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Danone Vitapole, Palaiseau, France (M.G., S.V., V.L., S.L.)
Human Nutrition Unit, School of Molecular and Microbial Biosciences, The University of Sydney, Australia (S.H., J.C.B.-M.)
Address reprint requests to: Dr. M. Garsetti, Danone Vitapole, Route Départementale 128, 91767 Palaiseau Cedex, FRANCE. E-mail: marcella.garsetti{at}danone.com
| ABSTRACT |
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Objective: To determine the relationship between the in vivo glycemic index (GI)/insulinemic index (II) and in vitro digestibility and composition characteristics (rapidly available glucose and slowly available glucose, RAG and SAG respectively) of 24 plain sweet biscuits (cookies).
Methods: The products were commercially available and selected on the basis of their high starch content. In vivo responses (GI and II) were measured by standardised methods over 7 studies, with 12 subjects in each study (30 males, 42 females). In vitro digestibility characteristics were measured by the Englyst procedure.
Results: The observed GI ranged from 38 to 60 (low to moderate) with the majority between 40 and 50, and correlated strongly with the observed insulinemic index (r = 0.76, P < 0.0001). The digestibility profile of carbohydrates was significantly correlated to in vivo responses (SAG and GI: r = 0.41; p = 0.04; SAG and II: r = 0.52; p < 0.01; RAG and GI: r = 0.5; p = 0.01; RAG and II: r = 0.34; p = 0.1) and explained in vivo responses better than fat, protein and fiber content amongst this selection of plain sweet biscuits.
Conclusion: The findings indicate that plain sweet biscuits have a low GI and a moderate II and that these characteristics are correlated to in vitro starch digestibility and are dependent on the type of processing.
Key words: biscuits, glycemic index, slowly available glucose (SAG), starch gelatinisation
| INTRODUCTION |
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Starchy foods should make up the largest part of total carbohydrate intake but differ greatly in terms of their impact on glycemia and therefore GI [13]. On the whole, legumes tend to have lower GI values while potatoes generally have higher values, irrespective of method of cooking. Intrinsic properties of the starch, such as chemical structure and hydration, as well as extrinsic factors such as fiber and fat content of the product, influence the rate of starch digestion [14, 15]. Among the various classes of processed starchy foods, wheat-based cereal products exhibit a very wide range in GI [13]. Englyst et al. [16], for example, showed values ranging from as low as 28 to as high as 93 in a group of 23 products that included breakfast cereals, biscuits and bakery products. Moreover, the GI is often described as varying between and within food groups [17]. Understanding the reasons behind this variability, through differences in ingredients, composition and processing might lead to greater ability to formulate specifically products with a low GI.
In that study, plain sweet biscuit products, in particular, stood out as the category with the lowest average GI and the highest amount of slowly digested starch as defined by their in vitro methodology [16]. However, the range of GI in this category was still wide: 2877. Specific processing steps in plain biscuit manufacture can hinder starch gelatinisation, helping to preserve the original properties of the native starch and thereby lower the GI. Despite this knowledge, the digestibility characteristics of cereal products and the relationship to glycemic impact have received insufficient study, particularly in the case of plain sweet biscuits (or cookies, the term used in the United States).
The objectives of the present study were therefore: 1) to measure the glycemic and insulinemic index of 24 plain sweet biscuits and 2) to evaluate the in vitro digestibility properties of the carbohydrate fraction which might be predictive of in vivo responses. The goal was to identify compositional and digestibility factors that influenced the final GI and insulinemic index of plain sweet biscuits.
| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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In Vitro Studies
Englysts method [19] was used to assess in vitro carbohydrate digestibility and allowed to evaluate the amount of rapidly available glucose (RAG), of slowly available glucose (SAG), total starch (TS), total fructose (free and deriving from sucrose) and total glucose (deriving from sucrose and free). The method is based on measurement of the glucose released from a test food during timed incubation with digestive enzymes under standardised conditions. This chemically-based classification estimates the amounts of glucose (from sugar and starch digestion) that are likely to become available for rapid or slow absorption from the small intestine. The physiological relevance of in vitro digestibility and its ability to identify types of carbohydrate that are important to health, are still being explored.
