Bottle gourd for weight loss: Why you should have it cooked and not as raw juice to avoid toxicity

The trouble with social media, as I have mentioned before, is that we trust it more for lifestyle management, particularly while deciding to clean up our diet, rather than consulting a medical practitioner. Also, alternative therapy is often misrepresented or not explained properly on these platforms — they are just supportive routines but can never make tall claims of cure. Unfortunately, the internet is where we pick up ideas that may land us in trouble. One such idea is having bottle gourd or lauki juice early in the morning thinking it will help us lose weight. But it may become toxic for our body if we haven’t verified whether it is the safe or bitter variety. The latter, when pulped into juice, is lethal and sends the body into immediate shock with ceaseless vomitting and diarrhoea, gastro-intestinal bleeding and even death when the allergic reaction is not arrested in time.

Let me state at the outset that as a vegetable, there is nothing wrong with bottle gourd or lauki if it is had the way it is intended to, steamed and cooked. In fact, its nutritional properties make it suitable for diabetics and those looking to lose weight. This vegetable is high on fibre, which kills hunger and delays glucose absorption, is 96 per cent water, making it a great diuretic, has a low glycemic index, is low in saturated fat, cholesterol and rich in micronutrients like vitamin C, riboflavin, zinc, thiamine, iron, magnesium and manganese, all of which ensure that it is included in the diet of anybody with a non-communicable disease. It is known to quell the heat in the body and also helps during urinary tract infections.

But when bitter, it carries a highly toxic compound called Tetracyclic Triterpenoid Cucurbitacins that can cause serious side-effects and even death, especially if consumed in large doses, like you would in a glass of juice. So discard it the moment you find the taste to be bitter.

I, too, have come across such a case of acute poisoning. A mother and son came to our emergency one morning, very soon after they had had lauki juice on an empty stomach. We lost the mother but managed to save the son. The woman presented herself to us in a very critical condition; she was vomitting continuously and was passing blood as she had severe gastrointestinal bleeding, her blood pressure had dropped so low that it was not recoverable and soon she showed signs of multi-organ failure. We lost her but we were able to rescue the son, who had to be in ICU for a long period of time. We put him on intravenous fluids, antibiotics, antiemetics and antacids and even did an endoscopy to find out if there had been any damage inside. Both had fallen sick within just an hour of consuming lauki juice.

In fact, according to research by two doctors of emergency medicine from Gurugram, which was published in PubMed Central, “Though there are a few beneficial effects of bottle gourd extracts in animal models, human studies are few. In recent times it has been unearthed that bottle gourd juice with a bitter taste can cause severe toxic reactions and lead to symptoms such as abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhoea, hematemesis, hematochezia, shock and death. It is important for emergency physicians to be aware of this toxicity especially in India where bottle gourd is consumed a lot.” Doctors from other parts of the country have listed similar case studies so that all ERs can spot the symptoms without delay.

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In the end, have bottle gourd the way you have been used to, as part of your meals. It is also impossible to slice a part of lauki and check for bitterness whenever you buy them. So, forget the juice. And definitely do not go for the bottled variety of juices because we do not know what standards were adopted during the manufacturing process and what did go into them.