Avaliação das propriedades nutricionais de barras de cereais elaboradas com farinha de banana verde

Abstract

SANTOS, J.F. Evaluation of the nutritional properties of cereal bars produced with unripe banana flour. 2010. Dissertacao (mestrado) Faculdade de Ciencias Farmaceuticas, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, 2010. Several alternatives have been proposed to improve the nutritional characteristics of foods, some of them using sources of dietary fiber that are still underused. Among these sources of dietary fiber (DF), unripe banana flour (UBF) has been considered a good alternative for its high concentration of resistant starch (RS), which can improve the nutritional value of different preparations. The aim of this study was to evaluate, in vivo and in vitro, the nutritional properties of cereal bars made with UBF. The samples consisted of two types of cereal bars, one made with UBF (UBF bars) and the other one without this ingredient (control bars). The chemical composition and carbohydrate profile of the bars were evaluated. The fermentability of the non-available fraction of bars was assessed in vitro using cecal contents of mice. The glycemic response of the bars was assessed after its ingestion by healthy volunteers (n = 16), being determined the glycemic index (GI) and glycemic load (GL). The main feature that could be observed is that the UBF bars have higher RS content than the control bars (7.22 g/100g and 2.11 g/100g wet weight), a result of the addition of UBF. This addition reflects on the concentration of non-available carbohydrates (sum of DF and RS) in UBF bars, which is 18.19 g/100g wet weight. The UBF bars presented better in vitro fermentability in relation to control bars (p <0.05) according to the production of short chain fatty acids (SCFA), yielding 4.04 mmol / g substrate, while the control bars produce only 3.51 mmol / g substrate. The UBF bars have a low GI (based on glucose) (41%) and CG (4), while the control bars show medium GI (60%) and low CG (5). According to these results, it is possible to conclude that the addition of UBF to cereal bars increases their non-available carbohydrate content, represented by RS and DF, resulting in a product of high fermentability and low postprandial glycemic response.