Slowing starch digestion results in healthier glucose metabolism

Last Updated: 2015-04-17

By Anne Harding

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The body metabolizes glucose from foods with more slowly digestible starch (SDS) more slowly and steadily than from foods with less SDS, new findings show.

"Glucose enters the blood at a slower rate but for a longer period, which is one of the advantages of this type of food because the appearance of glucose into the circulation will be less abrupt, which is what we are looking for," Dr. Francois Peronnet of the University of Montreal in Quebec, the first author of the new study, told Reuters Health in a telephone interview.

Dr. Peronnet and his colleagues sought to investigate the role of SDS content in plasma glucose kinetics by comparing four different breakfasts: a cereal containing 0.3% SDS and three biscuits containing the same type of grain, but produced using a process that preserves its resistance to digestion. The SDS content of the biscuits ranged from 39% to 45%.

The study was funded by Mondelez International R&D, a multinational food, beverage and confectionary company. Mondelez prepared and provided the cereal and biscuits. Two of the study's authors are Mondelez employees, and Dr. Peronnet consults for the company.

The researchers enrolled 16 young women, who consumed each of the four types of breakfasts in random order. After consuming the biscuits, excursions in plasma glucose were lower than they were when the women ate the cereal, the researchers report in European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, online April 8.

Appearance of endogenous glucose, appearance of plasma glucose, and disappearance of plasma glucose were all significantly lower with the biscuit breakfasts versus the cereal breakfast. Women also absorbed 31% less exogenous glucose in the 4.5 hours after consuming the biscuits, versus the cereal.

The researchers conclude: "From a practical point of view, these observations confirm that substituting extruded cereals with one of the three plain biscuits at breakfast will slow down glucose appearance in the peripheral circulation, reduce the challenge to plasma glucose that follows the meal and the associated excursions in plasma glucose and insulin concentrations, and distribute the glucose ingested over a longer period. This might improve plasma glucose control and provide long-term health benefits in subjects with glucose intolerance and also in the general population."

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1Imnxjg

Eur J Clin Nutr 2015.