Evaluation of honey incorporated food preparation on the basis of glycemic index and their advocacy in impaired glucose tolerance

Abstract

Honey is a natural sweetener and it is a nature's gift to mankind. Honey is important edible substance, which contains small amounts of proteins, enzymes, amino acids, minerals, trace elements, vitamins and sugars as major constituents. Honey is frequently used in the Ayurvedic system of medicine as variety of the Ayurvedic preparations are taken along with or in combination with honey. The present study was conducted to determine the glycemic index of food products made with different natural sweeteners including honey. Normal healthy subjects (n = 10) and subjects with impaired glucose tolerance (n = 10) were included in the study and administered with equicarbohydrate quantity of glucose and a food preparation 'sweet roll' containing different sweeteners at fasted state on various days. Monitoring of blood glucose in normal healthy subjects and subjects with impaired glucose tolerance at 0, 30, 60, 90 and 120 minutes indicated a significant difference in incremental area under the curve (IAUC) of glucose and food preparations made with different sweeteners. The mean incremental area under the curve of food preparations was significantly lower (p = < 0.01) than that of glucose in subjects with impaired glucose tolerance as well as normal healthy subjects. At the same time honey incorporated sweet rolls were found to have lower glycemic index when compared to rolls prepared with cane sugar and jaggery. This indicated honey incorporated foods may be occasionally consumed by subjects with impaired glucose tolerance.