The Glycaemic and Insulinaemic Response of Pasta in Chinese and Indians Compared to Asian Carbohydrate Staples: Taking Spaghetti Back to Asia.

Stefan Gerardus Camps,Melvin Xu Nian Koh,Joseph Lim,Christiani Jeyakumar Henry

doi:10.3390/nu13020451

Abstract

In this study, we compared the metabolic properties of the Asian staples rice and noodles, which are typically high in glycaemic index (GI), to two types of spaghetti. It is hypothesised that pasta can be a healthy replacement, particularly amongst the Asian population. Thirty Chinese and Indian subjects (17 men, 13 women; BMI: 18.5–25 kg/m2) participated in this randomised crossover trial. On seven occasions, they consumed a glucose reference drink (3 times), white rice, wheat-based mee pok noodles, semolina spaghetti and wholegrain spaghetti. Blood samples were taken to measure glucose and insulin response over a period of 3 h. The current evaluation showed that semolina spaghetti and wholegrain spaghetti can be classified as low GI products, with a GI of 53 and 54, respectively, significantly lower than wheat based mee pok noodles (74) and rice (80) (p < 0.005). In addition, both spaghettis had a lower insulin response compared to rice (p < 0.05). Furthermore, there was no difference in glucose or insulin response between semolina and wholegrain spaghetti. After controlling for gender, ethnicity, fat and fat free mass (kg), the glucose and insulin results did not change. In conclusion, wheat-based pasta can be helpful to modify the carbohydrate-rich Asian diet. Notably, there was no effect of gender, ethnicity and body composition on the glycaemic and insulinaemic response. We speculate that the starch-protein structure as a result of the spaghetti production process is a major driver of its favourable metabolic properties.

Highlights

Diabetes is a rapidly growing health problem globally and even at a healthy BMI, Asians are more susceptible to the onset of prediabetes and show a more rapid decline to diabetes [1,2,3]
The results showed that the glycaemic and insulinaemic response of spaghetti pastas were lower than the response of rice and noodles
There was no effect of gender, ethnicity and body composition on the glycaemic and insulinaemic response differences that were measured between the foods

Summary

Introduction

Diabetes is a rapidly growing health problem globally and even at a healthy BMI, Asians are more susceptible to the onset of prediabetes and show a more rapid decline to diabetes [1,2,3]. Lifestyle changes, including improved diets and physical activity, may be crucial to prevent, delay or reverse obesity and health related diseases like diabetes [5]. [6] The consumption of low GI foods lowers the risk for the onset of pre-diabetes and impaired glucose metabolism as it will moderate post-prandial glucose levels, glucose fluctuation, and subsequently insulin levels [7,8,9,10]. Consumption of low glycaemic response diets are linked to favourable changes in cardiovascular disease markers [11]. Higher levels of rice intake were more strongly associated with the diabetes risk in Asian compared to Western populations [13]

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion