Endocrine Abstracts

Background

Medical nutrition therapy is often the initial step in the management of Prediabetes and diabetes mellitus. Postprandial glycaemia contributes significantly to the glycaemic control of patients with diabetes mellitus. The beneficial effects of soluble dietary fibre in reducing postprandial glycaemia have been established. The 2017 global burden of disease (GBD) report shows that 97.000 deaths result from low fibre intake. Despite the this, the intake of fibre is low in many countries including European countries as shown by the 2009 European Nutrition and Health (ENH) report. The objective of this study is to evaluate the impact of increasing soluble fibre content of meals on postprandial glycaemic and c-peptide responses.

Methodology

This experimental randomised, crossover study was conducted among 20 healthy subjects. Anhydrous glucose drink (G) which was the reference meal was consumed in the first week. The participants were then randomized by balloting to consume one of the two test meals per week namely white fonio (Digitaria exilis) and white fonio (Digitaria exilis) fortified with 3 g of B-CAN soluble fibre. i.e. Non fortified fonio meal (NFFM) and Fortified fonio meal (FFM) respectively. All meals were served after an overnight fast with a washout period of one week between the test meals. Fasting and postprandial plasma glucose, serum concentration of pancreatic c-peptide were measured at 0, 30, 60, 90, and 120 minutes. All data were entered using Microsoft Excel and analysis performed using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 22.0. P-value was set at < 0.05.

Results

Twenty participants were enrolled in the study, but one participant could not complete the study, giving a participant response rate of 95%. The mean peak plasma glucose (PPG) level of FFM was lower than that of NFFM (6.1 mmol/l and 6.35 mmol/l respectively) and were significantly lower than the PPG level of the reference glucose drink which was 7.01 mmol/l. P < 0.05. The glycaemic indexes of NFFM and FFM were 85.9 and 77. 5, respectively. The peak serum postprandial c-peptide (PPCP) response was also lower for FFM than NFFM (3.553 ng/ml and 3.814 ng/ml respectively) when compared with PPCP of G (4.333 ng/ml). P > 0.05.

Conclusion

The finding and potential impact of this study is that the diet can be modified by increasing soluble dietary fibre to improve the postprandial glycaemic response and c-peptide responses.