In Vivo Studies
In a series 7 separate studies, the glycemic index (GI) and insulinemic index (II) of each biscuit was determined by standardised GI methodology using glucose as the reference food as recommended by WHO and FAO [20]. Each study recruited 12 subjects (72 different subjects in total, 30 males, and 42 females) by advertisement from the student population of the University of Sydney. The mean (range) age and BMI of all subjects was 23.3 years (1845) and 22.1 (1925) kg/m2 respectively. The protocol complied with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975 as revised in 1983 and was approved by the institutional ethics committee. Subjects gave written, informed consent.
A 50 g available carbohydrate portion of each biscuit was consumed with 250 mL water after a
10 hr overnight fast. Fingerprick blood samples (
0.7 mL) were taken using an automatic sterile lancet device (Safe-T-ProTM, Boehringer Mannheim Australia, Castle Hill, NSW) from warmed hands at 5, 0, 15, 30, 45, 60, 90 and 120 min after the start of the meal. Blood samples were collected into 1.5 mL plastic microcentrifuge tubes coated with heparin (10 IU heparin sodium salt, Sigma Chemical Co., St Louis, USA), and were immediately centrifuged after collection at 12 500 g for 1 min. The plasma components of the samples were transferred into uncoated plastic tubes and stored at 20°C until assayed. Plasma glucose concentration was measured in duplicate using a Roche Hitachi 912® automatic centrifugal spectrophotometric analyser (Boehringer Mannheim, GmbH, Mannheim, Germany) employing a glucose hexokinase/glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase method (Roche Diagnostic Systems, Frenchs Forest, Australia). The mean intra-assay and inter-assay coefficients of variation were both below 3%. Plasma insulin was measured using a solid-phase radioimmunoassay (Coat-a-Count, Diagnostic Products Corporation, LA, USA). The mean intra-assay and inter-assay CVs were both below 5%. Cumulative changes in plasma glucose and insulin were quantified as the incremental area under the 120 min response curve and the GI and insulinemic index (II) were calculated as previously described [21]. When individual GI or II scores differed from the mean by more than two standard deviations, they were considered outliers and excluded from the dataset.
Statistical Analysis
Results are presented as mean ± SEM. To determine relationships between in vitro and composition data and in vivo responses, GI and II were matched for simple correlation and linear regression with the amount of nutrients and digestion fractions given in the glycemic index test (g per serving containing 50 g amount of available carbohydrate). The following criteria were selected: total glucose, total fructose, starch, total carbohydrates, dietary fiber, protein, fat, PUFA, MUFA, SFA (expressed in 50 g carbohydrate portion), % MUFA, % SFA, rapidly available glucose (RAG), slowly available glucose (SAG). SAS® statistical software version 8.02 was used.
| RESULTS |
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| DISCUSSION |
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Our findings extend those of Englyst et al. [16] who studied 23 starchy cereal products (breakfast cereals, bakery products and crackers, and biscuits) but relatively few sweet biscuits. They reported that the biscuits group had the lowest GI values and the highest SAG content due to the presence of ungelatinised starch. They too found that the GI correlated positively with RAG (r2 = 0.54) and negatively with SAG (r2 = 0.63) and that these two factors explained more of the variability in GI than compositional factors such as the sugar, starch or fat content.
Importantly, we found a strong correlation between the GI and corresponding insulin response (r = 0.76, p < 0.0001). In general these two physiological measures of glucose metabolism have correlated well, showing correlation coefficients in the range of 0.70 to 0.88 [2325, 15]. Dairy products and chocolate-flavoured products, however, appear to be exceptions to the rule, tending to give significantly higher insulin responses than predicted by their GI [26, 27]. Insulinotropic amino acids in milk proteins and free peptides in milk and chocolate are believed to be responsible but the clinical significance remains unclear.
