Food-Based Ingredients to Modulate Blood Glucose - Advances in Food and Nutrition Research - page 212

( Thompson, Yoon, Jenkins, Wolever, & Jenkins, 1984 ) . A recent study
examined the effect of various types of beans such as pinto beans, black
beans, and kidney beans with rice on the glycemic response in type 2 dia-
betes subjects ( Thompson, Winham, & Hutchins, 2012 ) . All the three beans
and rice meals reduced the glycemic response to the rice meal alone. This
effect may be attributed to the high-fiber or protein content of the beans
or due to other phytonutrients such as phytic acid that binds to calcium
and inhibits its availability as a cofactor for alpha amylase activity on starch
( Josse, Kendall, Augustin, Ellis, & Jenkins, 2007 ). A recent systematic
review and meta-analysis showed that the pulses alone reduce fasting blood
glucose and insulin in both diabetic and nondiabetic subjects ( Sievenpiper
et al., 2009 ). The use of pulses with low-GI diets was reported to reduce
the amount of glycosylated hemoglobin and fructosamine that are markers
of long-term maintenance of blood glucose. When pulses were used with
high-fiber diets, the effect was even more beneficial with a decrease in both
fasting blood glucose and glycosylated proteins. A number of factors that
affected the outcome measures were identified by the authors who included
the type of the pulse, amount of the pulse, physical state of the pulse, and also
other participant characteristics and study design characteristics.
In most of the studies, it is believed that the low-GI effect of pulses is due
to the high-fiber content and the slow-digesting starch characteristics in
pulses. However, a study using yellow pea showed that the protein in it
is prominent in its effect on glycemia ( Smith, Mollard, Luhovyy, &
Anderson, 2012 ). The authors fed two concentrations (10 and 20 g) of
pea protein and fiber in healthy subjects and then fed an ad libitum pizza
meal to the subjects after 30 min. They found that both the 10 and 20 g pro-
tein dose suppressed the glycemic response after the test meal and the pizza
meal. But, the higher 20 g dose had an effect on the glycemic response after
the ad libitum second meal as well. Mollard et al. (2012) also tested the effect
of different pulses on the glycemic response to a pasta and tomato sauce meal.
They reported reduction in glycemic response soon after the meal and also
after a second meal with difference in the effect depending on the type of
pulse. While chick peas, lentils, and navy beans reduced the glycemia after
the pasta and tomato sauce whereas chick peas alone was responsible for the
reduction of glycemic response after a second ad libitum meal as well.
The glycemic response to pulses has been shown to be affected by the
recipes used and not by different processing techniques. Wong, Mollard,
Zafar, Luhovyy, and Anderson (2009) compared canned and homemade
navy beans and reported that both lowered the glycemic response compared