Nutritional uses of starch to provide blood glucose control

Abstract

Native or partially processed starches can provide a ‘better’ blood glucose response after consumption when compared to fully gelatinised starches, where the initial ‘spike’ of glucose is diminished and the digestion profile is extended. This is a better nutritional response for the population at large and most especially for diabetics and people suffering from blood glucose control disorders like glycogen storage disease. The flat longer duration digestive profile of slowly digested starch puts less ‘pressure’ on insulin to be released and thus stimulates glycogen deposition. The body does digest sugars and amorphous starch rapidly, although man evolved to eat starch (within plant tissue) in the uncooked rather than cooked form. Thus, modern food products take the ‘work’ out of digesting starch as it is accessed and hydrolysed rapidly by the digestive enzymes. This mini-review explores how starch digestion can be controlled in food and drink and clinical nutrition products to provide a flatter and longer duration blood glucose release profile with associated impacts on insulin secretion.