Glycaemic index of different kinds of carbohydrates in type 2 diabetes.

An adequate diet provides good metabolic control in diabetics. Since 1981 when Jenkins showed that complex carbohydrates are digested more slowly and raise blood glucose less than simple sugars, many studies have been performed in this field. In this study, seven kinds of carbohydrate-rich food were compared with glucose in 52 Type 2 diabetic patients and 31 normal volunteers. The subject consumed either macaroni, white rice, potatoes, tarhana soup (tarhana includes wheat flour, yoghurt, tomato and green pepper), noodle soup, white or whole wheat bread, or glucose at one-week intervals after an overnight fast. The glycaemic index (GI) of each food was calculated from the area under its glycaemic response curve (AUC) expressed as a percentage of the mean response to glucose. The results showed that the foods ranked from the highest to the lowest GI as follows: white bread; whole wheat bread; macaroni; tarhana soup; white rice; potatoes; noodle soup.