1 December 2009

Making the Most of GI News

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6 comments:

Anna said...

Chinese herbs show promise for diabetes prevention

For information purpose, wouldn't it be nice to tell us what are the '15 different herbal formulations' which may help diabetes prevention?

I'm not a diabetic and I love to know.

GI Group said...

Hi Anna, Our News Briefs are that, a brief summary. That's why we give readers a link to the original published papers so they can get the extra information they are interested in. If you click the link to the Cochrane Review you can read the whole paper. Here's what the authors of the paper say about the 15 herbal formulations:

"The herbal composition of the interventions varied. However, some individual herbs were prevalent in the different formulas. Astragalus membranecus was present in 10 of the 15 interventions for which the ingredients were known. Where Astragalus membranecus was a major part of the formula (either in amounts equal or greater than 20 g or only one of six herbs) it was analysed in a separate analysis. Other commonly used herbs included Shan yao (eight of the 15 interventions) and Ge gen (four of the 15 interventions). The 16 trials had eight distinct comparisons:
•nine trials compared nine Chinese herbal medicines with lifestyle modification as a control and co-intervention (Jiangtang bushen decoction (Fan GJ 2004), Jinqi jiangtang pills (Zhou DY 2003), Liu wei di huang wan pills (Zeng YH 2006), Qimai jiangtang yin decoction (Li CP 2004), Tang kang yin decoction (Yang B 2004), Tang Heng I (Yao Z 2001), Xiaoke huayu tablets (Hao AZ 2004), Xiaoke yuye decoction (Wei AS 2001) and Jian pi zhi shen huo xue (Tang QZ 2007);
•two trials compared Chinese herbal formulas with a placebo with lifestyle modification as a co-intervention: Bofu-tsusho-san (Hioki C 2004) and Dan zhi jiang tang jiao (Fang ZH 2007);
•one trial compared Qiwei tangping capsules with a placebo (Wang BQ 2008);
•one trial compared Tang ping san with metformin, with a lifestyle modification as co-intervention (Qu LX 2002);
•one trial compared Fufang cangzhu decoction with metformin (Shi J 2005);
•one trial compared Jian pi zhi shen huo xue with acarbose (Tang QZ 2007);
•one trial compared Yi qi yang yin huo xue combined with an antihypertensive medication with an antihypertensive medication alone (Lu X 2005);
•one trial compared Jinqi jiangtang pills with a basic education on IGT as a co-intervention and as a control (Wang YX 2005)."

Anonymous said...

Can you please post the banana bread recipe with pea flour. Thanks.

GI Group said...

Re banana bread -- we'll be posting this recipe in January GI News. We hope to make some and photograph it for you. So see you next month.

CB said...

I've heard that the starch in cooked potatoes turn into insoluble fibers as they cool down. Wouldn't this essentially give cold, cooked potatoes a fairly low GI?

GI Group said...

Hi CB, we have covered the cold potato story a few times in GI News over the past few years. If you want to follow up, just insert the key words 'cold potatoes' in the Google search box in the right hand column. Here's the key study:

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of cold storage and vinegar addition on glycaemic and insulinaemic responses to a potato meal in healthy subjects. SUBJECTS AND SETTING: A total of 13 healthy subjects volunteered for the study, and the tests were performed at Applied Nutrition and Food Chemistry, Lund University, Sweden.Experimental design and test meals:The study included four meals; freshly boiled potatoes, boiled and cold stored potatoes (8 degrees C, 24 h), boiled and cold stored potatoes (8 degrees C, 24 h) with addition of vinaigrette sauce (8 g olive oil and 28 g white vinegar (6% acetic acid)) and white wheat bread as reference. All meals contained 50 g available carbohydrates and were served as a breakfast in random order after an overnight fast. Capillary blood samples were collected at time intervals during 120 min for analysis of blood glucose and serum insulin. Glycaemic (GI) and insulinaemic indices (II) were calculated from the incremental areas using white bread as reference. RESULTS: Cold storage of boiled potatoes increased resistant starch (RS) content significantly from 3.3 to 5.2% (starch basis). GI and II of cold potatoes added with vinegar (GI/II=96/128) were significantly reduced by 43 and 31%, respectively, compared with GI/II of freshly boiled potatoes (168/185). Furthermore, cold storage per se lowered II with 28% compared with the corresponding value for freshly boiled potatoes. CONCLUSION: Cold storage of boiled potatoes generated appreciable amounts of RS. Cold storage and addition of vinegar reduced acute glycaemia and insulinaemia in healthy subjects after a potato meal. The results show that the high glycaemic and insulinaemic features commonly associated with potato meals can be reduced by use of vinegar dressing and/or by serving cold potato products.