BLOOD GLUCOSE RESPONSE AND GLYCEMIC INDEX OF DIETS CONTAINING DIFFERENT SOURCES OF CARBOHYDRATE IN HEALTHY RATS

Blood glucose response and Glycemic Index (GI) of diets containing different sources of carbohydrate including glucose, starch, amylopectin, bread, rice, whole wheat kernels (habbiyah), lentils, check peas, kidney beans, and mixtures of bread or rice with lentils, chick peas or kidney beans for healthy Sprague Dawley rats using glucose as standard were studied. Fifty five normal animals were housed individually to perform this study. Animals were fasted (overnight fasting) for 12 hours and tested for blood glucose at zero time before given in amount of test food containing 0.15 g carbohydrates. Blood glucose was determined after 15, 30, 45, 60, 90 and 120 minutes. Results showed that amylopectin based diet had the highest GI (96) comparing with lowest GI (44) for habbiyah based diet. Results also show that addition of lentils, check pea or kidney beans to the bread resulted in lowering the GI of the final meals from 70 to 46. However, addition of these legumes to the rice base diet did not enough reduce the GI. In conclusion, mixing different sources of carbohydrates might be change the blood glucose response and GI of the original foods.