Glycaemic Index Of Maize Meal With Baobab (Adansonia digitata) Leaf Soup In Diabetic And Healthy Subjects.

Abstract

Background: Maize meal as (tuwo) with Baobab soup as (miyan kuka) is a popular meal in northern and middle belt of Nigeria.
Aims: The meal was fed to diabetic and healthy subjects to establish the glycaemic index of this commonly consumed meal in the environment.
Subjects and Methods: Ten type II diabetic and seven healthy subjects took 50grams of the standard food (glucose) and 50grams of available carbohydrate test meal (maize and baobab leaf soup) on two separate days. At each visit, blood was taken before administering the meal or glucose and then every 30 minutes for 150 minutes after consumption of the standard or test meal for the measurement of blood glucose. Incremental area under the glucose curve was calculated. Student's t test was used to compare the means.
Results: The mean age and mean body mass index (BMI) were similar in both groups (p>0.05). The maximum increase of blood glucose in maize meal was significant between the type II diabetic and healthy subjects (p<0.05). The glycaemic index of the maize meal was 82 and 85 in type II diabetic and healthy subjects respectively. Maize meal had a high glycaemic load of 41 and 42.5 in diabetic and healthy subjects.
Conclusion: Maize meal with baobab leaf soup was high in both glycaemic index and glycaemic load for both groups studied. Maize meal therefore has to be cooked with other low glycaemic index foods and the portion size has to be reduced before consumption by diabetic subjects.


Keywords: Glycaemic index, Glycaemic load, Maize meal, Baobab leave, Glucose, Type II diabetes

Sahel Medical Journal Vol. 11 (2) 2008: pp. 57-60