Postprandial glycaemic and insulinaemic responses in adults after consumption of dairy desserts and pound cakes containing short-chain fructo-oligosaccharides used to replace sugars

Abstract

The present studies aimed to evaluate the glycaemic and insulinaemic responses, in healthy adults, to short-chain fructo-oligosaccharides (scFOS) from sucrose used to replace sugars in foods. Two study populations aged 18-50 years were recruited and they consumed dairy desserts or pound cakes containing either standard sugar content or scFOS to replace 30 % of the sugar content. For each study, the two products were tested once under a double-blind and cross-over design with at least 7 d between the two tests. Glucose and insulin were measured using standard methods in blood samples collected with a venous catheter for 120 min during a kinetic test. For the dairy desserts, replacing 30 % of the sugars with scFOS significantly reduced postprandial glycaemic (AUC0-120 min; P = 0·020) and insulinaemic (AUC0-120 min; P = 0·003) responses. For the pound cakes, the glycaemic response was not altered (AUC0-120 min; P = 0·322) while the insulinaemic response tended to be lower (AUC0-120 min; P = 0·067). This study showed that scFOS can be used to replace sugars with the benefit of lowering the postprandial glycaemic response without increasing the insulinaemic response. The effect might be modulated by other parameters (e.g. fat content) of the food matrices.

Keywords: AUC0–120 min, AUC between 0 and 120 min; Cmax, maximum concentration; Fructo-oligosaccharides; PP, per protocol; Postprandial glucose response; Sugar-reduced foods; mITT, modified intention-to-treat; scFOS, short-chain fructo-oligosaccharides.

Figures

Fig. 1.

Distribution of subjects among intention-to-treat and per protocol populations.

Fig. 2.

Postprandial (a) plasma glycaemic and (b) plasma insulinaemic responses over 120 min after taking the dairy dessert containing 35 g dextrose (control; –●–) or 24 g dextrose and 11 g short-chain fructo-oligosaccharides (scFOS; –□–) in the modified intention-to-treat population (n 24). Data are means, with standard errors represented by vertical bars. Glucose and insulin AUC were significantly lower following scFOS-containing products than following control (P = 0·020 and P = 0·003, respectively) (mixed-model ANCOVA). To convert insulin in mU/l to pmol/l, multiply by 6·945.

Fig. 3.

Postprandial (a) plasma glycaemic and (b) plasma insulinaemic responses over 120 min after eating the pound cake containing 28 g sugars (control; –●–) or 19 g sugars and 9 g short-chain fructo-oligosaccharides (–□–) in the modified intention-to-treat population (n 33). Data are means, with standard errors represented by vertical bars. To convert insulin in mU/l to pmol/l, multiply by 6·945.