Written by admin on 2009-05-08T13:50:12+0000">May 8, 2009 – 1:50 pm
Does the area under the curve give a true picture of the blood sugar responses? Why not use just the peak value?
The area under the curve is thought to reflect the sum total of the glycaemic response, not just the one time point given by the peak. Statisticians recommend use of the area under the curve. There is a very close relationship between the area under the curve and the peak response. That is, if one is high, the other is high and vice versa.
What about resistant starch? What effect does it have on the G.I. factor of a food?
Resistant starch is the starch which completely resists digestion in the small intestine. It cannot contribute to the glycaemic effect of the food because it is not absorbed. Resistant starch should not be included in the 50 gram carbohydrate helping which is the standard for G.I. testing because all of this 50 grams should be available carbohydrate, that is available for absorption in the small intestine.
Resistant starch is not viscous like some forms of soluble fibre that delay absorption in the small intestine and flatten the blood glucose curve. Hence the mere presence of resistant starch in the food will not affect the G.I. factor of a food. Bananas and potato salad both have relatively high amounts of resistant starch but the G.L factors of these two foods are very different. Potatoes have a high G.L factor and bananas an intermediate one.
The difficulty that arises in testing is determining the true available carbohydrate content of food which is high in resistant starch. If the amount of resistant starch is underestimated, it will produce a falsely low G.L factor.
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