Formulation and Quality Evaluation of Sugar-free and Low-sugar Nutritional Cookies from Bitter gourd (Karela); A Sustainable Health Impediment of Diabetic.

Diabetes is a chronic metabolic and hormonal disease characterized by elevated blood glucose levels accompanied by impaired metabolism of carbohydrates, fats and proteins due to pancreatic abnormalities that cause impaired insulin secretion and insulin action. This disorder is often accompanied by long-term complications. Cookies are the most commonly consumed baked products on the market. They are usually high in calories, carbohydrates and fats and low in vitamins, minerals and proteins, making them unsuitable for daily consumption. These cookies are specially formulated for consumption by diabetics. We developed the cookies by adding various ingredients (oats, wheat flour, skimmed milk powder, bitter melon powder, butter and stevia). This formula gradually reduces insulin spikes and makes it easier to digest for diabetics. Moreover, due to the current trend, it takes longer for the body to metabolize and break down the ingredients, reducing the amount of insulin required. Sugar-free and low-sugar nutritional cookies were developed by fortifying with bitter melon powder and using the natural sweetener stevia instead of sugar. Bitter melon has unique biologically active ingredients such as charantin, vicine, and polypeptide-P, which exhibit hypoglycemic properties that aid in insulin production. In this study, three biscuits were formulated, developed, and evaluated considering factors such as skimmed milk powder (SMP), stevia, butter, and karela powder. Furthermore, the nutritional value of the developed sugar-free and low-sugar nutritional cookies was analyzed. The ingredients used in the preparation of sugar-free cookies were SMP 0.5g-6.5g, 0.5g-5.5g stevia, butter 10-50g, and karela powder 5%. The optimized parameters of the developed sugar-free cookies included SMP (1.7727%), stevia (4.3484%), butter (37.8788%), almond, cashew, pistachio and dried karela powder (5%). After development of sugar-free and low-sugar nutritional biscuits, the diameter and thickness of were reported to be 4.92 cm and 5.04 mm respectively. The final product contained carbohydrates (76.75%), protein (5.92%), fat (14.85%), ash (about 1%), moisture (4%) and crude oil.