GHMJ (Global Health Management Journal) 2022, Vol. 5, No. 2 Indonesian Scholars’ Alliance Open Access Photo Essay POLITEKNIK KESEHATAN KEMENKES PALANGKA RAYA: HEALTH FORUM AND INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR THE NEW NORMAL : Creating a Pleasant Virtual Communication Chalek Juice: An alternative diet therapy of diabetes mellitus Vinna Maulidha Yunianitamara * , Erma Nurjanah Widiastuti, Cucu Rahayu, Agnescia Clarissa Sera Department of Nutrition, Poltekkes Kemenkes Palangka Raya, Indonesia *Corresponding author’s email: vinnamaulidhay@gmail.com DOI: 10.35898/ghmj-52939 Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee and the editorial board of the Annual Health Forum and International Seminar of the Politeknik Kesehatan Kemenkes Palangka Raya © Yayasan Aliansi Cendekiawan Indonesia Thailand (Indonesian Scholars’ Alliance). This is an open-access following Creative Commons License Deed - Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a chronic disease caused by insufficient amounts of insulin due to the malfunction of pancreatic organ (Ministry of Health of Republic of Indonesia, 2019; Arsono, 2005). It will impact productivity, thereby reducing the quality of human resources. Indonesia is among the 10 largest countries in the world with DM cases and is ranked 4th (Damayanti, 2015; Ministry of Health of Republic of Indonesia, 2018; Irawan, 2010). Health treatment for DM requires expensive costs, especially for patients with complications. This encourages some people to look for herbal therapy, such as bitter melon (Momordica charantia L) (Ministry of Health of Republic of Indonesia, 2014; Katmo and Pramono, 2006). Figure 1 Bitter Melon (Momordica charantia L) Shown in Figure 1, Bitter Melon or known in Indonesia as Pare, contains saponins, flavonoids, polyphenols, and alkaloids, which may improve pancreatic beta cells, thereby increasing insulin production (Suiraoka, 2012). Besides, bitter melon also contains charantin, an active antidiabetic substance that is believed to reduce blood sugar levels in the body. The decrease in blood sugar level is marked by lectin, carbohydrate- binding proteins expressed on the surface of the body's cells (Martínez-Alarcón et al., 2018; Tandra, 2013). This prompted the authors to create an alternative diet therapy formula named Chalek Juice, which stands for Charantin and Lectin.