Original Article
European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2007) 61, 779–785; doi:10.1038/sj.ejcn.1602561; published online 6 December 2006
The effect of 
-glucan on the glycemic and insulin index
Guarantor: R Tahvonen.
Contributors: RT, MM and ES contributed to the study design. JS was responsible for the human intervention study and supervised the assays. HM and R-MH had an active part in the intervention study and assays. HA and TS-S contributed to the study design and measured the physical properties of 
-glucan. HM and HA analyzed the data and they drafted the first manuscript. RT and TS-S edited the final draft of the manuscript with contribution of all the authors.
H Mäkeläinen1, H Anttila1,2,5, J Sihvonen3, R-M Hietanen3, R Tahvonen3, E Salminen1, M Mikola4,6 and T Sontag-Strohm2
- 1Functional Foods Forum, University of Turku, Helsinki, Finland
- 2Department of Food Technology, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
- 3Department of Biochemistry and Food Chemistry, University of Turku, Helsinki, Finland
- 4Suomen Viljava/FinnCereal, R&D, Kielotie, Finland
Correspondence: H Anttila, Department of Food Technology, University of Helsinki, P O Box 66, 00014 Helsinki, Finland. E-mail: heli.anttila@fazer.fi
5Current address: Fazer Bakeries Ltd., PO Box 40, FIN 15101 LAHTI, Finland.
6Current address: Finnish National Fund for Research and Development Sitra, PO Box 160 (Itämerentori 2) FI-00181 Helsinki, Finland.
Received 12 October 2005; Revised 28 April 2006; Accepted 6 August 2006; Published online 6 December 2006.
Abstract
Objective:
To determine the effects of oat products with increasing -glucan content on the glycemic (GI) and insulin indexes (II) of oat products, and to establish the effect of physical properties of -glucan on these physiological responses.
Design:
Test group (n=10) randomly attended to three glucose tolerance tests and glycemic response tests for four oat bran products.
Settings:
Functional Foods Forum and the Department of Food Chemistry, University of Turku, and the Department of Food Technology, University of Helsinki.
Subjects:
One male and nine female volunteers were recruited from university students and staff, and all completed the study.
Interventions:
GI and II of different products were calculated for each subject using the average of parallel glucose tolerance tests and the subsequent glycemic/insulinemic responses for each product. Average indexes for products were calculated according to the individual data.
Results:
The glycemic responses to oat products with increasing amounts of -glucan had lower peak values than the reference glucose load. The amount of extractable -glucan had a high correlation between the glycemic and insulinemic response.
Conclusion:
In addition to the total amount of -glucan in oat products, the amount of extractable -glucan in oat products explains the magnitude of the decrease in glycemic responses to carbohydrate products.
Keywords:
glycemic index, insulin index, -glucan, extractable -glucan, oral glucose tolerance test, incremental area under glucose curve
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