If you have diabetes or know someone close to you that has diabetes or is at risk of getting diabetes or any other metabolic syndrome, then this message is just for you.
Most people rely heavily on staple foods like ugali, rice, potatoes, pasta, and others like the matoke. You'll notice that they are mainly carbohydrates (CHO). These foods contribute to more than 50% of the energy intake and it's obviously a fundamental component of a balanced diet.
CHO being the main source of energy, its digestibility depends heavily on the proportions of sugars, starch, and fiber present within CHO.
'It's easy for you to get instant energy from taking glucose or beverages with high sugars like soda and fruit juices than from eating a banana or rice.'
It'll take you even more time to get energy when you eat food like oats. All these foods have different effects on your blood glucose levels whether you have diabetes or not, it will cause an increase in your blood sugar levels and will require your body to produce and release insulin so that it can balance or neutralize the excess glucose from circulating in your blood.
When you eat foods rich in refined carbohydrates such as sugar, white rice, refined grain flours, white bread, fruit juice, candy, cookies, cakes, etc. know that they will be easily hydrolyzed or turned into glucose components by an enzyme called pancreatic amylase and brush border enzymes in small intestines. Definitely, your blood glucose levels will rise sharply and also drop quick. When this happens you feel full faster and then hunger sets in after a few minutes or hours, that's how you end up eating more calories from this kind of carbohydrates.
When you eat foods rich in resistant starch, most of us like referring to them as high fiber foods, they will not be easily hydrolyzed in the small intestines to release additional glucose into the bloodstream. In turn, it will undergo fermentation by the gut bacteria in the large intestine which will improve your general gut health.
Some examples rich in resistant starch include sweet potatoes, wholemeal grains, whole fruit, vegetables, beans, seeds, etc.
When your diet is full of these foods, you'll feel full for longer hours and your blood glucose will not spike as sharply as compared with those from refined food sources.
In one study, three different ways of food preparation were compared and the effects it has on blood glucose levels after two hours of consuming pasta. These methods were:
- Freshly cooked (hot) food
- Cooked and then cooled
- Cold then reheated food
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| spaghetti mixed with carrots, green capsicum, and Sossi soya |
Therefore, it was concluded that cooling CHO can result in retrogradation and subsequent resistant starch formation, then reheating before intake can significantly result in a faster return to baseline blood glucose levels.
However, you have to remember that the amount of food especially these types of carbohydrates will greatly determine how much energy you'll consume and how much it will spike your blood glucose levels. Each person has specific and special CHO needs. Therefore it's advisable to get an individualized diet guide from a registered nutritionist/dietitian.
Impressive research.
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