Abstract
Aim: This study was aimed at evaluating the glycaemic index (GI) values of some foods in Jaffna, Sri Lanka such as cooked white rice, brown rice, parboiled rice, 'Pittu', 'string hopper', cassava, boiled green gram and chick pea. The results will be helpful to physicians and public to decide on the consumption of foods particularly by the diabetic and coronary heart disease patients. Methods: Healthy volunteers (n=22) were selected with their written consent. After overnight fasting, 75g glucose and each test food containing 75g digestible carbohydrate were administered and blood glucose levels were measured half hourly for two hours. The glycaemic responses and GI values were calculated and analyzed by Randomized Complete Block Design using SAS analytical package. Results: The mean (SD) glycaemic response values of cooked white rice, brown rice, parboiled rice, 'Pittu', 'string hopper', boiled cassava, green gram and chick pea were 41.71 (6.71), 37.72 (5.11), 35.05 (3.77), 27.39 (5.69), 31.32 (4.42), 49.26 (4.57), 19.68 (4.36) and 20.83 (3.90) mg/dL, respectively. The mean (SD) GI values of cooked white rice, brown rice, parboiled rice, 'Pittu', 'string hopper', boiled cassava, green gram and chick pea were 66.61 (9.86), 60.24 (8.16), 55.97 (6.01), 43.74 (9.09), 50.01 (7.06), 78.67 (7.30), 31.43 (6.96) and 33.27 (6.23)%, respectively. The GI values of cooked white rice differed significantly (P 0.05) from chick pea. Conclusions: 'Pittu', 'string hopper', boiled green gram and chick pea were low GI diets. Cooked white rice, brown rice and parboiled rice were intermediate GI diets. Cassava was a high GI diet. As low GI diets are good for diabetic and coronary heart disease patients, precaution has to be taken when selecting the correct diets. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/gmj.v17i1.4357 Galle Medical Journal , Vol 17: No. 1, March 2012 23-31
Highlights
Glycaemic index (GI) is defined as the incremental area under the blood glucose response curve elicited over a two-hour period by a 75g carbohydrate portion of a food, expressed as a percentage of the response to the same amount of carbohydrate from a standard food taken by the same subject [1]
The boiled cassava gave higher glycaemic response (49.26mg/dL) than cooked white rice, brown rice & parboiled rice, and 'Pittu' & 'string hopper' (41.71, 37.72, 35.05, 27.39 and 31.32 mg/dL, respectively, Table 1). These results showed that dietary fiber had no significant direct relationship on glycaemic responses of those foods
This study reveals that the diets which contained high dietary fiber contents have reduced GI value
Summary
Glycaemic index (GI) is defined as the incremental area under the blood glucose response curve elicited over a two-hour period by a 75g carbohydrate portion of a food, expressed as a percentage of the response to the same amount of carbohydrate from a standard food taken by the same subject [1] It is an important parameter which compares the hyperglycaemic effect of a tested meal with pure glucose [2]. The blood glucose response to a food is reflected by its glycaemic index It ranks foods on a scale from 0-100 according to their actual effect on blood glucose level. Food with a GI value of 70 or more are considered to be high GI diet, with an index value between 55 to 69 as medium GI diet and less than 55 as low GI diet [4]
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