Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
gum, and xanthan gum. In specific studies that determined the effect of guar
gum in attenuating postprandial glycaemia, it was found that 5 g guar gum in
bread and 5 g guar gum in soup significantly reduced both postprandial glu-
cose and insulin, compared to their respective controls
(
Roberts, 2011;
Wolever, Jenkins, Nineham, & Alberti, 1979
). Similar results were obtained
for the soluble fiber from fruits, pectin
(
Wolever, Spadafora, & Eshuis,
1991
). Locust bean gum incorporated into food matrices significantly
reduced its glycemic response and index, but the improvement in insulin
response was not significant
(
Feldman et al., 1995
). The mixed effect of sol-
uble fire on glycemic response has also been investigated by
Edwards et al.
(1987)
, who showed that xanthan gum alone and mixed with locust bean
gum at a ratio of 1:1 exhibited reduced postprandial glycemic response.
Human studies have not reported the use of the soluble fiber, Gum arabic.
But, in animal studies, the Arabic gum that elicited significant hypoglycemic
effects on normal rats, however, failed to produce hypoglycemic effects on
rats induced with diabetes (
Grover, Yadav, & Vats, 2002
). Further investi-
gation in rabbits showed evidence that the hypoglycemic effect was due to
and thus its application is useful in insulin improvement. Plantago psyllium
mucilage has been shown to reduce GI of bread and postprandial glycemic
response in normal and type 2 diabetic humans (
Munari, Benitez-Pinto,
Araiza-Andraca, & Casarrubias-Moises, 1998
)
. The use of 5 g of yellow
mustard bran containing yellow mustard mucilage in a soup meal has shown
reduction in glycemic response compared with a matched control in healthy
male volunteers (
Lett, Thondre, & Rosenthal, 2013
). The beneficial effect
may not be due to the fat content of the meal but due to the presence of
the mucilaginous compound. Fiber in general was thought to modulate
glycemic response. However, there are some reports that did not show
positive results. For example, when type 2 diabetes subjects were given a
3-month intervention with 19 g/day cereal fiber from wheat and compared
with a low-fiber (4 g/day) control phase of same duration, no effect was
noticed in blood glucose or HbA1c levels suggesting the need to increase
the duration of the study (
Jenkins, Jenkins, Zdravkovic, W¨ rsch, et al.,
Kendall, Augustin, Martini, et al., 2002
)
. Another important factor to
consider is the lack of viscosity generation property in insoluble fiber from
wheat bran.
Although there are a number of food ingredients that have the ability to
modulate blood glucose, this chapter will focus on four important food