In the case of plain sweet biscuits, the macronutrient composition of the biscuits explained relatively little of the observed variation in GI and II. Indeed higher fiber content, which might have been expected to lower the GI, was actually positively correlated. One explanation may be the fact that a dough high in fiber requires a high amount of water to be processed: this increases water availability for starch during cooking and therefore favours gelatinisation during baking. One of our most important findings was that in vitro digestibility characteristics, specifically SAG and RAG, explained more of the variation in GI and II than the macronutrient composition of the plain biscuits. The inverse correlation between GI/II and SAG suggests that aiming for a high SAG content can be a strategy to lower the GI. Thus, processing conditions that decrease starch gelatinisation and therefore increase SAG need to be explored. Many parameters are currently known to affect the process of starch gelatinisation [28]. They include the processing parameters such as temperature, pressure and time, as well as factors that affect the physico-chemical properties of the dough, such as water activity, fiber and kneading (mechanical manipulation). In addition, the nature of the raw ingredients will affect starch gelatinisation: the ratio of amylose to amylopectin, starch granule properties, degree of milling, type of wheat (soft/durum), and the level of damaged starch [17, 29, 30]. The amount and type of added sugars also has an important effect, because their ability to bind water reduces the amount of water available for starch gelatinisation [31]. Fat content has also been shown to lower the GI when present in high amounts, i.e. 40 g per serve but not low amounts (e.g. 15 g), as the case here [32]. In this study fat was correlated to GI, similarly as SAG correlation. This is in contrast with the results of a previous work that investigated a larger group of cereal products, exhibiting a wide range of GI, lipids and SAG [16] and where fat was less correlated to GI than SAG.
Plain biscuit-making involves the use of low-moisture doughs and short baking times and differs markedly from that of other cereal products. The low water activity availability reduces likelihood of swelling and gelatinisation of the starch granules, resulting in partially intact starch granules in the final product that are less susceptible to the action of amylolytic enzymes [33]. In plain sweet biscuits, the presence of sugars further limits water activity and thus the degree of starch gelatinisation [31]. Based on previous work, the high SAG levels of plain biscuits observed in the present work could be linked to the low extent of starch gelatinisation [16]. However, SAG content was even higher in the present study, averaging 32% of the total starch.
In contrast to plain biscuit manufacture, bread baking combines high moisture doughs, long resting periods and warm temperature conditions that lead to complete starch gelatinisation [33, 34]. Similarly, the manufacture of many breakfast cereals and extruded food products incorporates high moisture conditions with mechanical shearing and very high temperature and pressure. If plain biscuits were to be manufactured under similar conditions, intact starch granules would likely disappear. Indeed, Englyst et al. [16] found that some biscuits had negligible quantities of SAG and a correspondingly high GI. These findings imply that if processing conditions are not carefully specified or controlled, even the process for plain biscuits will lead to high levels of fully gelatinised starch.
In conclusion, our findings indicate that it is possible to make low GI plain sweet biscuit products with the careful choice of ingredients and process parameters. Although further research is required, the slowly digested starch in plain biscuits may increase feelings of fullness and satiety, and reduce energy intake over the course of the day, as shown in other studies [23, 35]. Attention to the overall nutritional profile of the products, including energy density, fiber, fat (quality and quantity) and micronutrient profile will still be important. Saturated fat and energy density could be decreased by replacing saturated fat with unsaturated fat, protein, starch, sugar and/or fiber, without compromising flavour and texture. Within a balanced diet, low GI plain sweet biscuits could therefore contribute to reducing the GI of the overall diet with consequent reduction in postprandial hyperglycemia and insulinemia.
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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Received January 5, 2005. Accepted July 19, 2005.
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