 mg per 100 g.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Those figures come from a United States database rather than an Indian one. The ICMR-NIN Indian Food Composition Tables were sought for this article and could not be read, because the published file carries no extractable text.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>What Does Karela Contain That Has Been Studied?<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Three compounds account for most of the research interest. The Frontiers in Pharmacology review names charantin, a mixture of two sterol glucosides, and vicine, a pyrimidine nucleoside found in the seeds.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The third is polypeptide-p, which the review describes as a small protein reported to lower blood glucose in people with diabetes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Where a compound sits in the fruit matters for safety. The review reports a mildly toxic lectin in the seeds and in the outer rind.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The quantities are the awkward part. The review puts the charantin amounts used in research at the equivalent of 180 g to 315 g of fruit.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Does Karela Lower Blood Sugar?<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The retrieved reviews do not agree, and that disagreement is the honest answer.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A Cochrane review<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">[<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cochrane.org\/evidence\/CD007845_momordica-charantia-type-2-diabetes-mellitus\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">3<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> found four randomised trials covering 479 participants, each running up to three months. It reported no statistically significant difference in glycaemic control against placebo, and no significant change against glibenclamide or metformin either.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A 2024 meta-analysis in Frontiers in Nutrition<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">[<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/articles\/PMC10808600\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">4<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> pooled nine randomised trials covering 414 participants. Those trials ran for 4 to 16 weeks, and the review found no significant effect on fasting glucose or on HbA1c.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A 2025 meta-analysis in Metabolism Open<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">[<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/articles\/PMC12630335\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">5<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> reached a different figure. Across 25 trials it reported reductions in HbA1c and in fasting blood glucose that were statistically significant. It graded its own HbA1c finding as very low certainty and its glucose finding as low.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Two of the three found nothing, and the third rates its own confidence as low. That is not a basis for treating karela as a blood sugar medicine.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Also Read:<\/b> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.medkart.in\/blog\/normal-blood-sugar-levels-chart\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Understanding Blood Sugar Levels<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<h2><b>How Much Karela Has Been Used in Studies?\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is no established amount, and no retrieved source sets one for general use.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What the trials used varied enormously. The Metabolism Open review records interventions from 300 mg to 60,000 mg daily. They were given as powders, capsules, extracts and juices, over periods of 3 to 26 weeks.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That is a description of what researchers gave participants. It is not a quantity for anyone to take, and the two hundredfold spread is part of why the results are hard to read.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No retrieved source states a time of day for karela, or a duration for taking it outside a trial. This article therefore does not give one.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>What Side Effects Can Karela Cause?\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The reported effects are mainly digestive. The Cochrane review lists diarrhoea and abdominal pain among the adverse effects in its trials, and records that no serious adverse effects were reported in any of them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Frontiers in Nutrition meta-analysis found a similar pattern. Headache and gastrointestinal complaints were the most common events reported.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Both reviews qualify this. Cochrane notes that adverse effect reporting in the trials was incomplete, so an absence of serious events across a few short studies proves less than it appears to.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Who Should Be Careful with Karela?\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Several groups are named in the retrieved reviews. The cautions attach to particular parts of the plant rather than to karela as a whole.<\/span><\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Situation<\/b><\/td>\n<td><b>What to do<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Pregnancy<\/b><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Frontiers in Pharmacology review states that bitter gourd preparations should be omitted during pregnancy. It cites uterine bleeding reported in pregnant animals and hormonal activity shown in laboratory work.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency<\/b><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The same review states that vicine causes favism in people with this deficiency.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Young children<\/b><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That review records hypoglycaemic coma in two children aged three and four. They had drunk a tea made from the leaves and vines before eating.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Anyone taking diabetes medicines<\/b><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ask a doctor or pharmacist before adding a karela preparation, because the trials tested it against those medicines rather than with them.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Preparations from parts other than the fruit<\/b><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The review advises caution with decoctions made from seeds and other parts of the plant.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<h2><b>Can Karela Interact with Medicines?\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The retrieved evidence does not settle this, and the practical answer follows from what the trials were actually doing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The studies in the Cochrane review compared karela preparations against glibenclamide and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.medkart.in\/composition\/metformin-hydrochloride-500-mg\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">metformin<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which means they were tested as alternatives rather than as additions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No retrieved review reports what happens when a karela preparation and a prescribed diabetes medicine are taken together. That gap matters, because both are being taken for the same purpose.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Anyone taking <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.medkart.in\/order-medicine\/glycomet-500mg-tablet-10s\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Glycomet<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> or another prescribed diabetes medicine should ask a doctor or pharmacist before starting a karela supplement. A prescribed medicine should not be reduced to make room for one.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Where Can You Buy Karela Products Online?\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.medkart.in\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Medkart<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> sells Ayurvedic preparations containing karela, alongside its wider range of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.medkart.in\/order-medicine\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">medicines<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and highlights quality credentials for its generic medicine range.