THE INFLUENCE OF SOME NONSTARCH POLYSACCHARIDES ON THE METABOLIC RESPONSE TO SUCROSE-BASED AND FRUCTOSE-BASED CHOCOLATES IN NON-INSULIN-DEPENDENT DIABETICS

Non-insulin-dependent diabetic patients were given test meals (75 g) of conventional (sucrose-based) milk chocolate or diabetic (fructose-based), either free of non-starch polysaccharide (NSP) or supplemented with pectin (5 g (100 g)-1), or a combination of pectin and oat fibre. The presence of pectin in the conventional formulation led to a reduction in the area under the post-prandial blood-glucose curve (P < 0.05). However, the effect was small in comparison to the reduction obtained by substituting fructose for sucrose, and the pectin-supplemented chocolate had a very viscous mouthfeel. The substitution of an insoluble form of NSP derived from oat husk for a proportion of the pectin abolished the hypoglycaemic effect of the NSP. Inclusion of NSP in fructose-based chocolate was associated with a small reduction in post-prandial fructosaemia but had no effect on the glycaemic response to this chocolate. It was concluded that viscous NSP slows the absorption of carbohydrate from chocolate. However, the necessary viscosity had an adverse effect on the palatability of the product.