Glycaemic Responses to Corn Meals in Type 2 Diabetics and Non-Diabetic Controls

ABSTRACT

Purpose: Dietary modification in association with life style changes is important in the management of the diabetes. Cereals account for as much as 77% of total caloric consumption in most African diets. Corn which is the largest cultivated cereal crop in Nigeria is prepared as a meal in many forms. The objective of this study was to assess the glycaemic responses to different preparations of corn meals.
Material and Method: The design was a quasi-experimental with a total of 32 participants, 16 subjects with type diabetes and 16 age-and sex-matched non-diabetic control subjects. After an overnight fast, the participants were given corn meals to eat and had their blood sample collected every 30 minutes for over a 2 hour period for the assessment of blood sugar level and estimation of glycaemic responses. This was repeated weekly till the glycaemic index (GI) and plasma sugar level response to the different test corn meal preparation, such as boiled corn, roasted corn, pap and cornflakes had been assessed.
Results: All the different corn meal preparations had high GI, with corn flakes having the highest GI and pap the lowest. The GI for the corn meals in the non-diabetic were; pap 71.7±14.4%, roasted corn 76.5±14.9%, boiled corn 82.2±14.9% and cornflakes 88.1±14.4%.
Discussion: Methods of preparing a meal from corn affect glycaemic response.