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Listed products include <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.medkart.in\/order-medicine\/karela-capsule-60s\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Karela Capsule<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> from Himalaya and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.medkart.in\/order-medicine\/dabur-glycodab-tablet-60s\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dabur Glycodab<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> tablets. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.medkart.in\/order-medicine\/amree-plus-capsule-20s\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Amree Plus<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> capsules from Aimil and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.medkart.in\/order-medicine\/ashtamrut-sf-diabetes-juice-500-ml\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ashtamrut SF Diabetes Juice<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> also carry it. Availability, pack size and price differ between products and can change.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Medkart lists these preparations and does not test or approve them. Nothing here establishes that any of them lowers blood sugar. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.medkart.in\/compare-medicines\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Medkart&#8217;s medicine comparison tools<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> can be used to compare listed options on:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Active ingredient<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Strength<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dosage form<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Manufacturer<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pack size<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Current price<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A supplement taken for blood sugar should be discussed with the doctor or pharmacist who manages the prescription.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Key takeaways\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Karela, bitter gourd and bitter melon are names for the fruit of Momordica charantia.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Raw karela provides 17 kcal per 100 g and is about 94 percent water.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a useful source of vitamin C and dietary fibre.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Two of three retrieved reviews found no significant effect on blood sugar.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The third found an effect but rated its own evidence as low certainty.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Trials have used amounts from 300 mg to 60,000 mg daily, which is a research range rather than a recommendation.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Diarrhoea, abdominal pain and headache are the side effects most often reported.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bitter gourd preparations should be omitted during pregnancy, on the review retrieved here.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>FAQs\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n<h3><b>Q. Do karela capsules contain the same thing as the vegetable?\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Not necessarily. The Frontiers in Pharmacology review describes marketed capsules and tablets as carrying either powdered fruit or concentrated extracts, which are not the same material. The Metabolism Open review found daily amounts across its trials spanning a two hundredfold range. The Frontiers in Nutrition authors called for standardised dosing before firm conclusions are drawn.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Q. Does cooking karela change its nutrients?\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yes, considerably for vitamin C. The USDA database<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">[<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/fdc.nal.usda.gov\/portal-data\/external\/168394\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">6<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> records 33 mg per 100 g in boiled drained pods, against 84 mg in the raw fruit. Folate falls from 72 to 51 micrograms and fibre from 2.8 g to 2 g. The energy figure barely moves, at 19 kcal.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Q. Does karela help with weight loss?\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The pooled trials do not show it. The Frontiers in Nutrition meta-analysis reported a mean difference in body weight of one kilogram favouring bitter melon, and a BMI difference of 0.42. Neither reached statistical significance, because the confidence interval crossed zero in both cases.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Q. Does karela lower blood pressure?\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Not on the pooled evidence. Blood pressure was among the outcomes the Frontiers in Nutrition meta-analysis examined, alongside glucose, lipids and body measurements. The review found no statistically significant improvement across the outcomes it combined.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Q. Does karela affect liver or kidney tests?\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The pooled trial data did not show changes. The Frontiers in Nutrition review reports no significant differences in ALT, AST or creatinine across the trials it combined. Those trials ran for 16 weeks at most, so they say nothing about years of use.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Q. Why do the studies on karela disagree so much?\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Size, length and preparation all differ. The three reviews drew on trials with a few hundred participants each, running for weeks rather than years. The preparations were not comparable with one another, and the certainty ratings attached to the positive findings were low or very low.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>References\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/articles\/PMC9152207\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">https:\/\/pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/articles\/PMC9152207\/<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/fdc.nal.usda.gov\/portal-data\/external\/168393\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">https:\/\/fdc.nal.usda.gov\/portal-data\/external\/168393<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cochrane.org\/evidence\/CD007845_momordica-charantia-type-2-diabetes-mellitus\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">https:\/\/www.cochrane.org\/evidence\/CD007845_momordica-charantia-type-2-diabetes-mellitus<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/articles\/PMC10808600\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">https:\/\/pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/articles\/PMC10808600\/<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/articles\/PMC12630335\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">https:\/\/pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/articles\/PMC12630335\/<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/fdc.nal.usda.gov\/portal-data\/external\/168394\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">https:\/\/fdc.nal.usda.gov\/portal-data\/external\/168394<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Medical disclaimer:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> This article gives general information only. It does not replace advice from a doctor or pharmacist. No medicine or supplement should be started, stopped or changed without advice from the prescriber or a qualified pharmacist.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Karela is the Indian name for the fruit of Momordica charantia, a plant also called bitter gourd and bitter melon. The unripe fruit is cooked as a vegetable, crushed into juice, dried into powder, and sold in capsules. Most of the interest in karela is about blood sugar. That interest is old, and the clinical [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":12656,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-wellness"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Karela (Bitter Gourd): Benefits, Nutrition &amp; Side Effects | Medkart<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn about karela benefits, the nutritional value and calories in bitter gourd, the amounts used in studies, reported side effects, and who should be careful.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.medkart.in\/blog\/karela-bitter-gourd-benefits-nutrition\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Karela (Bitter Gourd): Benefits, Nutrition &amp; 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