Is Garri Good for Diabetes? Eba, Soaked Garri, Ijebu and Yellow Garri

Garri is in almost every Nigerian home. It is cheap, it lasts for months, and it can become a meal in two minutes. Some people turn it into eba. Others soak it in cold water and drink it with sugar, milk and groundnut.

But if you have diabetes, you may be wondering: is garri good for diabetes?

The answer depends largely on how you take it. Eba and soaked garri come from the same bag, but they do not behave the same way in your body.

Eba, eaten in a small ball with soup, can still fit into a diabetes meal plan. Soaked garri, especially with sugar, is one of the fastest ways to push your blood sugar up.

Does Garri Increase Blood Sugar?

Yes, it does.

Garri is made from cassava, and cassava is mostly starch. Your body breaks starch down into sugar. Garri does not taste sweet, but that tells you nothing about what happens in your blood after you eat it.

Researchers measure how quickly a food raises blood sugar using the glycemic index. Pure glucose scores 100. A score of 55 or below is low. A score of 70 or above is high.

In a study in Makurdi, eba made from garri scored 84 in people living with diabetes. That is a high score.

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) also tested eba made from four different types of cassava in 23 healthy adults. Every one of them scored between 86 and 89.

So no matter the cassava, eba made from garri raises blood sugar quickly.

Is Eba Good for Diabetes?

Eba can be eaten by someone with diabetes, but it has to be handled carefully.

Three things decide what eba does to your sugar:

• How big the ball is
• What soup and what fish, meat or egg you eat with it
• How often you eat it in a week

A small ball of eba with vegetable soup and fish is a very different meal from two large balls with a thin soup.

We explain the size and the soup in full in our post on whether eba is good for diabetes.

Can a Diabetic Drink Garri?

This is the question we get asked the most, and it is the one that matters most.

Soaked garri is best skipped if you have diabetes.

When garri is soaked and drunk, four things happen together:

• It is usually taken with sugar, and sometimes with milk as well
• A cup of soaked garri often holds more garri than a ball of eba
• It is drunk quickly, often on an empty stomach in the afternoon
• There is no soup, vegetable or fish beside it to slow it down

The garri itself is already a fast food for your sugar. Adding sugar on top makes it a sweet drink. Sweet drinks reach the blood faster than almost anything else you can eat.

Adding groundnut does not fix it. Groundnut may slow things a little, but it cannot cancel the sugar in the cup.

If you really want soaked garri, take one cup, almost full (200ml), with no sugar, and do not make it a habit.

Is Ijebu Garri Good for Diabetes?

Ijebu garri is fine, sour and crunchy. It is fermented for longer than most other garri, and it is the type many people prefer for drinking.

There is no good study showing that ijebu garri raises blood sugar more slowly than other garri. It is still cassava starch.

And because ijebu garri is the type most people soak and drink, it is often taken in the least safe way. The problem is not the type of garri. It is the cup of soaked garri with sugar.

Is Yellow Garri Good for Diabetes?

Yellow garri gets its colour in one of two ways. Most of the time, palm oil is added while the garri is being made. Sometimes it is made from yellow cassava.

Either way, it is still garri. There is not enough proof to say that yellow garri is safe for someone with diabetes while white garri is not. Treat yellow and white garri the same way.

Many people also search whether yellow garri is good for cholesterol. The palm oil in yellow garri adds a type of fat that can raise cholesterol. The amount in garri is usually small, but if you have high cholesterol, white garri is the better choice.

What About Red Garri and Fermented Garri?

Red garri, fermented garri and white garri are all made from cassava, and they all turn into sugar in your body.

How long garri is fermented, and the type of cassava used, may change the number a little. But in the IITA study, four different types of cassava gave almost the same result. None of them came close to being a low glycemic food.

So the choice that changes your sugar the most is not the colour or the type. It is whether you make eba or drink it, and how much you take.

Better and Less Suitable Ways to Take Garri

Better choice:

• A small ball of eba with vegetable soup and fish, chicken or an egg
• Eba about two times a week, not every day
• Beans, vegetables and vegetable soups on the other days

Less suitable choice:

• Soaked garri with sugar or sweetened milk
• Soaked garri as a quick lunch on an empty stomach
• More than one ball of eba at one meal
• Eba every day

If you are not sure how much garri, eba or any other Nigerian food is right for you, you can check GluFloat for personalised food guidance.

Is Garri Good for High Blood Pressure and Kidney Problems?

Many people managing diabetes are also managing high blood pressure or kidney problems.

Plain garri is not salty. With eba, the risk usually comes from what is beside it: soups with a lot of salt, seasoning cubes, stockfish and heavy palm oil.

If you have kidney problems, the right amount of each food can be very different for you. Ask your doctor or dietitian about your own case before changing what you eat.

Is Eba Better Than Fufu?

Yes. In the Makurdi study, fufu scored 97 and eba scored 84. Pounded yam scored 81 and amala made from yam flour scored 69.

None of these is a low glycemic food, but eba is not the worst swallow. You can see how all the swallows compare in our post on the best swallow for a diabetic in Nigeria, and how other Nigerian foods compare in which Nigerian foods raise blood sugar the most.

The Bottom Line: Is Garri Good for Diabetes?

Garri raises blood sugar quickly. Every eba measured in Nigeria has scored high, whatever the type of cassava.

But eba and soaked garri are not the same thing for someone with diabetes:

• Eba, eaten in a small ball with vegetable soup and fish, can still fit into your week.
• Soaked garri, especially with sugar, is best skipped.

Yellow, white, ijebu and red garri all behave in much the same way. The choice that matters most is how you take it, how much you take, and how often.

You do not have to give up garri. Make it eba, keep the ball small, and leave the cup of soaked garri for a rare day.