Arepas Made from High Amylose Corn Flour Produce Favorably Low Glucose and Insulin Responses in Healthy Humans

Abstract

The importance of the amylose: amylopectin ratio in the postprandial glycemic and insulinemic responses to corn was studied in food products that might realistically be consumed. Healthy subjects were given test meals in the form of arepas made from ordinary (25% amylose) or high amylose (70% amylose) corn flour. The ordinary corn meal contained 45 g of potentially available starch. To exclude the possible influence of a lowered content of potentially available starch due to formation of resistant starch in the high amylose product, this product was evaluated at two levels and included either on the basis of potentially available starch (45 g) or total starch (including resistant starch) (45 g, i.e., 29 g potentially available starch), respectively. The rate of starch hydrolysis, measured in vitro employing a method based on chewing, was studied. In addition, the content of in vitro resistant starch was analyzed in all products. The meals containing high amylose corn flour produced lower areas under the glucose and insulin response curves (57 and 42% lower, respectively) than did the meals containing ordinary cornmeal. This could not be explained by a lower amount of potentially available starch. No differences were noted when subjects consumed the two high amylose meals of arepas, despite 36% lower potentially available starch in one of the meals. The rate of starch hydrolysis measured in vitro was slower in the high amylose corn products than in the ordinary corn product. Resistant starch in the ordinary product was 3 g/100 g dry matter, vs. -20 g/100 g dry matter in the high amylose products. We concluded that high amylose corn products have a potential to promote favorably low metabolic responses and high resistant starch contents.