Gastric emptying and glycemic response after ingestion of mashed bean or potato flakes in composite meals

Abstract

Two meals of mashed-bean or potato flakes and meat were served in random order to six healthy male subjects to determine effects on gastric emptying and glycemic reactions. The meals had comparable physical appearance and contained similar amounts of digestible carbohydrate, fat, and protein. No difference in gastric emptying, recorded by gamma camera after mixing 51Cr with the meals, was found between the meals. The bean-flakes meal gave significantly lower blood glucose (p < 0.01) and serum insulin (p < 0.05) concentrations than did the potato-flakes meal. The overall blood glucose response, calculated as incremental area under the curves for 2 h, also differed between the meals (p < 0.05) whereas the overall insulin response did not differ significantly. The low glycemic response after bean flakes could not be explained by the gastric emptying rate, which provides additional evidence for the slow digestion of bean starch in the small intestine.