Management of Post-Prandial Blood Glucose Level using Some Common Nigerian Thickeners

Abstract

Background: Diabetes mellitus is a common chronic metabolic disorder in sub-Saharan Africa which is characterized by high blood glucose levels. The prevalence of this disorder in Africa is closely related to diet. Most rural dwellers whose diet consists majorly of some common Nigerian food thickeners have been observed to have clean records of all the nutritionally associated diseases and conditions such as obesity, diabetes. This study, therefore, aimed to determine the effect of some common food thickeners on the postprandial blood glucose level of healthy subjects.
Materials and Methods: We investigated the effect of the food thickeners made from Brachystegia eurycoma (achi), Detarium microcarpum (ofor), Irvingia gabonensis (ogbono), Colocasia esculenta (taro) and Citrullus vulgaries (egusi) on the post-prandial blood glucose level of healthy subjects. The soup thickeners were processed into flour and paste using the usual traditional processing method. The soups were consumed on separate days by five subjects after an overnight fast. Three days interval was allowed between the consumption of each test soup. Fasting venous blood glucose was taken at fasting (0 min), and post-prandial blood glucose levels were taken at 30 min intervals for 3 hours, and the blood was analyzed for glucose using FineTest™ strips and glucometer.
Results: Compared with the control, Irvingia gabonensis soup elicited a significant reduction (p≤0.05) in plasma glucose levels at 90 and 180 min; while the Brachystegia eurycoma had a significant reduction only at 180 min. Proximate analysis was also carried out on the six different soup samples used in this study. The percentage of crude fibre in the soups compared to the control soup (6.53 ) was highest in Irvingia gabonensi soup (6.59 , while in Brachystegia eurycoma soup it was (2.0 ), Detarium eurycoma soup (1.30 ), colocasia esculenta soup (4.0 ) and Citrullus vulgaries soup (2.80 ).
Conclusion and Recommendation: Irvingia gabonensi and Citrullus vulgaries were more potent in the reduction of blood glucose levels when compared with the control group; and reduced the blood glucose levels without any deleterious effects. Nevertheless, before they can be adopted formally as antidiabetic foods recommended for the dietary management of Type 2 diabetes, we recommended that their effect on glycated haemoglobin should be assayed.