Glycemic Index and Load Responses of Indigenous Vegetable Sauces Among Healthy Young Female Adults
Authors: Amadi Joy , Asinobi Chinagorom 
Published: October 2019

AbstractBackground: Diet-related chronic disease especially diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease (CVDs), obesity, hypertension and cancers is a major public health problem in Nigeria. The use of locally made foods has been advocated for in the management of diabetes mellitus in recent times.Methods: The recipe for the test food was developed and standardized. Proximate and dietary fibre analysis was carried out on the test food (okra, African spinach and lettuce sauces) and reference food (white bread). Thirty-six non-diabetic undergraduate students of Imo State University, Nigeria were selected after diabetes screening using oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), glycated hemoglobin, anthropometric indices, blood pressure and other exclusion criteria. Subjects consumed a serving portion of vegetable sauce containing 25g of digestible carbohydrate. Postprandial plasma glucose was measured at 0, 15, 30, 45, 60, 90 and 120 minutes. The glycemic index and load was calculated per serving. Results were expressed in means, standard deviation and percentages. ANOVA was used in comparing the means while turkey test was used in separating the means using Statistical product for service solution (SPSS) version 22.0. The decision criteria was set at p<0.05.Results: Moisture content ranged from 64.10±0.57% (okra sauce) to 64.62±0.66% (lettuce sauce) did not differ significantly (p<0.05). Fat, fibre, and ash content higher in lettuce sauce 3.40± 0.24%, 1.69±0.1%2, and 4.40±0.24% respectively, carbohydrate was higher in African spinach (15.07±0.77%) while dietary fibre (3.26±0.01%), protein (15.15±0.09%) and energy (136.62±2.24 kcal) was higher in okra sauce. Sauces were not significantly different. White bread shows that  moisture content was 17.62, fat 1.53%, protein 14.86%, ash 6.90%, carbohydrate 58.88%, energy 308.66kcal and dietary fibre 0.33.The anthropometric indices show that BMI of the subjects ranged from 23.12kg/m2 in African spinach sauce subjectsto 23.53kg/m2 (okra sauce subjects). WHR was highest in lettuce sauce subjects (0.84). All the subjects that participated were all females. HbA1C was higher in okra sauce (5.23%) group subjects. Systolic blood pressure was 119.08mmHg (African Spinach sauce subjects) while diastolic blood pressure was highest in lettuce sauce subjects (85.68mmHg). Pulse rate (85.17) was highest in okra sauce subject. The IUAC for the white bread was significantly (p<0.05) higher in all the subjects compared to the vegetable sauces with a high glycemic index and load of 93.25 and 54.91 respectively. African spinach sauce had a lower postprandial plasma glucose peak of 88.00mg/dl at 60 minutes compared to okra and lettuce sauces. All the vegetable sauces had a low glycemic index of 17.02 (okra sauce), 14.05 (African spinach) and 36.76 (lettuce) and low glycemic load was 0.75, 0.38 and 3.80 for okra, African spinach and lettuce sauces respectively.Conclusion: All the vegetable sauces studied should be used while planning meal for the diabetic patients.Keywords: vegetable sauces, glycemic response, healthy adults