Atypically high insulin responses to some foods relate to sugars and satiety

Abstract

Much research has focused on how the glycemic index (GI) of the diets of healthy people relates to long-term risk for coronary heart disease, stroke, and non-insulin dependent diabetes. Low-GI diets appear to produce some of their beneficial effects largely by moderating insulinemic responses to meals. Wolever and Bolognesi (1996) have derived a formula for predicting the insulinemic index (II) from the GI for starchy foods. Using data from Holt et al. (1995, 1997) on a wide variety of common foods, we have examined differences between the observed II and GI-based estimates of the II. These differences were found to correlate negatively with satiety index ratings and positively with contents of total sugars. We suggest that the aforementioned method of measuring and expressing the relation between the GI and the II may prove useful in exploring how various components and sensory properties of food may affect hunger and energy intake.