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A study was conducted to assess the glycemic response of various rice-
pulse combination served as breakfast to twenty (non-insulin dependent
diabetes mellitus) NIDDM subjects. The selected subjects were adult males
in the age group of 40 to 51 years, having a fasting blood sugar level of 140
mg/dl to 200 mg/dl at 2 hour after the consumption of food and who were
using only oral hypoglycemic agents.
Personal characteristics of the selected subjects revealed that majority
were in the age group of 46-51 years, of which 60 per cent belonged to urban
population. 35 per cent respondents were found to adopt small family norms.
The economic status of the subjects showed, half of the subjects had a family
monthly income ranging from Rs. 1000 to 5000.
The anthropometric measurements of the subjects assessed indicated
that 15 per cent respondents were found to obese and 40 per cent depicted
hereditary predisposition in the disease occurrence.
Majority of the families were found to have more than one member as
diabetic. All of them depend on sulphonyl urea and biguanides or a
combination of these two drugs as oral hypoglycemic agents.
An Oral Glucose Tolerance test was conducted among the respondents
indicated that a fasting blood sugar level ranged between 143 to 184 mg Idl
with a mean blood sugar level of 158.3 mg/dl.
Five experimental breakfast preparations were administered to the subjects
understudy which supplied 75g carbohydrate in the form of staple foods such as rice
along with green gram/ bengalgraml blackgram/ redgram and soyabean.



Impact of experimental breakfast on plasma glucose response was
studied in detail. The breakfast preparation consisting rice + green gram
served as Kanji and green gram poriyal showed the highest mean glucose
value of 291.21 mg/dl in the first half an hour. While during the second half
an hour, rice + bengal gram combination served as puttu and bengal gram curry
had the highest mean glucose value of 358.26 mg/dl. The combination of rice
with blackgram showed the highest mean plasma glucose value (392.19
mg/dl) at one and half an hour compared to other combinations and this
combination depicted the low peak rise over the fasting level. Combination
of rice + blackgram + redgram which was served as iddli and dhal curry
depicted the least glucose value throughout the different time intervals.
Among the five experimental breakfast items majority of the subjects
reached the peak at 1 ~ hour post prandially or more accurately 81.79 minutes
for rice + greengram, 89.17 minutes for rice + bengalgram, 98.39 minutes for
rice + bengalgram, 98.8 minutes for rice+ blackgram + red gram and 106.28
minutes for rice + soyabean.
From the results the area under 2 hour glucose stimulation curve, it was
found that rice + blackgram + red gram combination had the least area under the curve
while the rice + soyabean had the highest area under the curve.
Glycemic Index of test meals computed based on area under curve
indicated that rice + blackgram + redgram combination depicted the lowest
glycemic response (0.81) indicating this combination was ideal for diabetics-
followed by rice + blackgram (1.09) while the maximum glycernic response
was depicted by rice + soya bean combination (1.125).