Glycemic response to selected rice- pulse combinations in diabetics

Abstract

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).