Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Refined carbohydrates which substitute the staple diet in most cultures may exaggerate postprandial responses in term of insulin and free fatty acid levels. These changes may herald the onset of metabolic syndrome and diabetes among those at high risk of these diseases.

Objectives: To determine the postprandial insulin and free fatty acids levels in healthy subjects after the consumption of two different breakfast meals, Mediterranean-like vs Malaysian meal each with different carbohydrate, glycaemic index and glycaemic load content.

Methods: Twenty subjects were made to take two different meals, Mediterranean-like representing low glycaemic index (GI) and low glycaemic load (GL) diets vs Malaysian meals (high GI and high GL) a week apart. Blood parameters including fasting serum lipid, serum insulin, serum non esterified free fatty acid were taken at 0, 30, 60, 90, and 120 min after each meals. Blood glucose was also taken at baseline and 120 min postprandially.

Results: Twenty subjects were randomized to either Mediterranean-like meal or Malaysian meal first, followed by the other meal a week later. Baseline clinical and demographic parameters were comparable for both meals. With both meals there was an increased in serum triglyceride (Mediterranean-like 0.91 vs Malaysian 1.09; P=0.565) with a corresponding drop in HDL and LDL levels throughout the 2-h postprandial period (1.47 vs 1.49; P=0.844) and (2.86 vs 2.75; P=0.647). There is a significant increase in the serum insulin with Malaysian meal compared to Mediterranean-like meal (16.95 vs 1.99; P=0.001). However, the non esterified fatty acid levels were significantly lower in Malaysian meal compared to Mediterranean-like meal (0.18 vs 0.28; P=0.003)

Conclusion: Malaysian breakfast meal which is characterised by high GI and GL content, resulted in significant increase in insulin responses with concurrent drop in free fatty acid compared to Mediterranean-like meal.

Keywords: Insulin, serum non esterified free fatty acid (NEFA).

Declaration of interest: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest that could be perceived as prejudicing the impartiality of the research project.

Funding: This work was supported, however funding details unavailable.